Photo: ACI Sport
Brando Badoer will be part of Van Amersfoort Racing’s Formula Regional European Championship line-up this year.
The 17-year-old son of ex-Formula 1 driver Luca has been racing for the Dutch outfit since 2022, having spent the last two years racing in various Formula 4 championships.
Badoer made his car racing debut with AKM Motorsport in F4 United Arab Emirates at the start of 2022, doing four rounds and coming 28th in the standings with a best finish of 12th. He then switched to VAR for a full Italian F4 campaign, where he came 16th in the standings with 14 points, and two ADAC F4 rounds.
Last year VAR teamed up with Pinnacle Motorsport for its F4 UAE programme, and Badoer took his first podium. Despite missing two of the five rounds, he still ended the season sixth in the points table. Badoer matched that position in Euro 4 and Italian F4, taking three podiums in the former and five podiums (and a pole position) in the latter.
At the start of this year, the Italian stepped up to FRegional by joining PHM Racing in the Middle East championship. He immediately adapted, visiting the podium three times and coming 10th in the standings.
“I am proud to be fitting again in Van Amersfoort racing colours for my debut in FREC,” said Badoer. “Ready and exited to face this new challenge together with my team. Looking forward to get it started.”
VAR’s CEO Rob Niessink added: “We are extremely pleased and proud to continue the co-operation with Brando. He showed year after year working with us big potential and we are glad that he decided again to stay with us for his next step in his career. We look forward and expect a lot of good results and looking forward starting the season with him.”
Badoer will race in FREC as an ‘optioned driver’ for the McLaren Driver Development Programme, meaning if he performs well the F1 team could make him one of its junior drivers in 2025.