In 2022, when Trident Motorsport joined the Formula Regional European Championship grid, Matteo De Palo hadn’t even started racing in single-seaters. Three years later, both team and driver claimed their first victory in the championship in their maiden outing as a pairing. Feeder Series sat down with De Palo at Misano to talk about his career until now and where he hopes the victory can take him in the future.

By Francesca Brusa 

Matteo De Palo is no stranger to change. In his first year in cars, he took part in selected rounds of four different F4 series across Europe, but he completed only one campaign – in Spanish F4. 

The Italian racer kicked off the year in the second round of the Formula Winter Series in Valencia, where he achieved both pole positions and snatched the win in race one. He then went on to compete in the first round of Italian F4 at Imola with R-ace GP, finishing in the points twice. Just over one week later, De Palo headed to Spa for the first round of his main campaign and came out on top in race three. That win turned out to be his only one in Spanish F4, but three further podiums followed throughout the season. Lastly, he made two cameo appearances in British F4, with a best result of 11th.

“2023 was my first year in cars,” the Rome native told Feeder Series last weekend in the Misano paddock. “I participated in all the championships a little bit. We started off with the Italian to at least gain experience with the car ahead of the first race in Spa of the Spanish, which I did with Campos.

“Then we also did a race in the Winter Series, which we won, as we did at Spa. We had some complications throughout the year and some bad luck also. In Navarra, we had two [non-scores] that made a big impact at the end of the year on coming third in the championship. But I can say I am satisfied with that year. The speed was there and I got along well with the team. 

“Then we also got a call from Argenti for a couple of rounds to gain even more experience, so we went there. It wasn’t the best two races because I had some problems. In the end, the Spanish championship went quite well. It wasn’t a bad first year, after all.”

Some might argue that switching several times from one series to another could have hurt De Palo’s performance, but he would agree to disagree. For one, even with different tracks and teams, there remained one constant – the Tatuus F4-T021 car he drove.

“The more time you spend in the car, the more experience you gain naturally, so it was a benefit for me to do that,” he explained.

In 2024, De Palo stepped up to the regional level by taking part in two rounds of FR Middle East with Saintéloc Racing, the team with which he made his FR Europe debut later that year. He claimed consecutive points finishes in race three of the first round and race one of the second round. 

“Having only done the first two races that year, we did not really focus on performance but on working on the aspects to improve for the season ahead,” De Palo told Feeder Series on reflection. “The experience there was really beautiful. You don’t get to race on those tracks every day. The first time in Abu Dhabi has its charm.”

The campaign in Europe did not play out as he had hoped, however. With a best result of fourth in race two at the Red Bull Ring and only five further points finishes from 20 races, he came 17th in the overall standings and seventh among the rookies.

“The results do not represent the state of our performance very much. We’ve had many DNFs for one reason or another and various problems in qualifying that made us lose some races, unfortunately,” De Palo said. 

“All things considered, I would say early on it wasn’t so bad – we were fifth in Spa the first day, we were really strong on the wet last year. On the dry, we were struggling a bit more in comparison to the top teams, but in the end it was a year in which I learned in preparation for this year.

“Naturally it could’ve been much better – and should’ve been much better – but sometimes not everything goes as planned.”

There was one clear bright spot: his personal growth.

“Last year I think I improved my driving technique even more,” he said. “Now, it truly is one of my strong points I can count on this year.”

This year, like many times before, De Palo switched teams and joined Trident Racing. The Milan-based squad has a two-decade history in junior series racing, but they only started competing in FR Europe in 2022.

Though several successful single-seater drivers wore their signature blue in the last three years in the category – among them reigning F3 champion Leonardo Fornaroli, current F3 frontrunner Tim Tramnitz and 2024 FR Oceania champion Roman Bilinski – the team had never won a race. Their best results were two second places in 2024 courtesy of Bilinski in race two at Spa and Michael Belov in race one at Le Castellet. 

De Palo hoped to change that for the Italian outfit, motivated by both a disappointing first campaign in the series and his feeling that the team’s legacy had been misunderstood. 

“I like it at Trident. To be fair, it’s a great team,” De Palo said. “They’re very prepared, under all aspects, and they make you feel like you’re always at home. Those are additional values – it’s not like other teams don’t have them, but perhaps they’re really good at this and they always manage to bring the best out of any driver.

“In my opinion it’s like school. At the end of the day every driver that has raced with them improved a lot and some of them even made it to F1. I’m really happy to be with them and the performances are there.”

The performances were there – and then some. In his first official weekend with the team, De Palo topped the timesheets in his qualifying group to secure a front-row grid position and claimed his and Trident’s first win in FR Europe on Saturday, making the most of a first-lap retirement by polesitter Freddie Slater. In race two, he started from third place but had to settle for the lowest step on the podium when the chequered flag waved. 

“The strong results here in Misano give us momentum, and our performance in pre-season testing at Spa was also encouraging. I think we’re in a good place to keep building from here,” De Palo added on Sunday after the race. “I truly believe we can be contenders for the title this year.”

De Palo has 40 points now, putting him second in the standings, just three behind points leader Evan Giltaire. The 17-year-old had struggled to put a title challenge together in previous years as he bounced between championships without finding much consistency. Now, he says, ‘we can be contenders for the title this year’.

“I don’t want to pressure myself too much, but I know I can do very well,” De Palo told Feeder Series. “I’ll focus exclusively on doing the best I can in every race. If I don’t get the result I want, maybe I’ll just stand on the podium. You need to take the best out of every race because you cannot afford to throw away many points.

“The real goal – I don’t want to jinx it, but it’s to be at the front.”

Header photo credit: Alex Galli