Photo: Dutch Photo Agency
Owen Tangavelou has signed with MP Motorsport to race in Eurocup-3 for his third year in Formula Regional-level competition.
The 18-year-old, who has switched from a French to a Vietnamese racing licence for 2024, was a late starter in karting at the age of 14 and his first steps in single-seaters were in French Formula 4.
He came 12th in the standings as a rookie, and improved to fifth in 2021 with two podiums and two fastest laps. Tangavelou stepped up to FRegional the year after, contesting three Asian championship rounds and taking a best finish of 13th before embarking on a full season in the European championship and scoring 15 points to come 20th in the standings.
His 2023 began with a FRegional Middle East cameo where he took a 13th place finish, then he did another season in FREC and two top-five results helped him come 14th in the points table. Eurocup-3’s car is based on Tatuus’s FRegional chassis.
“My agreement with MP Motorsport for the Eurocup-3 season is great news for me,” said Tangavelou.
“The first season of the class was a success as it established and confirmed the reputation of some very talented young drivers. Now that the Eurocup-3 calendar includes not only Spa-Francorchamps and Zandvoort, but also Paul Ricard, Portimao and the Red Bull Ring, it is going to be a great season – especially if you can work with a leading team like MP.”
Three other teams have also recently added to their Eurocup-3 line-ups. Campos Racing has signed German 16-year-old Valentin Kluss, who has primarily raced in F4 but did make a FREC cameo last year.
He came eighth in the Motorsport Games F4 Cup, 11th in ADAC F4 and 21st in Italian F4 in 2022, then came 10th in F4 United Arab Emirates, 15th in Italian F4 and 16th in Italian F4 last year.
Drivex School’s first signing for 2024 is Georgi Zhuravskiy, a student of former Formula 1 driver Sergey Sirotkin. In his rookie season racing cars last year he came 39th in F4 UAE, then joined Drivex and was 34th in a part-time Spanish F4 campaign then 24th in Eurocup-3 after doing the last two rounds. He is yet to score in his single-seater career.
IndyCar champion Alex Palou’s team Palou Motorsport has named Theodor Jensen and Luciano Morano for the season ahead, and could add more drivers.
Jensen took a win and two other podiums en route to seventh in the 2022 Danish F4 standings, but failed to score in his three Spanish F4 outings that year. The 17-year-old Dane began 2023 in underwhelming fashion too as he came 37th in F4 UAE, and then was only 29th in Spanish F4. However in the three Danish F4 rounds he contested he was able to win four races and claim two poles, which put him seventh in the standings despite missing over half of the season.
Morano graduates to Eurocup-3 after a points-free 2022 French F4 season then finishing bottom of the 2023 F4 UAE standings and coming 28th in Spanish F4.