Eurocup-3 heads into its second year with new teams, a panoply of rookie drivers and modified push-to-pass rules to follow. A number of drivers have stepped up from Spanish F4, and some could even progress to F3 if they win the title. Feeder Series tells you all you need to know ahead of the 2024 season.

By Juan Arroyo

It’s the battle of speed against experience in Eurocup-3. March’s non-championship round gave us an early glimpse of this year’s possible title battle, as Christian Ho and Javier Sagrera shined in the weekend’s races behind FRECA driver Valerio Rinicella.

Ho, last year’s Spanish F4 runner-up, will be aiming for the title as he looks to earn a spot in Campos Racing’s F3 line-up next year. Meanwhile, Sagrera’s move to frontrunners MP Motorsport is the clear headline from among the returning drivers; he was the best-placed driver in last year’s standings outside of MP’s and Campos’ line-ups, securing Palou Motorsport’s first podiums.

As they have been in Spain for several years, MP and Campos were inarguably the two dominant forces last year, and their drivers filled up the first seven places in the drivers’ standings.

Campos’ Esteban Masson emerged victorious in the 2023 title fight. In ideal conditions, this result could have yielded a step up to F3 but he has instead moved to sportscars in the World Endurance Championship’s LMGT3 class.

Ahead of the season, the series’ push-to-pass rules have been modified to allow 60 seconds of free activation throughout a race. Previously, drivers could only activate the extra engine power five times per race, with each use lasting exactly 15 seconds.

The rule has essentially given drivers more freedom in how they use push-to-pass, but it has also reduced the amount allocated.

The change has split opinion. Speaking to Feeder Series, Nick Gilkes, Valentin Kluss, and Christian Ho praised the rule change; Kluss even outlined potential strategies he could use starting from pole position. However, George Zhuravskiy said he preferred the old system, arguing that push-to-pass should imitate DRS and that the new system “doesn’t imitate DRS in the slightest”.

Other technical aspects of the modified Tatuus F3-T318 remain unchanged as the series enters its second season. The series will also continue to use Hankook rubber, though the compound is softer than last year’s.

The calendar

The series will visit five international circuits in 2024, up from four the previous year.

Spa-Francorchamps will stay as the season opener, followed by two additions to the calendar in the form of Portimão and the Red Bull Ring. Portimão, a circuit that hosted F1 as recently as 2021, is replacing Estoril as the series’ Portuguese destination.

Circuit Paul Ricard and Zandvoort remain on the schedule, but Monza has been removed.

The series will round out the year with three domestic rounds at Aragón, Jerez, and Barcelona. As Eurocup-3 limited its calendar to eight rounds, a visit to Valencia has been left off the schedule.

• Round 1: Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps (19–20 April)
• Round 2: Red Bull Ring (17–19 May)
• Round 3: Algarve International Circuit (7–9 June)
• Round 4: Circuit Paul Ricard (5–7 July)
• Round 5: Circuit Zandvoort (13–14 July)
• Round 6: MotorLand Aragón (26–28 July)
• Round 7: Circuito de Jerez (4–6 October)
• Round 8: Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya (8–10 November)

The format

Race weekends begin on Saturdays with two 40-minute practice sessions, after which the first qualifying session sets the grid for race one. Said first race takes place on Sunday and is followed by a second qualifying session that sets the grid for race two, which takes place later that day.

The series uses the FIA’s points-scoring system, which you’ll likely recognise from Formula 1. Points are awarded to the top 10 finishers in each race, with 25 points handed to the winner down to 1 point for 10th place. An additional point is given out for setting the fastest lap of the race, no matter the finishing position. The driver who sets the fastest qualifying lap across both sessions is awarded two points.

Where to watch

All races are streamed live on Eurocup-3’s YouTube channel. Streams of practice sessions and qualifying are not available. Live timing can also be found at each individual circuit’s timing page at getraceresults.com or Al Kamel Systems’ website.

Teams & drivers

Campos Racing

Spanish outfit Campos Racing won the teams’ championship last year, but only one driver from that line-up has returned in 2024. The team was not in top form during pre-season testing according to lap times, but as Ho pointed out to Feeder Series, it may just be a case of early sandbagging.

Whatever the case, Campos’ rookies will have to adjust quickly if they want to repeat their teams’ championship feat from last year.

Rookie Christian Ho (#51) will headline their line-up. Ho shined in the second half of the Spanish F4 season in 2023. He won the last four races of the season and took the fastest lap in each of them.

Ho’s performance in the non-championship round – a second-place podium and fourth place – may not have shown his full capabilities He told Feeder Series that mechanical issues had cost him up to four tenths of a second per lap in the first race.

Noah Lisle (#2) was a race winner in British F4 and regular points scorer in Spanish F4 last year. The British-licenced Australian spent the winter in the Formula Regional Middle East Championship with Xcel Motorsport, finishing 19th in the standings.

Another rookie driver coming to Campos is Valentin Kluss (#5), who will enter a full Formula Regional–level campaign for the first time. The German driver left PHM Racing midway through 2023, when he was competing in Italian F4. After his departure from PHM, Kluss made one-off appearances for MP Motorsport in Spanish F4 and Monolite Racing in FRECA. He was also plagued by mechanical issues in the non-championship round and retired from both races, but testing suggests he and several other drivers besides Ho have frontrunning pace.

Michael Shin (#16) brings some much-needed experience to the line-up. He was occasionally inside the top 10 in GB3 last year en route to 18th place in the standings and entered three F3 rounds with PHM Racing at the end of the year, with a best race finish of 17th. The 19-year-old Korean spent January and February racing in the Formula Regional Oceania Championship, in which he finished fourth with a win to his name.

Suleiman Zanfari (#52) is Campos’ only returning driver in Eurocup-3. As a rookie last year, he finished ninth in the drivers’ standings. Zanfari claimed third place in his debut race in the series but has not stepped on the series’ podium since. The Moroccan driver was, however, in F4 Saudi Arabia as recently as earlier this month and ended his campaign with fourth place in the standings.

MP Motorsport

Dutch outfit MP Motorsport only missed out on last year’s teams’ championship by two points and comes into 2024 with a more experienced line-up than their Spanish rivals. They have also looked considerably stronger in pre-season testing, though those  within the paddock are wary of making assumptions solely on the Spa test days.

Based on last season’s performances and the non-championship round, Javier Sagrera (#25) is MP’s most exciting driver. In 2023, Sagrera was the sole contributor to Palou Motorsport’s three podiums and finished the highest out of any driver not with Campos or MP. Last month, Sagrera got the paddock’s attention by claiming second place in the first race in Aragón and being on pace for another podium in the second before retiring.

But amidst that hype, Bruno del Pino (#6) should not be forgotten. Del Pino was a reliable top-10 driver in Eurocup-3 last year, building his seventh-place finish in the standings on consistency. He was the fastest of the MP drivers in two of the four pre-season test sessions, but he missed the non-championship round, meaning we have not seen him in race conditions in Eurocup-3 this year.

Emerson Fittipaldi Jr (#24) is following up his part-time 2023 campaign into a full season with MP. The son of two-time F1 champion Emerson Fittipaldi spent 2023 with Saintéloc Racing in FRECA, in which he claimed a single points finish – eighth place in Round 10 – across the season. He also took part in FRMEC with the Dutch team this winter, achieving a best finish of eighth.

Another incoming FRECA transfer is Owen Tangavelou (#26), who is switching to a Vietnamese licence this year after previously racing under the French flag. Competing for Trident in FRECA, the 19-year-old struggled in the first half of the year but picked up significant form in the second, becoming a regular presence in the top 10. Tangavelou didn’t take long to adjust to the Eurocup-3 cars, managing a podium in third place and a fourth place finish in the two races of the non-championship round.

Finally, Dario Cabanelas (#34) joined as the final piece of MP’s jigsaw after racing with Saintéloc for the second half of last season, achieving a best finish of ninth. The Swiss driver with Spanish and Ukrainian roots was not present at the non-championship round. He and Emerson Fittipaldi Jr. alternated spots as the slowest MP drivers during pre-season testing. Still, his additional experience should benefit him, as will the fact that he is now at one of the two historically strongest teams.

Palou Motorsport

Palou Motorsport, Álex Palou’s racing team, got off to a sound start in Eurocup-3 last season. Three podiums and third place in the teams’ standings is nothing to scoff at in their first year. This season, the team will look to keep that position at the very least, and they have brought on three rookies to do just that.

Garrett Berry (#18) comes to Eurocup-3 with a year of F4 experience under his belt, finishing sixth in French F4 last year. Instead of heading to FRECA as several other drivers from that championship have done, the British-licenced American moves to Eurocup-3 for his rookie season at the Formula Regional level. At 20 years old, he is one of the oldest drivers in the field.

The team is also fielding two drivers coming from Spanish F4. Theodor Jensen (#30) was part of Saintéloc Racing’s line-up in that series but is moving to Palou Motorsport as he targets a switch to the IndyCar junior ladder in 2026. Jensen finished 30th in the standings last year.

Luciano Morano (#10) was Jensen’s teammate at Saintéloc Racing in Spanish F4 in a line-up completed by eventual champion Théophile Naël. Morano was 28th in the standings, with a season-best finish of 11th at the final race in Barcelona.

On the Wednesday before the opening round, Kirill Smal (#4) appeared on the entry list as driving for Palou. A routine frontrunner in F4 in 2021 and 2022, Smal had a difficult 2023, achieving a best finish of 12th in five rounds of FRECA with Monolite. He took part in post-season testing in Aragón with Palou Motorsport, but no announcement of his signing has been made, and it is unclear if the 18-year-old, who is known to have budgetary troubles, is joining Palou on a one-off basis or permanently. 

Drivex

Drivex got off to a strong start in 2023, with Pierre-Louis Chovet – the 2021 F3 Asia runner-up and a coach for the team’s drivers – finishing fourth in the second race of the opening weekend. But the team could not reach the podium, and even with a relatively more experienced line-up, that objective may be even harder to achieve in 2024 given the number of new drivers and teams.

Nick Gilkes (#64) is returning for a second year in the series with Drivex, as is his 2023 teammate Daniel Nogales (#13), who joined from the third round. The pair finished 11th and 12th in the standings last year, scoring most of the team’s points across the eight rounds.

Neither competed in any full winter series this year, but they participated together in the Games of the Future contest in Kazan, Russia. The event, which held dozens of sports competitions in non-traditional formats, featured a racing category in which pairs of drivers raced both in real-life F4 cars and on simulators in an endurance-style relay race.

After two years in F4, Victoria Blokhina (#21) has decided to step up a tier. The 17-year-old was 35th in the Italian F4 standings last year, scoring no points across a full season. She was second in the women’s championship, missing out on the title by 10 points to Tina Hausmann. In pre-season testing, Blokhina has usually brought up the rear from among the Drivex contingent.

George Zhuravskiy (#7) is a product of Drivex’s Spanish F4 squad and is subsequently making the move up to Eurocup-3 after his first year in single-seaters. Zhuravskiy took part in five of seven rounds of Spanish F4, electing to spend what would’ve been the final two rounds with Drivex’s Eurocup-3 squad instead. He was 34th in the standings in the former at the end of the year. Of the incoming rookies, he has some of the most official mileage between last season, the non-championship round and pre-season testing.

Finally, Gaspard Le Gallais (#20) is coming out of a championship not known for producing single-seater drivers, the Ultimate Cup Series. Le Gallais finished runner-up in the single-seater (Challenge Monoplace) category, which allowed drivers to enter with a number of different Formula Regional and F4 cars.

GRS Team

GRS was present at every single round last year, but the team swapped drivers often, which did little to help their stability. This year’s line-up, made up of drivers familiar to the team who are set to stay throughout the year, will go a long way towards minimising any disruption.

Nikola Tsolov (#9) will join the team for five out of the eight rounds, missing the Red Bull Ring, Paul Ricard and Aragón rounds because of F3 commitments. He was present at two rounds last year with GRS, one of which was in Jerez, where he scored two second places. The Alpine F1 junior will run a livery displaying the French team’s branding. Tsolov will find it much more difficult to mount a title challenge than did Mari Boya, who also balanced F3 commitments with Eurocup-3 last year but only had to miss one of the eight rounds.

In the other car, Isaac Barashi (#77) reunites with GRS after joining the team for four Spanish F4 rounds last season. Barashi also finished 20th in British F4 last year with one podium. The British driver spent part of the winter in FRMEC with MP Motorsport and achieved a best finish of 15th across three rounds. 

Saintéloc Racing

In the past year, Saintéloc have been looking at how to expand their presence in Europe, with an end goal of buying into F2 and F3. For now, a permanent expansion to Eurocup-3 was a logical choice for a team well established in Spanish F4 and with a year’s experience of running the Tatuus F3-T318 in FRECA. Last year, the French outfit fielded Dario Cabanelas for the final four rounds as they competed in the series for the first time.

One of the team’s new drivers is Alexander Abkhazava (#12), who began the year racing for Pinnacle Motorsport in FRMEC. He started strongly, securing a season-best fourth place in only the second race of the five-round championship, but struggled for points thereafter.

During testing, only one Saintéloc driver has consistently been at the front, and that has been José Garfias (#99). Garfias raced for MP Motorsport last year, finishing fourth in the championship after taking four podiums in the final five races. Having been at the front for one year, Garfias faces the challenge of maintaining his frontrunning status with a relatively unproven team. Still, it must be noted that between Garfias and Abkhazava, Saintéloc were in the top five three times in Spa testing, and Garfias even topped a session, so the Mexican’s gamble may pay off.

Diego de la Torre (#44), one of the team’s rookie signings, made the permanent switch to European single-seaters in 2023. He took part in partial seasons of  NACAM F4, in which he managed a pole position and third-place finish, and Italian F4. De la Torre’s learning curve in Eurocup-3 is set to be steep considering his relative inexperience in single-seaters.

After completing a FRMEC campaign with Pinnacle Motorsport disrupted by mid-season appendicitis, Finley Green (#69) tested with Saintéloc in March but was never formally announced as part of their 2024 driver line-up. However, Green has appeared on the entry list for Spa-Francorchamps, and Saintéloc has confirmed to Feeder Series that he is committed to the team for the season.

Monlau Motorsport

Monlau Motorsport was confirmed as a new entry in March by Eurocup-3, but the team has not revealed any driver signings in the month since and will not be present at the season opener in Spa-Francorchamps.

Versa Evans GP

Evans GP, led by former MP Motorsport team manager Joshua Evans, is an Australian team with a history of competing in Asian and British single-seater championships, among them GB4 and FRMEC. In November, Evans GP announced a partnership with Versa Motorsport, another Australian team that raced in S5000 last year, to field a single entry in Eurocup-3 this year.

Versa Evans GP have faced delays in receiving their aero kits and tyres from Hankook in time for testing, according to team principal Evans, so they will not be at the season opener in Spa. The delays also explain their notable absence from both the non-championship round and pre-season testing. Evans told Feeder Series that the team would compete at select rounds once they “are ready to compete with the right preparation”. 

The only driver confirmed for the team is Cooper Webster, who raced with Versa Motorsport in S5000 in Australia last year. The Red Bull Racing esports driver also took second in GB4 and the championship title in Indian F4 last year. This is set to be his first year driving in the Formula Regional tier.

Header photo credit: Niels Broekema / Dutch Photo Agency