Photos: FRECA/Dutch Photo Agency
Four years on from a brief stint in F3, Michael Belov’s career was given another lifeline as a FREC stand-in for Trident, where he’s taken his chance to prove himself.
Having been drafted in mid-season by Trident to substitute for the injured Roman Bilinski, Michael Belov has impressed the team in three Formula Regional Europe appearances, capped by a second-place finish and two front row starts at Paul Ricard before the summer break.
As he explains to Formula Scout, his return to FREC has given him a chance to recover a single-seater career which has stuttered repeatedly in recent years due to lack of budget as well as the fall out from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Belov was drafted in for round four at the Hungaroring once the extent of Bilinski’s back injury became apparent, narrowly missing out on points on his return.
For the next round at Mugello, “we did really good step, then we missed a little bit for the quali,” but he still managed to score his first points of the year with sixth in race one.
At Paul Ricard Belov was on the pace from the start of the weekend, topping his qualifying group not once but twice.
“P1 in the first quali can be by accident or a good tow, but when you do it twice people start seeing that ‘maybe he’s on the pace.’ So I hope that I proved that I am in really good shape to fight for the wins.”
In race one, he took a solid second place behind Prema’s Rafael Camara, but “didn’t have enough pace to catch him.”
In the second race, he was the unfortunate victim of contact, a bent suspension leading to an early retirement, “because the car was just not driveable to the end.” Though the disappointment put “a little pepper on the dish,” as he puts it, he could nevertheless be justifiably “happy about the performance and the results.”
After seeing his career sidelined by a combination of budgetary struggles and global political tensions, he is prepared to go in whichever direction the road takes him. “It’s racing. Sometimes it happens like this. Let’s see how it comes later, because I don’t know how it goes.”
While this is Belov’s fourth year in the championship, and fifth overall at the FRegional level after a season in the Formula Renault Eurocup, Belov has never been in a position to complete a full season.
His maiden season in FREC started in round four at Paul Ricard, where he surprised the paddock with two second places as a guest driver for JD Motorsports, before moving to G4 Racing where he took two victories.
A move to MP Motorsport for 2022 ended after five rounds as travel restrictions imposed after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine curtailed his movement from home in Russia.
He made a surprise return to G4 Racing for 2023 alongside reigning French Formula 4 champion Alessandro Giusti, but again departed before the end of the season. “Last year with G4 was not the year that the people should focus on myself,” he suggests.
“It was a difficult year. The beginning was OK and I thought ‘maybe we can do something really good’ but I was really off from the car and it was difficult to adapt. Every race weekend [I had] a different engineer.
“Then the engine was dying a little bit in Mugello, then was quite down in Paul Ricard. When you don’t have the full focus of the team, or even the half, it’s quite difficult. You really feel like a second driver. But it’s experience.”
Despite his performances in his stunted campaigns, the door to FIA Formula 3 has never opened wide enough to move up, apart from a doomed (again, part) season in 2020 with Charouz Racing System.
Photo: Formula Motorsport Limited
“[My] management just put me in as a replacement for [David] Schumacher for three rounds. I did not know about the budget and then I received a contract with quite a low price and I didn’t even get paid for this contract.
“This moment was the most painful, a really difficult time of my life. Two months just sitting at home, rethinking some things that I’m not able [to do] anymore. It was really tough.”
Formula Regional offered the lifeline to rebuild momentum, then as now.
“For sure, it’s four years of driving in the same car, but if you look at the guys today in their second year in a row, they have much more mileage than me overall. Since 2020, my career is like, every time I jump from car to car, team to team, it’s like something is missing in my career. I didn’t finish a full season in the last four years.
“My last race before [Hungary] was Monza last year. So, nine months, with no testing.”
Belov tried to keep himself race-fit in the gym, “because anytime I can be called, and I must be ready. There cannot be excuses, that Michael was not in shape, blah blah,” he says.
“In May I didn’t know what I will do because my plan was to do like three races in Russia in GT and suddenly it’s a job in Europe, racing in FREC. I like this type of single seater because in Russia we don’t have it.” Too good an offer to refuse.
He compares his on-off lifestyle to “a flower opening and then closing in the winter. It’s really quite really tricky, but it’s like this for three years and I get used to it.” One phrase crops up in our conversation more than once: “It is what it is.”
“If I will make a good performance, people will say, ‘OK, this guy is something really, really magic.’
“I did some GT racing but it’s not what I wanted for my career and jumping in this [FREC] car is really reactive, really fast,” leaving him, he says, “like a kid, smiling and enjoying [it].
“It’s helped me to move forward. Mentally, I’m quite strong. I am a realistic guy. If I’m not racing, it’s [still] a life.”
While there are, obviously, others who have suffered far worse, Belov says the ramifications of the ongoing conflict are “kind of killing my career. It is what it is. I cannot change something because I’m quite like a small [piece] on the chessboard. I am just doing my best every time every time I get an opportunity.
“For me, it’s a chance to recover my career and to show that I’m still able to push. I am just doing my maximum because the less you think, the more productive you will be in the pace.” His results have, he believes, proved (maybe again) that “I am fast.”
“I’m quite OK with this, but I would like to move forward and to move forward I need to show some really good results, so I think we’re on a good road now. we’re in the front. I hope it will help in the future.”
Trident values Belov’s role in pushing the team forward in the absence of their expected team leader, Bilinski, and team principal, Luca Zerbini, is full of praise for his contribution.
“[What was] immediately very clear, from the moment he joined us, is his high determination and complete focus on racing,” he says.
Combining that determination with “his natural skill behind the wheel, you get an interesting ‘cocktail’. From a technical point of view, he was able immediately to adapt himself to our car set up and take out the best of it,” Zerbini adds.
“We easily find our own way to work together, and he was able immediately to be part of the whole team, together with his new team-mates.”
With an extra month to recover, Bilinski is expected to be back in the car for the next round at Imola, although Belov is naturally ready to continue to keep his seat warm, if asked.
In the meantime, he has done some driver coaching in Eurocup 3, “so I’ve also a little job. August will just be at home. Maybe some GT stuff and that’s all. Nothing special. Gym, playing games, the usual routine,” he shrugs.
“I wish Roman [Bilinski] a really good recovery, but I’ll prepare myself in case I will need to replace him. Let’s see what comes.”