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MP Motorsport has announced it has signed Nikita Bedrin to its Formula Regional European Championship line-up.
Bedrin is currently in his third year with the PHM Racing team, which started with a three-pronged Formula 4 programme in 2022, included a FRegional Middle East campaign last year and an incomplete F4 United Arab Emirates at the start of this year.
In 2023 he also stepped up the FIA F3 Championship with Jenzer Motorsport (but with PHM’s support) and came 18th in the standings with two podiums. For this season he switched to PHM’s own line-up, and currently sits 19th in the standings after the first two rounds.
Having made two FREC outings with two different teams last year, Formula Scout understands Bedrin already had a plan in place to race full-time in the championship this year with MP before his F3 opportunity came about. Now that he has committed to both, the announcement that Bedrin will be doing the full FREC season means he would miss FIA F3’s Monaco, Barcelona and Hungaroring rounds which equates to 30% of the season.
Update: PHM Racing however has since told Formula Scout that, despite the wording of the FREC announcement, Bedrin’s F3 campaign will take priority so he will actually do a full season there and miss FRegional races.
“I’m really excited to go racing in FREC with MP,” said Bedrin. “MP know their stuff in this highly competitive championship, and we have been strong in testing. With my future for this season settled, I aim to work closely with the team to have the most positive start to our FREC season when that gets going at Hockenheim in May.
“I welcome Nikhil [Bohra] and Valerio [Rinicella] as my team-mates, who both proved equally quick during our tests together. I’m confident that they will help us move forward as the season takes shape.”
MP’s team principal Sander Dorsman added: “It’s great to have a driver with Nikita’s experience in our FREC line-up. He’s been a surprise package in both FIA F3 and FREC last year, and we look forward to harnassing his unquestionable talent into consistent strong results right at the front in FREC.”