Tymek Kucharczyk and Noah Stromsted will make their Formula Regional European Championship debuts at Monza this weekend.
French team Sainteloc Racing has signed Kucharczyk, who is currently racing in GB3 for Douglas Motorsport and sits seventh in the standings with two rounds remaining. Two third places stand as his best results.
The 17-year-old Pole stepped up to that series from Spanish Formula 4, where he came third last year with one win and 11 other podiums while driving for MP Motorsport in his rookie season of single-seater racing.
Sainteloc confirmed that Kucharczyk will pilot their third car, alongside their two full-time entries. Emmo Fittipaldi drives one of those, and his team-mate is usually Lucas Medina. However the Colombian missed last weekend’s round at the Red Bull Ring to instead compete in karting as he raced in ROK Cup Colombia. FREC sophomore Esteban Masson took his place.
Kucharczyk’s move up to FRegional comes despite some doubts about whether he would have the budget to complete the GB3 season.
Stromsted is making a larger step, as he usually races in F4. The 16-year-old Dane was dominant in his home championship back in 2021, but contested less than two thirds of the season and had to wait until late 2022 to race single-seaters again as he did not turn 15 until July last year.
He did the last two Spanish F4 rounds and took a pole position, then started 2023 by coming ninth in F4 United Arab Emirates. Stromsted is now back in Spanish F4 and is currently fifth in the standings with three podiums. His FREC debut will be with the Race Performance Motorsport team.
“I’m really happy to announce that this weekend I’ll make my debut in FREC,” said Stromsted. “I’m really looking forward to the challenge of jumping straight into a race weekend and I’ll take every session to learn as much as possible. It will be pretty much a complete new experience for me, but seeing the potential the team has shown motivates me to do my best to achieve a good result!”
R-P-M’s team owner Keith Donegan commented: “We are exited to welcome Noah to RPM for the Monza round. He is a promising talent and we are looking forward to see how he can develop over the weekend. It is a challenge jumping straight in at the deep end, but we will do all we can for a good performance.”