The end of Formula Regional Europe’s first half, the opening round of E4 and a likely title decider in USF Pro 2000 are some of the many storylines we’re watching across seven junior single-seater series this weekend. Get caught up on why it matters. 

By Feeder Series

Lots of quietly building storylines come to a head this weekend across the junior motorsport landscape, with champions on the verge of being crowned and other title races as wide open as ever.

In hot, sunny southern France, FR Europe and Euroformula Open drivers will battle it out around the Circuit Paul Ricard. Italian F4 sister series E4, formerly Euro 4, joins them for its season opener and only round outside of Italy.

Over in the Americas, Canada hosts its only IndyCar event of the year on Toronto’s Exhibition Place street circuit, where USF Pro 2000 and USF2000 will also hold their penultimate rounds. The latter’s title race is tight as can be with Jack Jeffers and Thomas Schrage tied on 288 points, but the former is likely to be decided this weekend as long as Max Garcia, currently 97 points in the lead, loses no more than 30 points to his rivals.

Brazilian F4 and Japan’s Kyojo Cup, both of which began in May, also hold their long-awaited second rounds at Velocitta and Fuji respectively. Keep reading to find out what’s going on in each series.

1. FR Europe: Round 5, Le Castellet
2. Euroformula Open: Round 5, Le Castellet
3. E4: Round 1, Le Castellet
4. USF Pro 2000: Round 7, Toronto
5. USF2000: Round 7, Toronto
6. Brazilian F4: Round 2, Mogi Guaçu
7. Kyojo Cup: Round 2, Fuji

FR Europe: Round 5, Le Castellet

Circuit: Circuit Paul Ricard, 5.842 km

Schedule: All times local (UTC+2)

Friday 18 July

• 11:43–12:33: Collective test 1
• 16:51–17:41: Collective test 2

Saturday 19 July

• 09:00–09:15: Qualifying 1 group A
• 09:20–09:35: Qualifying 1 group B
• 13:00–13:32: Race 1

Sunday 20 July

• 08:00–08:15: Qualifying 2 group B
• 08:20–08:35: Qualifying 2 group A
• 12:30–13:02: Race 2

How to follow: All qualifying sessions and races are available to watch for free on the championship’s YouTube channel. Collective tests have no video coverage and can only be followed via live timing.

Weather forecast: Hot and sunny all weekend, with a chance of clouds Saturday morning along with strong winds. 

What to know: FRegional Europe heads to Le Castellet for the fifth round of the 2025 season. The weather forecast suggests the rain won’t turn tables this year, but the fight at the front is so tight that the weather won’t need to intervene. 

Matteo De Palo is leading the drivers’ championship with 122 points. Before the last round at the Hungaroring, the Rome native had one win and two further podiums. In Budapest, however, he secured his first pole position as well as another win and a third-place finish, snatching the lead of the standings from Freddie Slater. The Englishman is now second, only four points behind De Palo, with three wins and two further podiums.

Rounding out the top three is Enzo Deligny, whose disqualification from race two at the Hungaroring means he’s now closer to fourth-placed Pedro Clerot than to Slater despite having scored points in every race until then. 

Tim Gerhards and Arthur Aegerter are both set to come back to the championship after sitting out the round at Hungaroring. Gerhards had been absent after sustaining an injury while bicycling and was replaced at Saintéloc by Maya Weug. Enzo Richer replaced Aegerter at G4 Racing.

Akcel GP and drivers Aditya Kulkarni, Saqer Al Maosherji and Javier Sagrera also won’t participate in the Paul Ricard round. Feeder Series was informed that the team were missing the round to work on their cars and that they would be back in Imola in two weeks’ time. 

Report by Francesca Brusa

Read the previous round’s report here.

Euroformula Open: Round 5, Le Castellet

Circuit: Circuit Paul Ricard, 5.842 km

Schedule: All times local (UTC+2)

Friday 18 July

• 8:52–9:32: Free practice 1
• 14:00–14:40: Free practice 2

Saturday 19 July

• 9:45–10:05: Qualifying
• 14:05–14:35: Race 1

Sunday 20 July

• 10:00–10:30: Race 2
• 16:25–16:55: Race 3

How to follow: Every race will be streamed live on Euroformula Open’s YouTube channel. Live timing is available at cronococa.com.

Weather forecast: Hot and sunny all weekend, with a chance of clouds Saturday morning along with strong winds. 

What to know: Euroformula Open begins its second half of the season by heading to Le Castellet for its fifth round this year.

Earlier this month, Michael Shin became the third different driver to take the points lead by winning race two at the Hungaroring and finishing no lower than fourth over the rest of the weekend. 

Joining Shin on that race two podium was teammate Yevan David, whose third-place finish in race two was his brightest moment of the weekend. He finished all three races behind the South Korean and now sits four points behind him in the standings.

Twenty-six points behind David is Tymek Kucharczyk, who took a dominant win in race one but could not repeat this form in the other two races. Also winning last time out was José Garfias, whose triumph in race three enabled him to jump to fourth in points, 15 behind Kucharczyk.

For this weekend, Preston Lambert will replace Benjámin Berta in BVM Racing’s second entry. Lambert currently races in Eurocup-3 for Drivex and sits 24th in points, having taken a best result of 13th in the sprint race at Portimão.

That was set to be the only change on the entry list, but on Thursday, Shawn Rashid announced that he had left both Nielsen Racing and the championship. As a result, Gino Trappa will replace Rashid in Nielsen Racing’s three-car entry in what Feeder Series understands is a one-off appearance. Trappa is the current points leader in F4 CEZ with three wins to his name, and he also competes full-time in Spanish F4, in which he currently sits 18th in points.

Report by Marco Albertini

Read the previous round’s report here.

E4: Round 1, Le Castellet

Circuit: Circuit Paul Ricard, 5.842 km

Schedule: All times local (UTC+2)

Friday 18 July

• 08:05–08:45: Free practice 1
• 13:13–13:53: Free practice 2

Saturday 19 July

• 10:45–11:00: Qualifying 1
• 11:10–11:25: Qualifying 2
• 16:35–17:07: Race 1

Sunday 20 July

• 11:00–11:32: Race 2
• 17:25–17:57: Race 3

How to follow: Free practice and qualifying sessions are only accessible via live timing. The three races each weekend, however, will be live-streamed on the E4 YouTube and Facebook channels and the ACI Sport website. 

Weather forecast: Hot and sunny all weekend, with a chance of clouds Saturday morning along with strong winds. 

What to know: After a rebrand that changed Euro 4 into E4, Italian F4’s sister series is ready to kick off this weekend at the Circuit Paul Ricard in the south of France. For the first time since its inception, the championship will begin on international grounds before taking the grid all the way to Mugello in mid-September and then heading to Monza, the home of F1’s Italian Grand Prix, at the end of October. 

The three-round series has now come to its third edition. All drivers who have claimed the title in the past two years have been New York natives, with Ugo Ugochukwu beating teammate James Wharton to the crown in 2023 and Akshay Bohra taking the honours last year against eventual Italian F4 champion Freddie Slater.

The grid is set to host 29 cars in the championship’s opening round, but who will make the most of these nine races? Read our season guide to get familiar with the competitors.

Report by Francesca Brusa

USF Pro 2000: Round 7, Toronto

Circuit: Exhibition Place, 2.874 km

Schedule: All times local (UTC−4)

Friday 18 July

• 11:35–12:05: Free practice
• 14:10–14:35: Qualifying 1

Saturday 19 July

• 9:35–10:00: Qualifying 2
• 16:20–17:05: Race 1

Sunday 20 July

• 10:20–11:05: Race 2

How to follow: Qualifying sessions and races will be broadcast on the USF Pro Championships YouTube channel. Live timing is also available via the USF Pro 2000 website and via the USF Pro Championships app.

Weather forecast: Sunny Friday. Partly cloudy Saturday and Sunday, with light rain possible both days.

What to know: USF Pro 2000 makes its only trip outside the United States as it heads to Toronto for its second to last round of the season.

Leading the standings is Max Garcia, who won both races at Mid-Ohio last time out to extend his points lead to 97 over Ariel Elkin. With only 132 points still on offer, those results put the Floridian in position to clinch the title before the season-ending round at Portland.

Behind Garcia, the battle for the runner-up spot is hotly contested among five drivers separated by 50 points. Elkin sits second in points, eight ahead of Mac Clark, who enters his home round with nine podiums scored in 14 races but is still yet to win a race this season. Alessandro de Tullio, 12 points behind Clark, is the last driver in mathematical contention for the title.

Joining the grid for the Toronto round is USF2000 standout Liam McNeilly, who makes his USF Pro 2000 debut after visa issues curtailed his original campaign. His step up also returns JHDD to two cars as he takes over the entry last raced by Frankie Mossman at NOLA in April.

Report by Marco Albertini

Read the previous round’s report here.

USF2000: Round 7, Toronto

Circuit: Exhibition Place, 2.874 km

Schedule: All times local (UTC−4)

Friday 18 July

• 10:50–11:20: Free practice
• 13:35–14:00: Qualifying 1

Saturday 19 July

• 09:00–09:25: Qualifying 2
• 13:30–14:10: Race 1

Sunday 20 July

• 09:25–10:05: Race 2

How to follow: Qualifying sessions and races will be broadcast on the USF Pro Championships YouTube channel. Live timing is also available via the USF2000 website and via the USF Pro Championships app.

Weather forecast: Sunny Friday. Partly cloudy Saturday and Sunday, with light rain possible both days.

What to know: The USF2000 paddock heads north to Toronto for the penultimate round of the season.

Two weeks ago at Mid-Ohio, Jack Jeffers won two of the three races to re-take the points lead and enter Toronto level on points with Thomas Schrage. The VRD Racing driver scored all three poles at Mid-Ohio, but he wasn’t able to convert any of those into wins, finishing on the podium in races one and three and 11th in race two.

Thirty-two points behind Schrage sits VRD Racing teammate Teddy Musella, who finished third twice over the Mid-Ohio weekend to extend his gap to fourth-placed G3 Argyros to 37 points with two rounds remaining.

Fifth in points is Argyros’ Pabst Racing teammate Caleb Gafrarar. The North Carolinian took his maiden victory in race one and finished second and fourth in the following two races to put himself seven points behind Argyros in the standings.

Ayrton Houk and his team Benchmark Autosport are not present in this round’s entry list, nor is DEForce Racing’s Vaughn Mishko, whose main campaign is in the Mazda MX-5 Cup. Freedom 75 polesitter Houk currently sits 12th in points in his team’s only car, whilst Mishko made his series debut at Mid-Ohio, taking a best result of ninth in race two.

Returning to USF2000 competition is Kaylee Countryman, who stays with Exclusive Autosport for her second outing in the series after making her debut last month at Road America.

Report by Marco Albertini

Read the previous round’s report here.

Brazilian F4: Round 2, Mogi Guaçu

Circuit: Autódromo Velocitta, 3.493 km

Schedule: All times local (UTC−3)

Thursday 17 July

• 08:40–09:20: Extra practice 1
• 12:10–12:50: Extra practice 2
• 16:55–17:35: Extra practice 3

Friday 18 July

• 08:00–08:40: Free practice 1
• 11:40–12:20: Free practice 2
• 16:25–16:45: Qualifying

Saturday 19 July

• 07:50–08:20: Race 1
• 15:35–15:55: Race 2

Sunday 20 July

• 08:20–08:50: Race 3

How to follow: Live timing is available on Audace Tech, and races are streamed on the championship’s YouTube channel.

Weather forecast: Partly cloudy all weekend. 

What to know: After a two-month break, Brazilian F4 returns for its second round of the season at Velocitta. 

Heitor Dall’Agnol leads the championship after being awarded the win in race three at Interlagos last month. Several weeks after the original event took place, Ethan Nobels received a 20-second post-race penalty for causing a collision with Ciro Sobral, which dropped him from first to 13th. During that weekend, Nobels took one podium, while Sobral took his maiden win in the series in race one.

Rookies complete the top three as well, with two-time podium finisher Pietro Mesquita and race two winner Murilo Rocha currently second and third in the standings respectively. This weekend at Velocitta may indicate whether the season is truly becoming more balanced and competitive as rookies continue to challenge returning drivers for podium finishes and even race victories.

Report by Laura Anequini

Read the previous round’s report here.

Kyojo Cup: Round 2, Fuji

Circuit: Fuji Speedway, 4.563 km

Schedule: All times local (UTC+9)

Thursday 17 July

• 13:20–13:50: Free practice 1
• 14:40–15:10: Free practice 2
• 16:00–16:30: Free practice 3

Friday 18 July

• 8:50–9:20: Free practice 4
• 10:15–10:45: Free practice 5
• 14:10–14:40: Free practice 6

Saturday 19 July

• 8:00–8:20: Qualifying
• 10:35–11:05: Sprint race

Sunday 20 July

• 13:10–13:40: Final race

How to follow: All races are live-streamed for free with Japanese and English commentary on the Inter Proto Series x Kyojo Cup YouTube channel. Japanese TV channel J Sports likewise broadcasts all races. 

Weather forecast: Rain possible Thursday. Partly cloudy the rest of the weekend. 

What to know: The Kyojo Cup enters its second round of the 2025 season without any driver changes compared with the opening round, held in May. 

That opening round saw Rio Shimono of Team Impul with Dr.Dry take both wins in dominant fashion, while Team KCMG’s Miki Onaga came second in both races. To see Shimono and Onaga at the front does not come as a surprise given their previous experience in single-seater competition in Japanese F4 and Formula Beat. 

As the season progresses and drivers without much experience in F4-spec cars get more track time at Fuji, closer results are likely from this round onwards. 

Report by Finjo Muschlien

All times and forecasts listed above are subject to change. For the most up-to-date information, follow each series’ websites or social media pages.

Header photo credit: Alex Galli