Rafael Villagomez, the 2019 Richard Mille Young Talent Academy shootout winner and a regular in British and French Formula 4 this year, will debut in Euroformula with Drivex School this weekend.
The Mexican karting graduate is in his rookie season of car racing and is currently 11th in the British F4 points with Fortec Motorsports, and with one podium to his name.
He’s missed two rounds there to prioritise his French campaign, which was the prize for winning the Richard Mille shootout, and is currently sixth in the standings with a best finish of fourth.
The teenager replaces Matthias Luethen in Drivex’s line-up, with the German moving across to Double R Racing for the four-race Barcelona season finale. It is unclear whether Luethen will be a practice-only entry or not.
Villagomez will not be eligible to score points on his Euroformula debut.
Carlin planned to field three cars this weekend, with Formula 4 graduates Zane Maloney and Ido Cohen being joined by ex-IndyCar driver Jordan King. That plan did not come to fruition, despite the Briton being named on the entry list.
The team introduced a third Dallara 320 chassis at the Mugello round earlier this month for McLaren GT driver Ben Barnicoat, who was called in to assist in speeding up the team’s development and understanding of the series’ new car and ended up taking a win and a pole.
Clashing committments meant he wasn’t free to fill the same role for the Spa-Francorchamps round two weeks ago, and Carlin’s Formula 2 racer Yuki Tsunoda was lined up to drive the third car.
The Red Bull junior, a winner in Euroformula with Motopark, was then called for a seat fit at the Alpha Tauri base in Italy ahead of a private Formula 1 test being organised for him at Imola next week.
This prevented him from racing in Belgium, and Euroformula’s cancellation of its planned season finale at Jarama on November 6-8 has now put additional onus on the Barcelona round as it incorporates the two otherwise lost races to conclude the season.
King, who raced one of Dallara’s preceding designs to the 2013 British Formula 3 title with Carlin, was lined up to be the team’s third driver for Barcelona but that plan did also not come to fruition.