Photo: Roger Gascoigne
Valtteri Bottas may be single-seaters’ most prominent Finnish-Australian synthesis, but he now has competition from Formula Regional European Championship teams Evans GP and KIC Motorsport who linked up this season.
Formula Scout caught up with Peter Flythstrom, manager of Finnish team KIC, and Australian outfit Evans GP’s founder Joshua Evans, who engineered at KIC in the 2021 season, to find out more.
“At the end of last year, we had some interest from drivers from Asia and Australia looking to enter this championship and through the relationship with KIC we could put a deal together,” explains Evans. “KIC have been in Europe at this level for a number of years, so combining that to create a good environment for the drivers.”
KIC’s traditional red-and-black livery features on Nandhavud Bhirombhakdi’s car, and the red is swapped for blue on Alex Sawer and Costa Toparis’s entries reflect the tie-up with Evans GP. Flythstrom calls the arrangement “normal business”.
“He had two drivers who wanted to come to the championship. It’s like if Red Bull is buying the seat they want their colours on the car. And I said, ‘if you want your colours on the car, put your colours on the car, it doesn’t matter to me!’
“We knew him [Evans] as a person and it’s good to work with him. He’s a really clever guy and he has two good drivers, so for us it was really good.”
In addition to placing its drivers with KIC, Evans GP “will also provide some engineering support” to the team.
“Putting the two teams together is a challenge but things will things improve as we get to know how each other works and we look forward to getting some better results later in the year,” says Evans, adding that so far things “are working well”.
His eponymous team launched in 2021 as a Malaysian outfit, debuting with a FRegional Asian Championship campaign. Last year it expanded into Europe and Formula 4 by racing in Britain’s GB4 series, and plans to race in Eurocup-3 this year have since fallen through.
Evans is “open-minded” about expanding the KIC alliance: “We’re keeping an eye on that and certainly potential for something to happen in the future, more as a fully-fledged team.”
He is also looking at Formula 2 and Formula 3, but “we’ve got to do one step at a time” and “we want to improve things here first and then once that’s at a good level and we’re happy with that, then always look to progress”.
KIC ran Ferrari junior Maya Weug last season, and Flythstrom says her step down to F1 Academy this year was a blow as the plan had been “to do one [more] season”.
The Finns loved Weug’s direct communication approach, and her huge passion.
“She was one of the best drivers to work [with] because the motivation was like 300%,” says Flythstrom, who still hopes that KIC can field her in a fourth car as a guest driver.