Photo: ACI Sport
Four drivers – Emanuele Olivieri, Sebastian Wheldon, Kean Nakamura-Berta and Rashid Al Dhaheri – head to the series finale at Hockenheim aiming to be crowned the inaugural FIA Formula Regional European champion.
R-ace GP’s Olivieri travels to Germany with a 20-point lead over MP Motorsport’s Sebastian Wheldon at the top of the table following a win and a second place at Imola in the penultimate round.
After a slow start to the year at the Red Bull Ring, Olivieri has been the most consistent points-scorer of the quartet, with a win at Monza and four other runner-up finishes to go with his haul last time out in Emilia-Romagna.
In fact, he has not finished below fourth in any non-reverse-grid race since Spa-Francorchamps in May. Olivieri wrapped up the rookie title in Imola, and his R-ace GP team are on the verge of retaining their teams’ title.
Olivieri was lost for words as he left Imola with the title in his sights. “I wasn’t expecting to leave Imola leading the championship, but the team and I worked extremely hard during the summer break to find the performance that we were able to show here.
“I don’t have a particular strategy for Hockenheim. I’ll simply do everything I can, give it my best and see what the outcome is,” he added.
The crack French écurie is the only team which has managed to put all three of its drivers onto the top step of the podium this season. Olivieri’s team-mate, Al Dhaheri, has a 35-point deficit to make up, but with 56 points on offer, the Mercedes-AMG F1 junior should not be written off, particularly if he can regain the form he showed in Hungary at the start of the summer.
Anglo-American racer Wheldon has won three times, adding a victory at Paul Ricard to his sensational double at his team’s home event at Zandvoort. However, failing to score at the Hungaroring cost him momentum ahead of the summer break.
Prema have won every drivers’ championship since 2022, thanks to Dino Beganovic, Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Rafael Camara and Freddie Slater.
The Italian team’s lead driver, Kean Nakamura-Berta came into the season as many people’s favourite but has endured a rollercoaster season. On his day, the Williams F1 Team Academy driver has been unbeatable, winning at the Red Bull Ring, Monza and Paul Ricard.
But in-between his season has been compromised by driver errors and technical issues. Nakamura-Berta went from championship leader to third after a “tough weekend” at Imola. “We left too many stones unturned and didn’t look deeply enough into some problems that were arising early in the weekend, and that ended up being very costly,” he commented after the weekend.
Of course, the championship contenders will not have the luxury of a private battle. Van Amersfoort Racing’s Oleksandr Bondarev, like Nakamura-Berta backed by Williams, won on his series debut at Imola, while Prema’s Salim Hanna, a protégé of Juan Pablo Montoya, took his first win in the reverse-grid race, having dropped away after a promising start to the year.
CL Motorsport’s Reno Francot is another to have gone through a mid-season slump in form after a strong start. Francot bounced back at Imola, scoring more points across the three races than anybody except Olivieri.