The curtain fell on the Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine last weekend at Monza as the series prepares to switch from being certified by the FIA to fully supported by it in 2026. Who’ll be on the grid? Feeder Series was at Monza to gather all the information. 

By Francesca Brusa

From next year onwards, the FRECA acronym popularised in 2021 will be no more. With Alpine parting ways with ACI Sport and the FIA taking a heavier role in organisation, the championship will formally be called the FIA Formula Regional European Championship, and it will also have a new engine in the Autotecnica ATM163T, based on Toyota’s G16E unit used in road cars. Alongside the new name are several new teams and a multitude of new drivers, but who is going where exactly in 2026?

In 2025, 11 FR Europe graduates joined the F3 grid to move a level up on the feeder series ladder, and almost as many are set to do so next year too.

Eight FR Europe drivers are already confirmed to be moving up the ranks in 2026, and more are in talks to take part in the upcoming season of the first of F1’s support series. 

Several new teams will join the FR Europe paddock in 2026. Rodin Motorsport will add FR Europe to its programmes in F2, F3, GB3, F1 Academy and F4 championships across England and Spain.

The first driver to join the championship with the Farnham-based, New Zealand–licenced outfit is Alex Ninovic. The 2024 British F4 runner-up and 2025 GB3 champion is making a sideways step in hopes of gaining a seat in F3 for 2027.

Trident

Trident, their F2 and F3 rivals, was the first team to announce the entirety of their line-up for next year, doing so before the championship’s final round at Monza. The Milan-based squad is set to start from scratch. 

The first to be announced was Luka Sammalisto, who will partner with the Italian outfit after a promising sophomore campaign in Italian F4 with US Racing that put him eighth in the standings. 

His current teammate Andrija Kostić will join him at Trident after finishing 17th in Italian F4 this year.

The Italian team’s third driver will be Maksimilian Popov, who joined forces with Van Amersfoort Racing in the Formula Winter Series, E4 and Italian F4 this year and took eight podiums across the three championships. 

Their 2025 drivers are all leaving the series. Matteo De Palo was announced to be moving up to F3 with the team after clinching the runner-up title in the series this year. Nandhavud Bhirombhakdi, who rounded out his FR Europe campaign in 16th, is also joining his ex-teammate in the F3 grid for next year but making the switch to DAMS. Ruiqi Liu, on the other hand, is leaving the championship and potentially racing in general. The 19-year-old finished 18th in his sophomore campaign in FRegional Europe and recently enrolled as an undergraduate student at New York University. 

R-ace GP

After taking the teams’ title this year, R-ace GP is set to line up three drivers new to the team or to the championship. Emanuele Olivieri is expected to fill one seat at R-ace GP. The 2025 F4 Middle East champion has partnered with R-ace GP all year at the F4 level and has also tested with the team in FR machinery the last few months. Olivieri rounded out his main campaign in Italian F4 earlier this month, finishing seventh in the standings with four podiums. 

Toyota will continue its partnership with the Fontenay-le-Comte–based squad after placing junior driver Jin Nakamura there this year. With Nakamura stepping up to F3, the candidates most likely to follow in his footsteps are Yuki Sano and Tokiya Suzuki, who will compete in the 2025 FR World Cup in Macau with TOM’S Formula. Sano is currently competing in Super Formula Lights, where he sits second in the standings with one round to go, while Suzuki holds second place in both FR and F4 Japan. Sano appeared in Tuesday’s Kateyama test with the team at Monza, where he also supported the team in the paddock throughout the weekend of the finale. 

Rashid Al Dhaheri is sticking with the championship for one more year, but he is expected to switch to R-ace GP from Prema. The Emirati racer finished eighth in the standings with three podiums to his name.

Artem Severiukhin has also been testing with R-ace at Barcelona. He competed in Italian F4 in 2025, claiming 13th overall with nine points finishes, and finished as SMP F4’s runner-up in his native Russia. 

Enzo Deligny, third in FR Europe this year, and Nakamura, who finished 10th, will take one step up the feeder series ranks, joining the F3 grid with Prema Racing and Hitech respectively. Akshay Bohra, on the other hand, is widely rumoured to be considering switching to Super Formula Lights after claiming sixth in FR Europe this year courtesy of one win and five further podiums. 

Prema Racing

Prema Racing will also start fresh in 2026, though their line-up features faces familiar to them.

Kean Nakamura-Berta is expected to fill the team’s first seat, following the route taken by previous Prema-run Italian F4 champions Freddie Slater and Andrea Kimi Antonelli. Nakamura-Berta clinched the title with two races to go after having dominated the season with nine wins and eight further podiums. 

Sebastian Wheldon is expected to join the team’s lineup. The son of the late IndyCar legend Dan Wheldon finished third in Italian F4 with Prema Racing this year, signing off from his maiden season in Europe with seven wins and six further podiums to his name across F4 Middle East, Italian F4 and E4. 

Alex Powell was also widely rumored to be rejoining the Grisignano di Zocco–based squad. The 18-year-old debuted in Italian F4 with the Italian outfit in 2024, winning the rookie championship along the way, but switched to R-ace GP for this season, claiming two wins and two further podiums before significantly losing pace in the final three rounds. Powell returned to Prema in early September for the FR Europe round at Red Bull Ring, where he achieved a best finish of 21st in race two. 

More recent sources report that now the American-Jamaican driver is set to move to Eurocup-3 for next season. Though unconfirmed, this decision could be tied to the suspected end of the relationship between Powell and the Mercedes Junior Team.

As for their 2025 line-up, Slater has been announced to be moving up to F3 with Trident after being crowned champion of FR Europe this year, while Al Dhaheri is expected at R-ace GP. Jack Beeton is expected to take his career to the other side of the Atlantic and join Indy NXT in 2026. The Gold Coast native rounded out his FR Europe season in 13th with eight points finishes to his name and missed the last race at Monza this past weekend to attend Indy NXT testing in Indianapolis. Doriane Pin is also rumoured to be leaving the championship and returning to endurance racing. The 21-year-old competed in four FR Europe rounds this year, clinching two best finishes of 17th. 

Van Amersfoort Racing

Van Amersfoort Racing’s 2026 line-up is not yet clear. Pedro Clerot, who clinched fourth in FR Europe this year, and Hiyu Yamakoshi, who instead finished ninth, are both stepping up to Formula 3 with Rodin Motorsport and Van Amersfoort racing respectively.

Dion Gowda may stick with the team for a sophomore season in the championship. The Bangalore native clinched the series’ 2025 rookie title and claimed seven points finishes to come 12th in the overall standings. 

Van Amersfoort Racing has also been testing with Argentina’s Gino Trappa, the 2025 F4 CEZ champion, at Oschersleben in early July.

ART Grand Prix

As previously reported, and as in past years, ART Grand Prix has been conducting testing with some French F4 graduates, including champion Alexandre Munoz and runner-up Arthur Dorison. The latter is also rumored to be testing with G4 Racing at the end of the year.

The French outfit is looking to alter their line-up entirely, with Kanato Le already announced to be stepping up to F3 with the team next year and Taito Kato taking part in the championship’s post-season tests. 

The plans for Evan Giltaire, on the other hand, are a bit less clear. The 18-year-old told Feeder Series in the Monza paddock that for him, it was ‘not the best idea to do a third year’ in FR Europe and that it would not be his first choice. 

“I’m looking for some different stuff around F3, because my main target was Formula 3. Now we are looking for Super Formula Lights or Indy NXT or trying some different stuff, maybe endurance.”

Kabir Anurag has emerged recently as a likely candidate to join the French outfit in 2026 after two and a half years at the F4 level. The 18-year-old finished fourth in FWS earlier this year and 16th in Italian F4 with US Racing in addition to participating in the final two rounds of GB3 in October.

The rest of the grid

The other teams’ plans are less clear. 

Enea Frey and Zhenrui Chi could stick with CL Motorsport for the team’s sophomore year in the series, though this is unconfirmed. The two drivers, both participants in Italian F4 and E4 this year, debuted in FR Europe with the Italian-based, Chinese-run squad for the series’ Red Bull Ring round. 

RPM have been testing with Bart Harrison, who this year competed in Italian F4 clinching a podium finish at Monza. The Englishman is also considering joining the GB3 grid for next year after claiming a podium on debut at Donington Park in early October. 

If Harrison joins the Italian-based, Irish-owned outfit, he could lineup alongside Ean Eyckmans and Reno Francot, who both raced for the team earlier this season. Both, however, seem to be leaning towards Eurocup-3 because of their presence in support series Spanish F4. 

In that championship, Eyckmans and Francot are teammates at MP Motorsport, which was announced as one of the teams added to the grid in 2026. The Dutch outfit competed in FR Europe from 2021 to 2024 but took a step back from the championship last year to focus on Eurocup-3. 

Gabriel Gomez should be able to find a seat in FR Europe for 2026 following his sensational FWS season and his strong subsequent campaign in Italian F4, in which he claimed the runner-up title with four wins and seven further podiums to his name. The Florianópolis native’s biggest challenge is his limited budget.

Header photo credit: Federico Basile