FIA releases star-studded Macau GP entry list for FR World Cup

Photo: Macau GP Organising Committee

The FIA and the Macau Grand Prix Organising Committee have put together an exceptional field for the third running of the FIA Formula Regional World Cup around the streets of Macau on 19-22 November.

With a 26-car grid that includes six drivers stepping down from FIA Formula 3, the reigning Formula Regional champions from Europe and the Middle East, as well as the recently-crowned champions of Japanese Super Formula Lights and Eurocup-3, the race, counting for the 73rd Macau Grand Prix, promises to be one to savour. In addition, this year’s race will see the Macau debut of the second-generation Tatuus T-326 chassis.

In a change from 2025, each of the thirteen teams has been limited to two entries, allowing the organizers to grant entries to all 10 teams competing in this year’s Formula Regional European Championship, as well as defending champions Pinnacle Motorsport, TOM’S, the winning team from Formula Regional Japan, and traditional Macau entrants, Theodore Racing.

Pinnacle Motorsport has called on the services of two of the FIA F3 contingent, Hiyu Yamakoshi and Enzo Deligny, as it looks to defend the title it claimed in 2025 with Theophile Nael. Both drivers are returning to Macau, with Deligny finishing on last year’s podium.

The champion team from FREC, R-ace GP, will field two of its 2026 European line-up: champion Emanuele Olivieri, who finished second in last year’s Formula 4 World Cup at Macau, and Mercedes-AMG F1 junior Rashid Al Dhaheri. R-ace GP won the inaugural FR World Cup in 2024 with Ugo Ugochukwu at the wheel.

ART Grand Prix retains two of its three-car team from 2025 with Evan Giltaire, this year’s Super Formula Lights champion, and Taito Kato, a race winner in F3. The pair were contenders for the win in 2025, qualifying inside the top four, with Kato ultimately finishing fifth , one position ahead of Giltaire, and both have used FREC post-season testing to get acquainted with the Gen2 car.

Trident Motorsport will field F4 race winner Ary Bansal, who has been testing with the Italian team at FREC’s post-season tests, alongside Tymek Kucharczyk, 13th last year, who finished third in the IndyNXT series.

TOM’S Racing’s all-Japanese line-up consists of FREC race winner Yuki Sano and Kiyoshi Umegaki, third in the Super Formula Lights standings in 2026. Sano came home ninth last year although Umegaki will be hopeful of getting further than he did in 2025, when he retired on the first lap of the final.

Van Amersfoort Racing has put together a very exciting combination, bringing together F3 double race winner and Red Bull junior Ernesto Rivera, a rookie at Macau, and Jules Roussel, the winner of the inaugural FIA F4 World Cup one year ago.

Another Macau newcomer, Alex Powell, currently sixth in Eurocup-3, joins Prema, for whom he made his F3 debut at Monza in September. The American-Jamaican driver will be joined by one of the squad’s FREC line-up, Salim Hanna, who has just been signed by the Scuderia Ferrari Driver Academy.

FREC runner-up Sebastian Wheldon will stay with MP Motorsport as he looks to make up for his narrow defeat in Europe. Wheldon finished fourth in last year’s F4 World Cup race, having been fastest in qualifying. The Anglo-American, who will race for Trident in F3  in 2027, will be joined by Red Bull junior, Mattia Colnaghi, fourth in last year’s Macau Grand Prix.

Rodin Motorsport and RPM will both field drivers with a full season of FREC experience. Alex Ninovic and Reza Seewooruthun will occupy their regular seats at the British team, while the Italo-Irish team will field Maksimilian Popov, a FREC race winner with Trident, and Alpine junior Kabir Anurag, who moves across from ART Grand Prix.

CL Motorsport and G4 Racing will be making their first appearances in the FR World Cup. CL will enter two F1 academy-backed drivers. McLaren junior Matteo de Palo, FREC runner-up in 2025, finished eighth last year while Aston Martin-backed Zhenrui Chi who drove for MP Motorsport in Europe this season, returns to Macau having failed to finish last year’s race with VAR.

Andrea Dupe and Kai Daryanani will line up for G4 Racing. Dupe was 26th in FREC with VAR while Daryanani finished one place higher with Trident.

The final entry has been reserved for Theodore Racing team, a mainstay of the competition for over forty years, and the team has two potential winners in the cockpit. William junior Kean Nakamura-Berta is the reigning FR Middle East champion while James Egozi, recently signed up by Lando Norris’s LN4 Fusion team for F3, clinched the Eurocup-3 title with two rounds remaining.

Neither is new to Macau – Egozi finishing 11th for Sainteloc Racing in 2025 while Nakamura-Berta had a torrid weekend in the F4 race, with a crash in the qualifying race and mechanical problems in the main race.

FIA Single-Seater Commission President Emanuele Pirro is understandably delighted at the strength of the entry list for this year’s FIA FR World Cup.

“We’re delighted that the level of interest we’ve seen in Formula Regional Championships this year has transferred to the FIA FR World Cup where we can count on a capacity 26-car entry. But this entry list is not just about quantity, it’s also about quality and it’s certainly an entry list full of drivers with big potential for the future based on their career results so far,” he said.

“With FIA F3 the next step for many of the drivers taking part, this is a great opportunity for them to demonstrate their talent in a highly competitive environment and during such a prestigious occasion as the Macau Grand Prix. I’m also expecting big things from the Gen2 Formula Regional car with its push-to-pass Race Mode system, that are new for this year and will bring more excitement to the event.”

2026 Formula Regional World Cup Entry List