Pedro Clerot was the second-highest-scoring driver from Formula Regional Europe’s 2024 season returning for a second campaign. Three months into the season, he is fourth in the standings with a win and two further podiums under his belt. Feeder Series sat down with Clerot to discuss how his campaign has gone and what lies ahead. 

By Francesca Brusa

The FR Europe round at Zandvoort represented a significant turning point in this year’s championship. Van Amersfoort Racing made the most of their home weekend by taking both pole positions, one overall race win, two further podiums and two rookie wins to snatch the lead in the teams’ standings. 

The protagonist of this fairytale round was undoubtedly Pedro Clerot, who walked away with his first podium of the year on Saturday before taking his first win in the series on Sunday. 

“Going to Zandvoort, home race for the team, a track I really love, I knew I could achieve something,” the Brazilian driver told Feeder Series on reflection in the Imola paddock. “I think Zandvoort played a little bit in our advantage because we were expecting a bit more of the weather and we had plans of plan A, plan B, plan C, what we were going to do in what certain conditions.

“Zandvoort is really a driver’s track for a little bit more experience. I have good experience in Zandvoort also in cold conditions and very tricky conditions overall. I was a little bit more calm and I was expecting a bit more than everyone else what was going to happen.”

Clerot snatched both pole positions in the third round of the season, but he claimed victory only in the second race of the weekend after a troubled start dropped him behind eventual winner Freddie Slater in race one.

That weekend, Van Amersfoort also emerged as a leading force among the teams, with Hiyu Yamakoshi rounding out a 1-2 in race two for the Dutch outfit to lift them eight points ahead of Prema Racing in the teams’ standings. 

“Obviously, the car was mega. I have to thank the team for that. I think we showed how strong we are in the wet, also with Hiyu being extremely strong, both margins in qualifying. The first day was very tight but the second day, me being six tenths ahead and Hiyu being four tenths ahead, I think it shows how much we got things right and how much we were prepared for that situation compared to the other teams,” he said.

“It was really special, almost two years of hard work and almost everything put into that single moment.”

It had indeed been two years since Clerot claimed his last win in single-seaters, when he dominated the opening weekend of Spanish F4 in 2023 by taking two wins and a second-place finish at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps. The Zandvoort win this year, however, followed on the heels of a trip to Spa that didn’t quite go to plan.

“Ever since that win in 2023 back in Spa, it’s a track I really love,” Clerot said. “I was really disappointed going to Spa and having that weekend that was really, really bad, no points at all.”

The Belgian circuit played host to one of the Brasília native’s worst weekends since he joined the championship at the beginning of last year. 

Qualifying one was cancelled because of an accident involving Saqer Al Maosherji, which damaged the barriers too heavily for drivers to run safely. 

Having started from 13th on the grid based on collective testing times, Clerot made it up to 10th before a collision with Nandhavud Bhirombhakdi after a safety car restart knocked him down the order. He took the chequered flag in 25th. 

“We had pace. We struggled maybe to get the car and also my driving in the window early on in the weekend,” he explained. “Qualifying being cancelled really didn’t play in our favour because for sure we had the pace … to fight for the pole or to be in the top three like we’ve been the whole championship. 

“After qualifying, I had a very good pace in the race. I was coming forward lap by lap, had a good start, gained some positions, and was already in the top 10. Then unfortunately I had a contact going into T5. It was a moment for me where I thought I had done nothing wrong, but looking back, I think there were a couple of things during that race I could have managed better and put me in a better position. And maybe just finishing the race would have been also good.”

Difficult weather did not help the Brazilian racer’s cause in the second qualifying session on Sunday morning. He joined Nandhavud Bhirombhakdi and Evan Giltaire in going off on a damp track at Campus, putting an end to his session. From 27th on the grid, Clerot took the chequered flag in 16th to collect yet another non-score. 

“I really was pushing that lap. If I’m not mistaken we were purple or, if not, one of the quickest in that sector, but then I tried to push a little bit too hard,” he said. “And with the new tarmac being difficult to see exactly where it was wet, we had a bit of a shower, which we were not expecting into that corner, and then me, Jem [Bhirombhakdi] and Evan [Giltaire] got caught out. 

“At that point the weekend was over. When you start [27th] in Spa … you can overtake, but you’re never going to make any sort of position back. We had to race with the same set of tyres from race one, so we were nowhere compared to the other guys.

“I think the recovery overall in the race was good, but after that weekend, I was really pissed and very sad that things weren’t really going our way.”

Heading into his sophomore campaign in FR Europe, Clerot had already collected two podiums last year in race two at Mugello and Barcelona as well as eight further results in the points, a haul put him eighth in the championship and made him the second-best-placed driver returning to the series after Giltaire. 

“Coming into the season, we had high expectations, also being my second year with the team, being familiar with everyone,” he told Feeder Series. “Naturally, you become more mature and more used to your environment and the category itself and how everything works.

“I have much more understanding of everything now of what I need, what I need from the team, what I need from the car and also adapting in certain situations.”

Clerot currently sits fourth in the standings, having claimed one further podium after Zandvoort in Budapest and finished every race outside of the two in Spa in the top 10.

What does he think he can achieve in the final four rounds of the 2025 FR Europe season? 

“I’m pretty happy with my season overall. It’s not been easy. It’s been really tight,” the 2022 Brazilian F4 champion said. “I’m quite happy with how I’m managing things at the moment, just taking it race by race, step by step.

At present, the Van Amersfoort driver is 58 points short of Freddie Slater’s lead and 42 points away from Matteo De Palo’s runner-up spot. His closest rival, Enzo Deligny, retook third in the standings after the Imola round and has amassed 140 points so far to be only 12 points ahead of him.

“Realistically, today, [my goal] is to be in the top three in the championship. It will always be tight. There will always be some places, some tracks are playing into different teams like we’ve seen quite a lot this year,” Clerot said.

“I can from now on be consistently in front of Matteo and consistently in the top four, top three. That’s my main goal, to score good points in the championship, to not make any mistakes – any stupid mistakes that are not necessary – and just build up the championship from now.”

Header photo credit: Lorenzo Pastorelli