At the 2025 Formula Regional European Championship finale, Freddie Slater clinched his fourth motor racing championship in three years. The 17-year-old – one of the hottest prospects on the junior racing scene – sat down with Feeder Series in Monza to discuss what made this title different from the others.

By Francesca Brusa

Ever since he started racing in cars, all Freddie Slater has ever known was victory. He was the champion in his first full season in Ginettas in 2023, the champion in the Italian and UAE F4 championships in 2024. With that track record, some people may think that missing out on the FR Middle East title over the winter would’ve been a bit of a shock for the British driver.

Those people, evidently, have never spoken to Freddie Slater.

“It’s just part of the process,” he told Feeder Series in the Monza paddock. “It’s what everybody does at the start of the year to get warmed up. Because, you know, if you stop in November, December and then don’t drive until April, it’s a very long time. 

“And the UAE is such a good tool to warm up and try and get some race experience under your belt. Practice starts, safety cars, all that sort of stuff to practice the key things to try and avoid getting in trouble for in the main season. And then obviously, try and learn the car as much as possible in UAE as well. It’s just a really good training ground for the main season.”

Slater returned to Europe as the FRegional Middle East runner-up. His first race in FR Europe, at the season opener in Misano, didn’t even last one full lap. He was taken out at the second corner by R-ace GP’s Jin Nakamura.

That must have affected him, right?

Wrong, again.

“I actually took it very well,” Slater said. “That race one in Misano was only round one, but you want to start on the right foot. I didn’t even think about it for more than five minutes. I just moved on as quickly as possible and then focused on my job after that.”

Slater racked up a second-place finish in race two that same weekend and his first win of the season in race one at Spa, but in race two the next day, he didn’t score any points because of an incident with Prema Racing teammate Doriane Pin. 

By then, Matteo De Palo, bound to become Slater’s main title rival, was leading the standings with an advantage of 11 points over 2025 FR Middle East champion Evan Giltaire. 

It was another brief setback, but from there, Slater rebounded in style.

After claiming one victory at each of the following two rounds at Zandvoort and Hungaroring, he achieved the perfect weekend at Le Castellet, clinching both pole positions and both race wins in dominant style. With that, he had taken half the race wins available in the first five rounds even as he lost and regained the points lead over De Palo. 

“It was just really just the momentum and things going our way,” he said. “In the races before, we had too many issues outside of our control – a lot of people crashing into us, which is a bit unfortunate, but that’s part of motorsport. But Paul Ricard was the first weekend we actually had a proper clean weekend, a Saturday and Sunday that went our way. 

“We had the pace, so then obviously it started from there, where we knew we had the pace from Misano, but we just didn’t have things go our way from that point. So in Paul Ricard, it properly started.”

A disqualification after technical checks in race two at Imola as well as a non-score and a fourth-place at the Red Bull Ring meant only one thing for Slater: no mistakes allowed in the final three rounds. The crown was at stake. 

One second-place finish in Barcelona and one victory in Hockenheim meant that the Prema driver arrived in Monza for the finale leading the standings. But with a gap of only four points, he was nowhere near comfortable enough to celebrate already.

“I’ve put 100 per cent effort into every single weekend, and it’s the same for this one,” he said on the Friday of the round. “So nothing really changes. We just try to develop the car as much as we can and give myself the best possible car to go out there and do the job. And then obviously, at the end of the day, it’s my job after that to try and deliver. The preparation has been the same as it has been all year. We’ll just try and maximise Monza, which is a pretty crazy track, as we know. It should be good fun.”

It was good fun indeed. A perfectly managed start from the front row in race one led Slater to victory. He could have already put one hand on the trophy with that result, but a non-score from De Palo meant he had it securely in his grasp with one race to spare.

“I knew it was never over,” he told Feeder Series after the race on Saturday. “It’s never over until the final lap and the chequered flag at the last race at Monza, and to get it done today was the goal. I didn’t think it was fully possible going into the race. It was a small chance, but in every championship you do, you’ve just got to keep on chipping race by race, and you see with a couple of good results, we ended up being back in the fight and then you work from there.

“To be honest, I never look to the championship going, ‘Okay, I need to do good results to bring myself back in.’ It was just part of the job. The goal in my head every time before I drive is maximise what I have in the car at that point. So that’s been the main focus this year, and we did all right today.”

Some could argue that the FR Europe title was the hardest to earn in Slater’s entire car career. This time, he would agree. 

“We saw in F4, I managed to win lots of races in a row and it looked very smooth. And there were a few setbacks, but not as many as this year,” he said. “This year, it’s been the opposite. It’s been a good result, then into a bad one again, [then] good result. Lots of things out of my control, unfortunately. 

“There’s also been things in my control, so I’ve had to bounce back from them. When they’re out of my control, I’m able to forget it very quickly. But when it’s in my control, I care so much about it.

“It does affect me in the first 10 minutes after it happens, but then I try and learn the good things from it. The biggest thing I’ve learned from this year is whatever happens in the next 20 years of my career, or however long it is, is that I can bounce back from anything.”

The main goal has been achieved. Now, Slater’s next big challenge will be F3, next year with Trident, who have fielded the drivers’ champion in each of the past three seasons.

“There’s no expectations,” he said. “It’s just been neutral, going with a level head and see where we end up. The post-season testing has been pretty positive, but F3 is a completely different ball game. [Some tracks] are going to be key to get on with very quickly – like Melbourne that I don’t know, and a few others, Monaco. Those tracks will be key rounds to make sure I’m on top of, and then we’ll see where we end up at the end of the year.”

Before then, however, many more laps behind the wheel await him. Slater will soon fly to Macau for his second year in the FR World Cup next weekend. It marks his last outing with Prema Racing, with whom he has partnered for most of his career in cars. 

He was also the first driver announced at a team for the 2026 Formula Regional Oceania Trophy, taking place in January and early February. He will join forces with defending teams’ champions M2 Competition, whose drivers have taken the last seven drivers’ titles. 

Header photo credit: ACI Sport