Former Alpine Academy driver and 2021 FRECA runner-up Hadrien David has announced his return to FRECA for the fourth round of the season this weekend at Spa-Francorchamps. After one year with MP and two with R-ace GP, the Frenchman is returning to the series with ART. Here is why this move is logical for both parties.

By Perceval Wolff

At the end of 2022, David faced an uncertain future. After running at the front of the field for the last two years in FRECA with R-ace GP  – finishing second and fourth – the next step for the former French F4 champion was to make the jump to FIA F3. A move to Carlin seemed to be on the cards as the Frenchman had previously tested with them.

However, because of budget issues, David could not join FIA F3. Whilst he tried to secure a future in endurance racing in the LMP2 category, these plans failed once again because of his lack of budget.

Despite being one of the most successful single-seaters drivers below FIA F3, David was left on the sidelines for the 2023 season. He eventually spent the first part of the year coaching young drivers in various F4 championships – notably Lola Lovinfosse, Léna Bühler, Jaden Pariat and Raphael Narac.

ART’s 2023 struggles

For the first time in FRECA’s young history, the European championship started its new season without David engaged. It’s fair to say it has been a wonderful first couple of rounds for David’s former team, R-ace GP, as the French squad collected five wins in six races thanks to Tim Tramnitz and the current championship leader Martinius Stenshorne.

Since their return to the level below F3 three years ago, the fight for the Formula Renault Eurocup or FRECA title has always included another French team, ART GP, with Victor Martins in 2020, Grégoire Saucy in 2021 and Gabriele Minì in 2022. However, unlike for R-ace, the start to the year for ART could be considered a total disaster: they currently lie eighth in the teams’ standings without any podiums to their name.

ART’s lack of performance could be explained by several reasons. Since 2022, the French team has reportedly been struggling with the car setup, with difficulties explaining why their performances could be so strong or so average. Nevertheless, Gabriele Minì was able to clinch the runner-up title despite these problems.

Laurens van Hoepen was the only driver returning to ART this year. Even if he was expected to lead the team because of his experience, this is only his second full season in single-seaters, as the protégé of Nyck de Vries had skipped F4 before joining FRECA.

Alongside him, ART has decided to trust two rookie drivers: Charlie Wurz and Marcus Amand. Despite strong performances in testing, both drivers are encountering the same setup issues, as Van Hoepen and last year’s drivers did.

ART needed some help from the outside – a successful driver with a lot of experience and who was quickly available. That’s why the team called upon David, eight months after his last race.

The perfect choice

David has already had to race for a team who struggled with setup issues. It was at the start of last year with R-ace GP.

“During the winter, we changed tyres. We went from the DMA to the DMB Pirelli. The structure of the rear tyre changed and we had to modify our set-up because we really struggled to warm these rear tyres up. We had a lot of tyre degradation too and we were slow in qualifying,” David explained to Feeder Series last year.

“Throughout the year, we eventually managed to understand these tyres. … [Winning in Monaco] has been a real click in my season, it boosted my self-confidence, it boosted everyone in the team. We really started to understand how these tyres worked. Overall, after this round, we always were in the fight for podiums, poles and wins.”

David was the highest-scoring driver in the second half of the season, and his teammate Gabriel Bortoleto also massively improved in the final part of the year.

After helping R-ace last year, could David be the new saviour for ART? For ART, it was certainly a no-brainer to call him. For the French driver, the opportunity to race for the first time in eight months – for free – could well be a new opportunity for him to attract sponsors, teams or anything that could help him find a racing program for the full season – whether that’s in single-seaters or elsewhere.

Header photo credit: Sebastiaan Rozendaal / Dutch Photo Agency