With only one week to go before the Spanish Winter Championship’s first round at Jerez, the grid for Eurocup-3’s winter series as well as its main season has slowly been taking shape. Feeder Series tells you all that we know so far about the 2025 lineups. 

By Seb Tirado

Now in its third year of competition, Eurocup-3 has steadily been growing in notability at the Formula Regional level. Whilst FR Europe still remains the most popular, the lower costs of the Spanish championship have made it more attractive to drivers.

The lineups announced and rumoured so far all feature a mix of current FR competitors and F4 drivers moving up the junior single-seater ladder. 

MP Motorsport

In 2024, MP took the teams’ title with 561 points, having taken a total of nine wins and 16 further podiums. The Dutch outfit also initially provisionally won the drivers’ title with Javier Sagrera, who will move up to F3 with AIX Racing. His teammate Bruno Del Pino is staying with MP in F3, whilst Owen Tangavelou, Emerson Fittipaldi Jr, Dario Cabanelas and Georgy Zhuravskiy are yet to confirm their 2025 plans.  

Maciej Gładysz and Mattia Colnaghi will move up from MP’s satellite Spanish F4 team KCL by MP to compete in Eurocup-3’s winter series and main season next year. Gładysz finished third in both the Formula Winter Series and Spanish F4 last year, with three podiums in the former and three wins and five further podiums in the latter.

Colnaghi is the reigning Spanish F4 champion, having taken the title with six wins and six further podiums. The 16-year-old started his year with a part-time campaign with MP Motorsport in FWS, with best finishes of seventh at Jerez, before embarking on his title-winning campaign. He also participated in last year’s Macau Grand Prix with the team, ultimately retiring from both the qualifying race and the main race. 

His Macau teammate Valerio Rinicella will make the move to Eurocup-3 from MP’s 2024 FR Europe squad. The 17-year-old competed in the first two rounds of FR Middle East this time last year, scoring 14 points to finish 17th in the standings. He also won both races in Eurocup-3’s non-championship winter series at Aragón in March last year. In his main 2024 campaign in FR Europe, he finished 20th in the standings with 16 points. He currently competes in the LMP2 class of the Asian Le Mans Series with Algarve Pro Racing and sits second in the LMP2 standings with a victory in the second race at Sepang. 

Alexander Abkhazava will move from Saintéloc Racing to MP for his second season of Eurocup-3. In 2024, the Russian-Georgian driver, who races under a Kazakh licence. finished ninth in the standings with a second place at Spa and a win in race three at Portimão. Abkhazava also took part in the Macau Grand Prix last year with Saintéloc, finishing 23rd in the qualifying race and ninth in the main race.

Campos Racing

Campos finished second in the teams’ standings and fielded championship runner-up Christian Ho. The Singaporean driver will compete in F3 next year with DAMS and took five of Campos’ six wins last season. Whilst Michael Shin is currently competing in FR Oceania, his main 2025 plans have not been confirmed yet, as is the case for his full-time teammates Valentin Kluss and Noah Lisle. 

Suleiman Zanfari and Jesse Carrasquedo competed in the first three and final five rounds of the season respectively. Zanfari has no confirmed 2025 racing plans, while Carrasquedo tested with Campos and Van Amersfoort in the F3 post-season Jerez test and with AIX Racing in the Barcelona test. 

Campos have otherwise not announced any drivers for 2025 yet, but Feeder Series understands that three Red Bull juniors are set to join the team: Ernesto Rivera, Jules Caranta and Enzo Tarnvanichkul. 

Rivera, who is currently 10th in FR Middle East, finished 15th in last year’s Formula Winter Series with Campos, achieving a podium in the final round at Catalunya. He then finished fifth in Spanish F4 with Griffin Core by Campos, taking a podium at Jarama before winning race two at Portimão. He also competed in British F4’s Zandvoort round with Hitech GP with a best finish of fifth in race one.

Caranta started 2024 in F4 UAE with R-ace GP – albeit entering round three with Saintéloc – and finished 15th in the standings. His main campaign in French F4 saw him finish third with four wins and seven further podiums, 14 points behind champion Taito Kato.

After turning 15 in February 2024, Tarnvanichkul competed in the final two rounds of last year’s Formula Winter Series with Campos. He finished 32nd in the standings with a best finish of 11th in the final race of the season. The Thai driver then competed in a full season of Spanish F4 with Campos, scoring one podium at Valencia to finish 12th in the standings.

Saintéloc Racing

Saintéloc finished third in the teams’ standings with one podium in the controversial first race at Spa and one win at the rescheduled third race at Portimão, both of which came from MP-bound Abkhazava. The only other full-time driver in Diego de la Torre has not confirmed his 2025 plans yet.

Daniel Nogales, who moved from Drivex to Saintéloc for the final three rounds, is set to drive in the LMP3 class of the European Le Mans Series with Team Virage.

José Garfias, whom Nogales replaced in the #99 car for the last two rounds, tested for AIX Racing in both F3 post-season tests and looks set to join the team alongside fellow Eurocup-3 alumni Sagrera. The #69 car featured numerous drivers such as Finley Green and James Hedley, but none of them are likely to join the team this season. 

The French outfit’s only confirmed driver so far is Lorenzo Castillo, one of their current FR Middle East competitors. The Mexican driver competed in FWS last year with Tecnicar and went on to compete in the majority of the Spanish F4 season with the team before switching to Saintéloc ahead of the final round. He finished 46th and 35th in the standings respectively with best finishes of 26th and 16th.

Palou Motorsport

Three-time IndyCar champion Álex Palou’s eponymous team, Palou Motorsport, finished fourth in the teams’ standings and also achieved one podium in the first race at Spa with part-time driver Kirill Smal. He and part-timers Pierre-Louis Chovet and Everett Stack’s main 2025 campaigns have not yet been confirmed, while Gerrard Xie will compete in F3 with newly renamed Hitech TGR. 

Two of their full-time drivers, Theodor Jensen and Garrett Berry, have similarly not confirmed their 2025 campaigns yet. The team’s only returning driver from 2024 will be Luciano Morano, who will compete in both the winter series and the main season. The 19-year-old finished 25th in the standings with best finishes of 12th at Portimão and Le Castellet.

He will be joined by Isaac Barashi and Ádám Hideg. Barashi moves from GRS Team, with whom he finished 20th in the standings last season with two points finishes at the Red Bull Ring and Zandvoort. He also competed in the last three rounds of FR Middle East and in FR Europe’s Budapest and Le Castellet rounds with MP Motorsport. 

Last year, Hideg competed in FWS with Jenzer Motorsport and Spanish F4 with Cram Motorsport. He finished 20th in the former and 17th in the latter with best finishes of sixth at Aragón and Jarama respectively. 

Belgian driver Yani Stevenheydens also tested with Palou at the end of last year and has been rumoured to be completing the team’s lineup. The 18-year-old finished as the runner-up in French F4, six points behind Kato, with four wins and eight further podiums.

GRS Team

Valencian team GRS finished fifth in the standings with one podium at Aragón with Nikola Tsolov, who competed in a dual campaign with F3. Tsolov’s participation in the season opener at Spa notably caused him to be suspended from F3’s Spa round for not having permission to compete from the FIA or F3 promoter Formula Motorsport Limited.

F1 Academy driver Emely de Heus deputised for Tsolov at the Red Bull Ring when the Bulgarian was taking part in F3’s Imola round. She and Douwe Dedecker also drove the #72 car part-time. Dedecker will compete in the LMP3 class of the European Le Mans Series with Inter Europol Competition whilst De Heus’ 2025 plans have not been confirmed yet.

GRS Team’s only confirmed driver so far is Mexican driver Cristian Cantú, who will compete in the winter series. He competed in Spanish F4 last year with TC Racing and finished 30th in the standings with a best finish of 13th at Le Castellet. 

Drivex

Drivex and its satellite team DXR finished last and second-to-last respectively in the standings last year, with Drivex’s best finish being Nogales’ ninth place at the Red Bull Ring and and DXR’s being Hadrien David’s sixth place in his Aragón appearance. He and fellow part-time DXR drivers Joao Díaz, Linus Hellberg and Emil Hellberg have not yet confirmed their 2025 plans. The same is also true for Drivex’s part-time drivers, Zhuravskiy and Nick Gilkes.

Gaspard Le Gallais, one of Drivex’s two full-season entrants from 2024, is not set to return for a second season, though fellow full-time driver Victoria Blokhina is. The Russian driver, who competes under a Kyrgyz licence, finished 27th in the standings with a best finish of 12th in race one at Catalunya. She also finished a best of 11th in the second race of the series’ non-championship Aragón round. 

Having competed in the final round as a guest driver alongside Nikita Bedrin, Preston Lambert will join Drivex for the winter series and the main season. The American driver had a best finish of 15th in race two and previously ran partial campaigns in FWS and Spanish F4 with Rodin Motorsport, finishing 36th and 32nd in the standings respectively. 

After representing their nations of Spain and Austria in the FIA Motorsport Games in the F4 Cup, Juan Cota and Oscar Wurz will complete Drivex’s lineup in both the winter series and the main season. Cota took the gold medal in dominant fashion and competed in FWS and Spanish F4 season with Drivex. He finished sixth in the former’s standings with a win and a podium and fourth in the latter with four wins and four further podiums, finishing one point behind MP’s Gładysz. 

Wurz is the 2024 F4 CEZ champion, taking two wins and a further 12 podiums on his way to the title. He also competed in the inaugural Saudi Arabian F4 Championship, in which he finished fifth in the standings with three points-awarding podiums, as well as in two rounds of Spanish F4 and the Mugello round of Italian F4. Wurz retired from the main race of the Motorsport Games after colliding with Japan’s Tosei Moriyama.

Header photo credit: Dutch Photo Agency