Motopark will remain the series’ main source of entries for another year, while BVM’s Francesco Simonazzi returns for a third season. Feeder Series gives you everything you need to know about the 2024 Euroformula Open season.

By Juan Arroyo

Euroformula Open had a quiet winter. It took until the month preceding the season opener for the bulk of this year’s driver announcements to come. The modest influx reflected what many were expecting: only eight drivers will take part in this weekend’s action, six of whom will be driving for Team Motopark.

Motopark and its satellite outfit CryptoTower Racing Team dominated the team’s standings last year, filling up the top two spots. CryptoTower does not appear on this weekend’s entry list, and it’s unclear whether the German team will field additional entries through them this year.

Noel León won the 2023 drivers’ championship in comfortable fashion driving for Motopark. Following last year’s campaign with seven wins, León stepped up to F3 with Van Amersfoort Racing, where he currently sits 20th in the standings after two rounds.

The calendar

Hockenheim is a returning venue in this year’s schedule – the German circuit playing host to the series for the first time since 2019. Meanwhile, Algarve remains the season opener for the second year in a row. The only circuit from last year’s calendar not present is Mugello, which was used as a replacement for the cancelled Pau Grand Prix round.

• Round 1: Algarve International Circuit, Portugal (27-28 April)
• Round 2: Hockenheimring, Germany (11-12 May)
• Round 3: Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium (25-26 May)
• Round 4: Hungaroring, Hungary (22-23 June)
• Round 5: Circuit Paul Ricard, France (20-21 July)
• Round 6: Red Bull Ring, Austria (13-15 September)
• Round 7: Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, Spain (28-29 September)
• Round 8: Autodromo Nazionale di Monza, Italy (19-20 October)

The format

Race weekends begin with two practice sessions on Friday followed on Saturday by qualifying and race one. Races two and three wrap up each round on Sunday.

Qualifying sets the grid for race one while the starting order for race two is determined by reversing the top six finishers from race one. The order for race three is taken from qualifying as well, but with the top six reversed.

For all three races, the standard FIA points system is used – 25 points to the winner down to one point for tenth. One extra point is also awarded for pole position and fastest lap, and two are awarded for gaining the most positions in the race.

Where to watch

Viewers worldwide can tune into Euroformula Open races from the championship’s official YouTube channel. Viewers in Europe, North America and New Zealand can also find local viewing options on Euroformula Open’s website. Live timing for every round will be available at cronococa.com.

Teams and drivers

Team Motopark

Motopark will return eager for another year of dominance in the teams’ standings. They look set for another championship win, considering no other team is fielding more than one driver. In four out of the last five seasons, the championship-winning driver drove for the German team, and on the sole occasion they didn’t – Yifei Ye in 2020 – they drove for CryptoTower.

Brad Benavides (#71) set the fastest time overall in winter testing, and so far seems the favourite for this year’s title. Benavides spent a large part of last year with PHM Racing in F2, missing the last four rounds of the season due to a lack of budget. It will be his third year – not in a row – competing in the series: he made a one-off appearance in 2018, and took part in three rounds in 2021.

Joining for a full season is Levente Révész (#11), who made his debut in the series last year. The Hungarian left Arden Motorsport midway through a FRECA campaign to join Motopark for the final three Euroformula Open rounds. He achieved one win and two podiums during his late-year stint.

The lone rookie on the grid will be Fernando Barrichello (#41), the son of former F1 race-winner Rubens. Barrichello took part in F4 UAE, Spanish F4 and nearly did a full campaign of Brazilian F4 last year. Despite his extensive running in 2023, he’ll enter this season as one of the most inexperienced drivers, and so he will have a steep learning curve ahead of him in the Dallara 320.

Han Cenyu (#4) joins the team after doing little running in 2023. The Chinese driver raced in the Formula Regional Middle East Championship, but only appeared in two rounds of Eurocup-3 from the winter onwards. He was the second-fastest overall after Benavides from the combined results of winter testing in Barcelona.

Reigning rookie champion Jakob Bergmeister (#26) and European Le Mans Series race-winner Lorenzo Fluxá (#7) are only slated to take part in the season opener in Algarve for now, per a press release by Euroformula Open.

Should Fluxá – a regular points-scorer and sporadic podium-finisher in FRECA and FRMEC – decide to take part in every round barring ELMS clashes, he would become a title favourite against Benavides. A rule that would play in his favour is that each driver’s worst three results are dropped. He would have little margin for error, but a decent shot nonetheless.

BVM Racing

The Italian outfit returned to Euroformula Open for the final two rounds of the 2021 season after a four-year absence. In the two seasons since, Francesco Simonazzi (#84) has been the team’s lone entry.

2023 marked Simonazzi’s best-ever finish in the drivers’ standings with a final position of third. In a field marked by low numbers, the 20-year-old looked like a title contender early on, when he won a race in the opening round and followed up with two further podium-finishes the next round.

However, he was unable to maintain this form as the season went on, and Noel León pulled away while Cian Shields in second was only 18 points away by season’s end.

Another highlight of Simonazzi’s season was competing in the final two rounds of F3, where he achieved a best finish of 11th in the feature race of his home round in Monza.

BVM are still unable to match Motopark on pace, but Simonazzi is an experienced driver and pacey on his day. If he catches form early and stays consistent, he will undoubtedly be able to improve upon last year’s points tally.

NV Racing

The Serbian-based team first entered Euroformula Open in 2022, in a one-off appearance, in which their sole driver, Paolo Brajnik (#212), withdrew from.

Brajnik, an Italian driver who competes under a Serbian licence, returned to the series in 2023 – committing to a full season only after the first round. However, Brajnik instead ended up taking part in five of the eight rounds due to work commitments. Last season, Brajnik had a best finish of seventh in Mugello.

Neither Euroformula Open nor Brajnik have confirmed whether he plans to compete in all eight rounds this year. For now, he will be the sole entry eligible for the Gold Cup, a trophy awarded to the top classified driver aged 35 or over.

Should Vladimír Netušil and Effective Racing return to the series later this year – as Euroformula Open said it expects – the pair will see another tight battle for trophies in this category.

Header photo credit: Euroformula Open