Camara voted FREC driver of the year by team managers

Photo: Dutch Photo Agency

Rafael Camara followed up his Formula Regional European Championship title by being voted driver of the season by the paddock’s team principals and managers.

In a poll conducted by Formula Scout, each of the teams in their championship was asked to submit their ranking of the top 10 drivers for the season. Vote for drivers from their own teams were not allowed, and only drivers who competed in at least half of the 10-round season could be voted for. Points in the poll were awarded on a 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis.

All 11 teams participated in the poll, looking back on a season which featured a topsy-turvy battle for best-of-the-rest on most weekends behind Prema’s runaway champion Camara.

While Camara was an unsurprising first place choice of many, he was not considered the best by all. As with Andrea Kimi Antonelli, who topped the first poll in 2023, one team manager put him in second place. While the voting is anonymous, Formula Scout can confirm the contrarian voice came from a different team to the outlying first place choice of last year.

R-ace GP’s Tuukka Taponen and Prema’s James Wharton were almost inseparable in the ranking and although Wharton was rated higher by more teams, it was Taponen who won out by a single vote under the scoring system applied.

Five drivers were included in every team’s top 10 ranking. Alongside the top four in the overall voting, rounded out by Van Amersfoort Racing’s Brando Badoer, in that list was Race Performance Motorsport’s Noah Stromsted.

ART Grand Prix’s Alessandro Giusti, who won twice en route to fourth in the standings, was omitted from the top 10 of two team managers’ lists.

Making it into 10th place in the poll, after a trying season in which he came 11th in the points table, was Prema’s Ugo Ugochukwu. He was voted in sixth by three teams, and it meant VAR’s Ivan Domingues ended the poll in 11th after denying Ugochukwu a top-10 spot in the actual championship.

A total of 17 drivers received at least one nomination. Accompanying Domingues outside of the combined top 10 were Trident’s Roman Bilinski, MP Motorsport’s Nikita Bedrin, Sainteloc Racing’s Matteo De Palo and Enzo Peugeot, and R-ace’s Zachary David and Enzo Deligny.

Formula Scout would like to thank the following team principals and managers for their time in submitting ratings for the poll:

Dmitry Belousov (Iron Dames), Morgan Caron (Sainteloc Racing), Keith Donegan (RPM), Peter Flythstrom (KIC Motorsport), Danielle Geel (Van Amersfoort Racing), Thibaut de Merindol (R-ace GP), Adrian Munoz (G4 Racing), Rupert Shakespeare (MP Motorsport), Alessandro Vantini (Prema), Mathieu Zangarelli (ART Grand Prix) and Luca Zerbini (Trident).

2024 FREC teams’ driver poll results