With the major junior racing series taking a back seat this weekend, Feeder Series shines a light on Formula Regional Japan, French F4, Brazilian F4 and AU4 in addition to offering our latest quarterly update.

By Feeder Series

It’s the end of September, and the busiest days of the racing year are behind us. But by no means is there less excitement, with two closely fought championships set to be decided this weekend.

One of them is in French F4, which holds a championship round on Le Mans’ Bugatti Circuit for the first time since 2016. This new venue will serve as the playing field for a title showdown between second-year drivers Alexandre Munoz and Jules Roussel, both fighting for their futures.

AU4’s 2025 Gen2 class will also be decided this weekend, and Isaac McNeill and Noah Killion are separated by little heading into the decider at Sydney Motorsport Park. So too will Nordic 4 and Formula Nordic, which race for the final time this weekend at Jyllandsringen with Marius Kristiansen and Melvin Kalousdian leading their respective championships.

The two title battles still developing are in FRegional Japan, in which Kiyoshi Umegaki and Tokiya Suzuki are separated by just 6.5 points in a battle guaranteed to go to the season finale in November. There’s already a much bigger gap between Brazilian F4 points leader Heitor Dall’Agnol and second-placed Murilo Rocha, but the 45-point difference between them could easily fluctuate with five rounds still to go.

Finally, check out our latest quarterly update from our department heads, who’ve been hard at work over the summer to ensure you consistently receive the best feeder series content you can find anywhere.

1. FRegional Japan: Round 5, Fuji
2. French F4: Round 6, Le Mans
3. Brazilian F4: Round 3, Mogi Guaçu
4. AU4: Round 5, Sydney Motorsport Park
5. Feeder Series quarterly update: Summer 2025
   1. Broadcast
   2. Social
   3. Editorial

FRegional Japan: Round 5, Fuji

Circuit: Fuji Speedway, 4.563 km

Schedule: All times local (UTC+9)

Friday 26 September 

• 9:00–10:00: Free Practice 1
• 13:15–14:15: Free Practice 1

Saturday 27 September

• 8:30–8:45: Qualifying 1
• 9:00–9:15: Qualifying 2

• 13:15–13:45: Race 1
• 16:45–17:15: Race 2

How to follow: All qualifying sessions and races are live-streamed on the series’ official YouTube channel. Streams include a split-screen display with trackside cameras and live timing.

Weather forecast: Partly cloudy all weekend.

What to know: FRegional Japan holds the penultimate round of its season at Fuji this weekend. Two races await Japan’s closest feeder series championship fight, which will not be decided until the season finale at Suzuka in November.

Toyota junior Kiyoshi Umegaki leads the championship for the first time going into a race weekend, having won twice at the previous round at Sugo. 

Close competition can also be expected this weekend after the series’ previous visit to Fuji, Toyota’s own track, in June. In that event, the second of the season, Umegaki and Tokiya Suzuki split the wins and shared a close fight for the win in the second race.

There are several additions and one departure for this weekend’s round. First, Kazuhisa Urabe returns to B-Max Racing after missing Sugo, having prioritised competing in the Super Formula Lights races held there on the same weekend. Ragno Motor Sport’s Lin Chenghua also returns for his third and final scheduled round of the season. 

At Aiwin, Yutaka Toriba will be replaced by Ai Miura (#13). Also returning are “Akita” with his own team Abbey Racing, Shoichiro Akamatsu of Eagle Sports and Wang Zhongwei of Sky Motorsports – all of whom last competed in round two at Fuji in June – as well as “Yuki” of Nilzz, who also competed in round three. 

Report by Finjo Muschlien

Read the previous round’s report here.

French F4: Round 6, Le Mans

Circuit: Circuit Bugatti, 4.185 km

Schedule: All times local (UTC+2)

Friday 26 September

• 09:00–09:30: Free practice
• 15:15–15:45: Qualifying

Saturday 27 September

• 9:05–9:35: Race 1
• 14:45–15:15: Race 2

Sunday 28 September

• 9:05–9:35: Race 3

How to follow: Live timing is available at Dataware. None of the races will be broadcast this weekend, as the meeting will take place behind closed doors, supporting the Porsche Sprint Challenge France championship.

Weather forecast: Mostly sunny all weekend, with cloudier skies Saturday morning and early afternoon.

What to know: For the first time since 2016, French F4 holds a race weekend at the Bugatti Circuit in Le Mans, home of the FFSA Academy and host of pre-season testing. 

Four drivers are still mathematically in contention for the 2025 title entering this final round, but Alexandre Munoz and Jules Roussel have the highest chances of taking it, with the former holding a 27-point lead over the latter. Both drivers still have unclear futures, so the title and its €100,000 scholarship could be decisive for their careers.

The other two eligible drivers are Arthur Dorison and Rayan Caretti, 62 and 70 points behind Munoz respectively with 70 points up for grabs. 

Last time out in Lédenon, Guillaume Bouzar and Rintaro Sato took their maiden wins. Several other frontrunners will be looking to achieve the same this weekend, among them Rafaël Pérard, Montego Maassen, Malo Bolliet and Louis Iglesias.

Having made his car racing debut two weeks ago, Jack Iliffe will stay in the series for the season finale. Joining him is 15-year-old French-American driver Maverick McKenna (#17), who had only competed in the United States before this year but has launched his single-seater career in Europe after being a semi-finalist at the Volant Feed Racing earlier this month. Meanwhile, Hugo Martiniello and Jason Shen, 18th and 27th in the standings respectively, will miss the season finale. Follow French F4 editor Percy on X for updates from the paddock.

Report by Perceval Wolff-Taffus

From the press: French F4 already has its first driver for 2026, as 19-year-old Yuval Rosen won a paid-for seat in the series after the Feed Racing finals on Thursday. As usual, a part of next year’s grid will come from Feed Racing’s training courses and multi-stage shootout. What’s it like behind the scenes? Read the original French article here and our independently published English translation here.

You can also read the previous round’s report here.

Brazilian F4: Round 3, Mogi Guaçu

Circuit: Autódromo Velocitta, 3.493 km

Schedule: All times local (UTC−3)

Friday 26 September

• 08:20–09:00: Free practice 1
• 11:40–12:20: Free practice 2
• 14:20–14:40: Qualifying

Saturday 27 September

• 08:55–09:25: Race 1
• 15:45–16:05: Race 2

Sunday 28 September

• 13:55–14:25: 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 and warm all weekend, with some sunny periods.

What to know: After a two-month break, Brazilian F4 returns to Velocitta for the first of two rounds on consecutive weekends.

Though five rounds remain, a clear title favourite is already emerging. Heitor Dall’Agnol has 104 points and a 45-point advantage over nearest rival Murilo Rocha, a gap he owes to six top-five finishes in the first six races. Dall’Agnol comes to Velocitta after having tested Eurocup-3 machinery in Jerez – a clear sign that the ambition he’s carried into his main campaign stretches beyond Brazil.

The battle for second is much tighter. Rocha heads Pietro Mesquita by nine points, with best-placed returning driver Ethan Nobels three points behind in fourth. Also looking to move up the points table are Filippo Fiorentino and Rogério Grotta, who are returning to Brazil after competing in Spanish F4’s Jerez round last weekend, along with regular Eurocup-3 driver Alceu Feldmann Neto and one-off Euroformula Open entrant Cadi Baptista.

The only driver absent from this round compared with the last time is Bernardo Gentil, who will miss this weekend to compete in the FIA Karting World Cup in the OK-N class.

Report by Michael McClure

Read the previous round’s report here.

AU4: Round 5, Sydney Motorsport Park

Circuit: Gardner Grand Prix Circuit, 3.930 km

Schedule: All times local (UTC+10)

Friday 26 September

• 10:10–10:40: Practice 1
• 14:50–15:20: Practice 2

Saturday 27 September

• 10:10–10:25: Qualifying 1
• 10:30–10:45: Qualifying 2
• 14:47–15:12: Race 1

Sunday 28 September

• 10:32–10:57: Race 2
• 15:18–15:43: Race 3

How to follow: Live streams of the races are available on YouTube on both Blend Line TV’s channel with English commentary and Motorsport Television Deutschland’s channel with German commentary. Live timing will be available on NatSoft.

Weather forecast: Sunny Friday and Saturday, becoming cloudy on Sunday with a medium chance of showers in the afternoon.

What to know: The battle for the AU4 Gen2 championship comes to a head this weekend, with Volante Rosso’s Isaac McNeill and AGI Sport’s Noah Killion separated by only four points in the standings.

Both drivers will be looking to build on strong performances in their last outing – Killion took two wins before finishing second in race three, while McNeill took second place in race one ahead of a successful recovery drive to third in race two and a victory in the final race. McNeill leads the championship on 236 points, with Killion close behind on 232. 

Jensen Marold, crowned Gen1 champion last time out after a perfect victory record, will not take part in the season’s closing round. Andrew Fitzpatrick holds second in the Gen1 championship with 198 points, 18 ahead of Koby Wilson. Fitzpatrick took back-to-back second places in round four after denying Marold both pole positions, while Wilson finished third in all three races.

Christian Ayrouth (#95) of AGI Sport makes his debut this weekend, also in the Gen1 class, while Lawrence Katsidis makes his return to the Masters class. In Gen2, Imogen Radburn returns to AGI in place of Nathan Gotch after missing the previous round, while Tim Macrow Racing’s Georgia Morgan will not take part. Her teammate Chloe Lane moves up from Gen1 to Gen2 machinery this weekend.

Report by Anabelle Bremner

From the press: Last year, McNeill won two junior karting championships as well as a class title in Australian Formula Open’s F4 class. He’s faced much stiffer competition this time around in AU4, but when we caught up with him earlier this week, he cut a calm figure even with yet another championship on the line. Read his thoughts here.

You can also read the previous round’s report here.

Feeder Series quarterly update: Summer 2025

The summer brought plenty of activity on Feeder Series’ various platforms across web, social media, and video. Our three department heads write in with updates on each.

Broadcast

F1’s summer break presented a much-appreciated gap to speak with drivers in different junior single-seater championships for the Feeder Series Podcast. Recordings with F1 Academy points leader Doriane Pin, Formula 2’s Dino Beganovic, and new Eurocup-3 champion Mattia Colnaghi have already gone live.

The episode with Colnaghi, in particular, represented a rare opportunity to speak to a driver merely hours after their career-changing announcement that they had joined an F1 team’s academy. Episodes with Formula 3’s Alessandro Giusti and Italian F4’s Alex Powell are also complete and will release in the coming weeks. 

Other video content also is performing well, with stable growth of our editorial videos, in particular “How fast is an F1 car compared to F2, F3, and more”. Presenter Alice Cook also features in weekend preview YouTube Shorts clips for F2 and F3, and Joseph Black tirelessly brings previews for all other championships as the 2025 junior racing categories reach their final acts.

— Jim Kimberley, head of broadcasting

Social

Over on the social side, the summer break meant it was a good time to try out longer-form Instagram content. We covered the leaders in the FRegional and European F4 championships and looked at feeder series drivers who have relatives who raced in F1. Following the confirmation of Colton Herta’s move from IndyCar to F2, we went searching for others who went in the same direction. We also asked the public to compile their own feeder series racing team with 15 points – an idea that had been brewing for a long time but was never executed until now.

On TikTok, you especially liked when we visited Van Amersfoort Racing during their open day in late August, when Joseph stepped into the team’s 2024 Formula 3 car, driven by Tommy Smith. This has become our most-viewed TikTok of the year as well as our second-most viewed TikTok ever. More recently, a clip from the Feeder Series Podcast episode with Dino Beganovic, in which he spoke about how his family moved from Bosnia to Sweden to flee the Bosnian War, went viral too.

There is also news on the staffing front. After both Joseph and Amy Schulz transitioned to video-centric social media editor roles, we welcomed two new, enthusiastic social media managers who will deliver even more content for you this autumn.

— Jordy van de Bunt, head of social media

Editorial

Summer is always the busiest time of year for junior single-seater coverage, and this year was no different. Our editorial team dropped by the F2 and F3 paddock at Silverstone and Monza and watched new Dale Coyne Racing IndyCar driver Dennis Hauger wrap up the Indy NXT title. We also made stops at FRegional- and F4-level events in the United Kingdom, Italy, France and Austria to seek out the biggest rising stars you’ll hear more about in the coming years.

Our two most-read pieces this summer came directly from the paddock. Martin Lloyd’s interview with F2 driver Victor Martins, who joined the Williams Racing Driver Academy from Alpine’s junior programme over the winter, ranked atop the list. Close behind was Seb Tirado’s long-form feature on why a growing number of young drivers are eyeing Formula E as a future career destination.

After months of work behind the scenes, we also formally launched our data team this quarter, driven by our two staff researchers. Maciej Jackiewicz has been the dutiful steward of all our championship points tables, while new recruit Mitchell Ash supports our editorial fact-checking and information management efforts as well. You’ll find their work sprinkled throughout this article and many more!

Does all of this sound like something you’d enjoy? We’ve got a space for you! Our Americas team is going through a reshuffling following the departures of longtime FS Americas staff Laura Anequini and Jeroen Demmendaal, our former editor-at-large, earlier this month. They’ve left big shoes to fill, but if you think you’ve got what it takes to join our Americas team, apply here by the end of the day on 28 September.

— Michael McClure, head of editorial

Header photo credit: Perceval Wolff-Taffus