Eurocup-3 attracts 28-car grid for season opener, Rivera sets test pace

Photo: Red Bull

Eurocup-3 has a 28-car grid for this weekend’s opening round at the Red Bull Ring, following late changes to several line-ups.

Yani Stevenheydens was due to race in Spanish Formula 4 this year with MP Motorsport after being 2024 French F4 runner-up, but lost his seat to Juan Cota in March and following that signed with the Global Racing Service team to contest the Eurocup-3 winter series finale at Motorland Aragon.

That outing resulted in a points finish, and earlier this month he penned another one-round deal with GRS. The 19-year-old Belgian will be the team’s sole driver in Austria, and also recently joined the Road to Success management operation run by former Auto GP and Euroformula racer Facu Regalia.

Drivex School is fielding a four-car line-up after replacing two drivers. It had signed Lenny Ried, who failed to score in full Formula Winter Series and Spanish F4 campaigns last year as a car racing rookie, and kept on Victoria Blokhina after she came 27th in the 2024 standings with the team but both will not be in its garage at the Red Bull Ring.

Ried has maintained a presence on Eurocup-3’s entry list by signing a last-minute deal with Palou Motorsport, replacing Adam Hideg, and Drivex signed Alessandro Famularo after Ried’s seat became vacant.

For the opening round Wiktor Dobrzanski takes the place of Blokhina, who will spend this weekend racing a prototype sportscar shared with countrywoman Irina Sidorkova on home soil in Russia.

Dobrzanski is a single-seater sophomore and went points-free in F4 Central European Zone, FWinter Series, Italian F4 and Spanish F4 in 2024. This year the 18-year-old Pole is also racing for Tecnicar Motorsport in Spanish F4. He came 25th in the winter championship with no points, and is currently 29th in the main series.

Famularo is making a single-seater comeback. The 22-year-old Venezuelan was an ADAC F4 race-winner back in 2019, did part-time Formula Regional Europe campaigns in the two years following that and made an FIA Formula 3 Championship cameo in 2022.

His return to the cockpit came in the pre-event test day at the Red Bull Ring, which was split into three sessions.

James Egozi (Palou) led the first, setting a 1m25.613s on his penultimate lap to go 0.13 seconds clear of Jesse Carrasquedo Jr (Campos Racing). It was close behind them, with third-placed Kacper Sztuka (Campos) 0.162s off the top and just 0.101s ahead of Alexander Abkhazava (MP) in sixth. Between them were Luciano Morano (Palou) and Ernesto Rivera (Campos).

Rivera lowered the pace to 1m25.264s in session two, pipping Valerio Rinicella (MP) by 0.035s and Sztuka by 0.046s. Enzo Tarnvanichkul (Campos) was 0.311s behind in fourth. There were seven non-improvers.

In session three nine drivers set personal bests, including Carrasquedo who topped the times with a 1m35.537s lap that put him fourth overall for the day. He edged Rivera by 0.026s and Sztuka by 0.085s. Cota was fourth fastest, 0.287s off.

Propping up the test’s combined classification was Zack Scoular (Palou), who missed two sessions.

Red Bull Ring entry list