Feeder Series has learned at least one team would be missing onto next year’s FRECA grid, with British squad Arden leaving the series while Monolite is reportedly in trouble as well. Feeder Series tells you what it means for FRECA’s future.

By Perceval Wolff

After hearing in the French F4 paddock that two FRECA teams were in danger of not making it to the grid, Feeder Series has received the confirmation from various sources that Arden Motorsport would not be part of the 2024 Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine season.

Two founding FRECA teams

Arden joined the series back in 2017 at the time of Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0. The team – founded by Garry and Christian Horner – has signed on drivers such as Dan Ticktum, Alex Quinn and F1’s Oscar Piastri, who discovered Formula Renault with them in 2018 before winning the title the year after with R-ace GP.

The team reached as high as third position in the Teams’ Championship in 2019. The highest they achieved in the Drivers’ Championship was with Quinn, finishing fourth in 2020. Since the rename to FRECA, Arden’s performances have gone downhill, eventually finishing tenth last year with one podium thanks to current F2 driver Joshua Dürksen.

Contacted by Feeder Series, Arden has not yet commented officially on their FRECA exit, but their FRECA programs do not appear anywhere on their website anymore, unlike late 2023. Arden seems to be focusing their efforts on GB3 and GB4 with a partnership with VRD.

Unlike Arden, Monolite is still fighting to get on the grid and sign several drivers before the first official FRECA pre-season testing at the beginning of April.

After joining the FREC grid in 2020, Monolite Racing has signed on exciting drivers such as Macéo Capietto or Kirill Smal. After two FRECA seasons spent at the tenth position of the standings, the Italian squad was the only one not to score any points last season, despite having engaging F3 podium-finisher Nikita Bedrin at one round as a guest driver where he finished both races in the top 10 – showing the team was able to fight for top positions occasionally.

Reasons behind their troubles

With a grid of more than thirty cars, the first ten positions are the only point-rewarding ones, and of course, the more cars there are, the harder it is to get the spotlight on you.

Moreover, 2023 has seen a major change at the Formula Regional level with the birth of Eurocup-3, another Formula Regional championship based in Europe – though not certified by the FIA – and organised by the Spanish Federation with the support of several prestigious teams, including MP and Campos.

While talking to multiple F4 drivers at the end of last year, it became quite obvious driver’s sponsors were more willing to pay the price of a top team in Eurocup-3, to get wins and podiums in a less competitive field rather than to fight occasionally for points in FRECA against the best drivers of their generation.

The exact costs of a season for a driver are always pretty vague. But drivers are more willing to pay around 400,000 Euros for a seat in a top team in EC-3 than for a smaller team in FRECA. This has been the case of Valentin Kluss who was in advanced talks with Monolite, making his FRECA debut at the end of last year with them before signing for Campos in EC-3 for 2024.

Still a bright future for FRECA

But anyway, how can anyone be pessimistic about FRECA’s future? After a season that gave us Antonelli, Tramnitz and many others that are fighting for top positions in F2 and F3, FRECA is set for another great year with multiple F4 champions, and F1 young drivers from McLaren, Red Bull, Ferrari and Alpine.

Even if two teams leave the series, this could also bring several advantages, with less cars, less safety cars and more racing action. But that would be at the expense of dozens of engineers, mechanics and team directors that make the core of this sport.

FRECA will still be welcoming a healthy grid of around thirty drivers, as much as FIA F3. And despite not announcing any drivers yet (like Arden and Monolite), KIC Motorsport is well and safe and has at least two drivers signed, with Italian F4 point-scorer Nandhavud Bhirombhakdi from Thailand poised to be one of them.

FRECA is set to start its 2024 season at the Hockenheimring on 11 May. However, there will be six days of official pre-season testing, the first one scheduled for 3 April at Barcelona.

Header photo credit: Sebastiaan Rozendaal / Dutch Photo Agency