The second edition of the Formula Regional World Cup is set to take place on the Guia Circuit this weekend as the flagship event of the Macau Grand Prix weekend. Feeder Series tells you everything you need to know about the 72nd edition of the world’s most storied junior single-seater race. 

By Kaylene Lau

Last year, McLaren junior driver Ugo Ugochukwu won the first edition of the Macau Grand Prix that featured FRegional machinery in a weekend affected by multiple collisions and heavy rain. Ugochukwu, who most recently raced with Prema in F3, became the second American to win the Macau Grand Prix and the first since Bob Earl in 1981. MP Motorsport’s Oliver Goethe finished the race in second, whilst Pinnacle Motorsport’s Noel León rounded out the top three.

This year, a host of teams and drivers return to the 6.120-kilometre Guia Circuit to fight for the FR World Cup title in one of the most anticipated single-seater events of the year.

The teams will once again run the Tatuus T-318 chassis, with Alfa Romeo engines developed by Autotecnica. This is the final year that the T-318 will be used in FR Europe and FR Middle East, from which most of the event’s teams and drivers are drawn.

Ten teams and 27 drivers will be competing in Macau this weekend. The winner of the main race will win $12,000 US.

Weekend schedule

The event takes place from 13 to 16 November. Free practice sessions are spread out over two days, with 40-minute sessions taking place Thursday and Friday morning. The two 40-minute qualifying sessions will also take place on Thursday and Friday in the afternoons. 

The qualifying race, which will last 10 laps, will be held on Saturday. That sets the grid for the main race, which will take place on Sunday over 15 laps. All times listed below are in Macau Standard Time, set at UTC+8.

Thursday 13 November

• 09:15–09:55: Free practice 1
• 15:50–16:30: Qualifying 1

Friday 14 November

• 10:15–10:55: Free practice 2 
• 14:30–15:10: Qualifying 2

Saturday 15 November

• 16:15–17:20: Qualifying race 

Sunday 16 November

• 15:30–16:35: Race

Where to watch 

Sessions will be streamed live on the FIA’s official YouTube channel and will also be available via the Macau Grand Prix website. 

Teams and drivers

R-ace GP 

Last year, R-ace GP’s Ugo Ugochukwu won the inaugural FR World Cup. Along with Ugochukwu, the team also fielded Enzo Deligny and Tuukka Taponen, who finished fourth and 10th respectively. The French outfit, who won the 2025 FR Europe teams’ title last month, will be eager to keep up their hot streak with another victory at the Guia Circuit.

Returning to race in Macau this year is Matteo De Palo (#2). De Palo finished fifth originally in the main race last year, but he was disqualified post-race for a technical infringement. The 18-year-old competed in FR Europe with Trident this year, spending much of the year locked in battle for the title with Freddie Slater before finishing second overall with four wins and a total of 277 points. The Italian driver will step up to F3 next year with Trident, partnering Slater and Noah Strømsted, having been announced as a new McLaren Driver Development Programme member earlier this week. 

Joining De Palo at R-ace GP is Toyota junior Jin Nakamura (#3), who raced in Macau last year with TOM’S. The 19-year-old Japanese driver finished 13th in the qualifying race but retired from the main race. Nakamura competed in FR Europe with R-ace GP, securing one podium and finishing 10th overall with 81 points. Like his Macau teammate De Palo, Nakamura will be stepping up to F3 next year as well, joining Hitech – which has a partnership with Toyota Gazoo Racing – for his rookie season. 

Rounding out R-ace GP’s line-up for Macau is Enzo Deligny (#5), who finished fourth last year in the main race. The 17-year-old Frenchman also raced in FR Europe this season, finishing third overall with four wins and a total of 235 points. Deligny, a former Red Bull junior, will be stepping up to F3 next season with Prema. 

KCMG Pinnacle Motorsport 

Pinnacle Motorsport is once again partnering with KCMG, a Hong Kong–based racing team, to compete in the Macau Grand Prix. Last year, the team fielded a two-car line-up of Noel León and Mari Boya, who finished third and seventh respectively. This year, the team will once again field two drivers. 

Théophile Naël (#6) will be racing in Macau again this year. The 18-year-old French driver raced with Saintéloc Racing last year, but he was disqualified after he received outside assistance to restart his car when he stalled in the pits. Naël raced in F3 with Van Amersfoort Racing this year, finishing eighth in his rookie season with three podiums and a total of 72 points. He will remain in F3 next year but will make the switch to race with Campos alongside last year’s race winner Ugochukwu and Ernesto Rivera. 

Leaving Campos’ F3 squad after two years together, on the other hand, is Mari Boya (#7), who will nonetheless return to race in the Macau Grand Prix with Pinnacle for a second year. The Spaniard finished seventh last year in the main race with the team and came fourth on debut with MP in 2023. Boya, 21, finished third in the standings in his third F3 season with five podiums – one of which was a feature race win at Silverstone – and a total of 116 points. The Aston Martin junior is expected to step up to F2 next year with Prema.

Evans GP 

Last year, Evans GP fielded a line-up of Cooper Webster, Tiago Rodrigues and Kai Daryanani. Webster finished fifth in the main race, while Rodrigues and Daryanani both retired. This year, Evans will field an all-new trio, including two brothers racing against one another for the first time in single-seaters. 

Joining Evans for his Macau return is Charlie Wurz (#8). The 19-year-old Austrian last raced in F3 with Trident this year, finishing 13th in the standings with 53 points and two sprint race podiums. Wurz – the 2022 F4 UAE champion and 2023 FR Oceania champion – ran as high as sixth in the 2023 edition of the race in his debut in F3 machinery while racing for Jenzer Motorsport. He is rumoured to be heading to Super Formula next year with a Toyota-powered team.

Alongside Wurz will be his younger brother, Oscar Wurz (#9). The 18-year-old most recently raced in Eurocup-3 with Drivex, with a best finish of eighth in the second race at Spa, and will miss the last round in Barcelona to compete this weekend. Earlier this year, he also drove in the Eurocup-3 Winter Championship with Drivex, finishing 14th overall. Wurz won the 2024 F4 CEZ title with Jenzer. 

Hiyu Yamakoshi (#10) was the first driver announced to be joining Evans’ line-up. The 19-year-old Japanese driver last competed in FR Europe with Van Amersfoort Racing, coming home ninth in the standings. Yamakoshi also ran a part-time campaign in GB3 with Hillspeed, finishing 19th overall. Yamakoshi will be stepping up to F3 next season with Van Amersfoort Racing alongside Bruno Del Pino and Jesse Carrasquedo. 

Theodore Prema Racing

Prema Racing’s partnership with Hong Kong–based Theodore Racing continues as they return to Macau. Last year, the team fielded a three-car line-up of Freddie Slater, Dino Beganovic and Alex Dunne. This year, they will also enter three cars into the Macau Grand Prix.

Newly crowned FR Europe champion Freddie Slater (#11) will return to race in Macau with Prema this year. Slater was running in fourth for the majority of the race last year but hit the barriers at Lisboa on the final green-flag lap when attempting a move on León for third. In his first season, the 17-year-old Briton took the FR Europe title with eight wins, securing the title with one race to go. Slater also ran a part-time GB3 campaign with Hillspeed this year, taking five podiums, three of which were wins. Slater will step up to F3 with Trident next year, having already driven this year in Bahrain with AIX and in Spa with Hitech.

Joining Prema for his third time at the Guia Circuit is Rashid Al Dhaheri (#12). The Mercedes junior raced with PHM Racing last year, finishing sixth on track before being disqualified for a technical infringement. In 2023, Al Dhaheri finished third in the F4 SEA invitational race in Macau. This year, the 17-year-old Emirati driver raced in FR Europe with Prema, finishing eighth overall with a total of 105 points, and in FR Middle East over the winter, finishing sixth overall with 144 points. Macau will likely be Al Dhaheri’s last race with Prema, as he is expected to move to R-ace GP next year. 

Racing at his home grand prix for the seventh time is Charles Leong (#31), the oldest driver on the grid at 24. Leong is the only driver from Macau to have won the prestigious race twice, doing so when it featured F4 machinery in 2020 and 2021. Leong’s most recent outing at the Guia circuit in single-seaters was in 2023, where he finished second behind teammate Arvid Lindblad in the F4 race. Earlier this year, he was crowned champion in the Lamborghini Super Trofeo Asia with Theodore Racing, with whom he has a years-long partnership. 

Saintéloc Racing 

Returning to race in Macau this year is Saintéloc Racing. Last year, the team fielded a two-car line-up of Theóphile Naël and Alexander Abkhazava. This year, the team will field an all-new line-up to tackle the circuit. Macau is expected to be their last single-seater outing.

One of Saintéloc’s new drivers is James Egozi (#15), who will miss the final Eurocup-3 round to make his Macau debut. The 17-year-old American has raced with Palou Motorsport this year in Eurocup-3 and currently sits seventh in the standings with one win and a total of 97 points. Earlier this year, he also raced in the Eurocup-3 Spanish Winter Championship, in which he finished third overall in the standings. Egozi joined RPM for the last two rounds of FR Europe, taking a best finish of eighth in the first race at Hockenheim. 

The Macau Grand Prix will mark the final race for Owen Tangavelou (#16) in motorsport. Tangavelou raced in select rounds of Eurocup-3 and the USF Pro 2000 Championship this year. In Eurocup-3, the 20-year-old French-Vietnamese driver had a best finish of 11th, which he achieved in the second race at Le Castellet and the first race in Monza. In USF Pro 2000, his best finish was fifth in the second race at St Petersburg. 

TOM’s Formula

TOM’S, a five-time winning team at the circuit and a partner of Toyota’s for more than half a century, will enter two cars into the FR World Cup this year. The team fielded Toyota juniors Rikuto Kobayashi and Jin Nakamura as part of their line-up last year, and they will bring two more Toyota-backed drivers from Japan this time around. 

Joining the TOM’s line-up for his Macau debut is Yuki Sano (#17), who is expected to race in FR Europe with R-ace next year. The 18-year-old currently competes in Super Formula Lights, in which he sits second in the standings with four wins and 89 points. This year, he has also raced with SHADE Racing in Super Taikyu’s ST-Z class and Super GT’s GT300 class. While Sano has never raced outside of Japan, he does have experience in FR machinery from contesting four races in FR Japan at the end of last year, each of which he won. 

Completing the team’s line-up for Macau is Tokiya Suzuki (#18), four days Sano’s senior. Suzuki was recently crowned the 2025 Japanese F4 champion, with four wins and a total of 219 points. The 18-year-old has also raced in FR Japan this year and sits second in the standings with four wins. This will also mark his first time racing in Macau. He is expected to move up to Super Formula Lights with TOM’S in 2026.

PHM Racing 

Last year, PHM fielded a three-car line-up of Rashid Al Dhaheri, Matteo De Palo, and Ruiqi Liu. This year, the team – who compete only in FR Middle East at the regional level – will return to the circuit with three new cars. 

Joining PHM for his second visit to the circuit is 2025 Eurocup-3 champion Mattia Colnaghi (#19). The 17-year-old Italian-Argentine driver, recently announced as a Red Bull junior, took the championship title with a round to spare with 256 points and five wins and therefore risks nothing standings-wise by missing the season finale. Last year, Colnaghi raced with MP but retired after crashing into the barriers in the closing laps. He will be stepping up to F3 next year with MP. 

Enzo Yeh (#20) will join PHM’s line-up for Macau. Yeh raced in Macau in 2023 in the F4 race, finishing eighth in the main race. The 17-year-old from Taipei competed in six rounds of FR Europe this year, with his best finish being 11th in race one at Imola, before backing away and switching to Euroformula Open. He entered the final two rounds of that series, with his best finish being fourth in race two at Monza. Earlier this year, Yeh also raced in FR Oceania with M2 Competition, finishing 11th in the championship. He has been testing Euroformula Open machinery with Motopark recently, so a return to the championship seems likely.

Rounding out PHM’s line-up for Macau is José Garfias (#21). The 21-year-old Mexican driver mainly raced in Euroformula Open with Team Motopark this year, finishing fourth in the standings with three wins and 276 points. He also made a one-off appearance in F3 with AIX this year to replace the injured James Hedley at Barcelona. This will also be Garfias’ first time racing in Macau, though he boasts significant experience in the car, having raced in various regional-level series since 2021. 

ART Grand Prix

ART Grand Prix return to Macau with two of the three drivers they fielded last year. In the final race in 2024, all three drivers retired in a pileup on the second lap. This year, they are entering their FR Europe line-up from 2025.

The leader among the trio is Evan Giltaire (#22), who finished fifth in the overall standings in his second season. The 18-year-old Frenchman took five podiums, including a win in the second race at Misano. He was much more successful in FR Middle East, taking the 2025 title with three wins and a total of 264 points. He is expected to race outside of Europe in 2026, having expressed interest in Super Formula Lights.

Partnering Giltaire at ART is Honda junior Taito Kato (#23), who makes his Macau debut this weekend. The French-licenced Japanese driver, 17, is the 2024 French F4 champion, having taken the title by six points over Yani Stevenheydens in a controversial finale. In his rookie season in FR Europe, Kato scored two podiums, both of which were third-place finishes, and ended the season seventh in the standings with a total of 107 points. Next year, Kato is stepping up to F3 with the team.

Rounding out ART’s line-up for Macau is Kanato Le (#24), who raced in Macau with the team last year. The 18-year-old from Japan finished the qualifying race 19th before retiring from the main race after a collision. Le finished 14th in the FR Europe standings this year, with a best finish of fourth in the second race at Spa. He also ran a part-time campaign in GB3 with Hillspeed and won one race, also at Spa. Next year, Le will race with ART in F3, partnering Maciej Gładysz and likely Kato. 

Trident 

Racing in the FRegional World Cup for the first time is Trident. The Italian team previously competed at the Guia Circuit in 2019 and 2023, when the race was run with F3 machinery. 

Making his Macau debut with Trident is 18-year-old Noah Strømsted (#25), who raced with the team in F3 this year. The Mercedes junior took three podiums in his first full F3 season, including a win in the sprint race at Spa, to finish sixth overall with a total of 84 points. The Danish driver will return to F3 next year with Trident, partnering De Palo and Slater. 

Joining Strømsted is Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak (#26), who most recently raced in F3 with Campos Racing. The Thai driver finished seventh in the championship with three wins and 74 points, ironically helping Campos secure the teams’ title by 11 points over Trident with victory in the final race at Monza. Inthraphuvasak – who turns 20 on Friday – also raced in the first round of the Eurocup-3 Spanish Winter Championship earlier this year, with a best finish of fourth in the third race. This will be Inthraphuvasak’s first time racing at the circuit. He has been connected to one of the Trident F2 seats for next year.

Rounding out Trident’s line-up for Macau is Reza Seewooruthun (#27). The 19-year-old raced in GB3 this year with Argenti, finishing fifth in the standings with one win and a total of 315 points. He tested Trident’s FR machinery last week ahead of the event, though the team has filled all of their seats at that level. This weekend will mark the British driver’s first time racing in Macau. 

Van Amersfoort Racing

Van Amersfoort Racing will compete in the FR World Cup for the first time this year. The Dutch outfit last raced around the Guia Circuit in 2023, when they fielded a line-up of Noel León, Sophia Floersch and Tommy Smith in F3 machinery. This year, the team will enter three FR cars on their 50th anniversary year.

Joining VAR for his debut in Macau is Toyota junior Kiyoshi Umegaki (#28). The 17-year-old Japanese driver is currently leading the FR Japan standings with seven wins and 235 points. Umegaki also raced in Japanese F4 this year and finished seventh in the standings with a total of 89 points. He is expected to step up to Super Formula Lights next year with TOM’S.

Also joining VAR’s line-up for Macau is recently crowned Euroformula Open champion Tymek Kucharczyk (#29). The Polish driver, 19, took the championship title last month with six wins and a total of 362 points. This will be Kucharczyk’s first time racing in Macau ahead of an expected pivot to the United States, where he has tested both Indy NXT and USF Pro 2000 machinery. He has also tested the Trident F2 car recently.

Rounding out VAR’s line-up is Chi Zhenrui (#30), who will make his Macau debut as the sole 16-year-old on the grid. The Italian-licenced Chinese driver finished fifth in Italian F4 with Prema this year, taking one win in race three at Monza and a total of 162 points, and 12th in sister series E4. Chi also competed in three rounds at the FR level across FR Europe and GB3 this year, thereby making him eligible to race in the FR World Cup per event regulations. He is expected to continue in FR Europe full-time next year with CL Motorsport, for whom he made two appearances this year.

Header photo credit: Macau Grand Prix Organizing Committee