Hundreds of Formula Regional drivers compete around the world in hopes of becoming future F1 stars, but only a few stand out. Here are the 10 drivers from the FR level and equivalent series who Feeder Series believes shone the brightest in 2025.

By Perceval Wolff-Taffus

As with yesterday’s Formula 4 list, editors who covered FR series or equivalents this year were invited to nominate for consideration up to four drivers whose main campaign was in one such series. Drivers on our list are ordered by the number of votes they received in our team’s survey.

This list includes drivers from Euroformula Open and Super Formula Lights, which run machinery derived from F3-spec cars but occupy roughly equivalent positions to FR-spec championships in the current single-seater racing ladder.

Honourable mentions: Arvid Lindblad (FR Oceania: P1, 307 points) and Théophile Naël (FR Middle East: P7, 125 points; FR World Cup: P1)

Arvid Lindblad was sent by Red Bull to FR Oceania in an attempt to win the championship and secure an FIA Super Licence. With six total wins and some triple-podium weekends – such as in Hampton Downs, where his tyre management made the difference – Lindblad did just that, winning the title with the biggest margin since 2021. His championship triumph preceded the race-winning F2 campaign that set him up for being signed to Racing Bulls in F1 for 2026.

Facing high expectations as he headed into the FR Oceania season, Arvid Lindblad certainly rose to the occasion. After taking the championship lead in Taupō, Lindblad never looked back and dominated the entire season. His FR Oceania campaign made it evident that he was in a league of his own, and he secured the title with two races to spare and a 56-point margin to second place. With a dominant campaign in New Zealand and a F2 rookie season that saw him become the youngest race winner in series history, Lindblad will head into his debut F1 season as a driver who has proven to be more than capable of producing strong results. 

— Kaylene Lau, FR Oceania editor

Théophile Naël must also be mentioned. He used the three first rounds of FR Middle East as preparation for his F3 campaign. He ended his collaboration with Saintéloc on a high with three podiums, being a championship contender until he switched focus to preparing for F3.

After finishing eighth in F3 in 2025, Naël returned to FR competition for the Macau Grand Prix and grabbed pole position on the streets of Macau. A slow start in the qualifying race meant he started only third for the main race, but his impressive double overtake on teammate Boya and Enzo Deligny on the penultimate lap resulted in a maiden Macau victory for the Frenchman. He will return to F3 next year with Campos Racing. 

Théophile Naël got his redemption in Macau this year. After being disqualified from last year’s main race for a pit lane infringement, Naël started off the weekend strongly by securing pole for Sunday’s main race. Though he got off to a tricky start on Sunday by slipping to fourth by the end of the first lap, Naël persevered and executed a stunning double overtake on Enzo Deligny and teammate Mari Boya to take the lead of the race and win the FR World Cup title. A promising rookie F3 season and a win at the illustrious Guia Circuit will certainly put Naël in a strong position for a title challenge as he heads into his second F3 season with Campos. 

— Kaylene Lau, FR World Cup editor

#10 – Yevan David (Euroformula Open: P2, 345 points; GB3: P33*, 15 points)

This year was Yevan David’s second in single-seaters after a year of learning in 2024, mainly in Spanish F4. The Sri Lankan made a strong impression on the upper category with a stunning double win at the Euroformula Open season finale in Monza last October, while he also scored points on his debut Eurocup-3 weekend.

Running for Motopark in Euroformula Open this year, David was one of the only two rookies in the series at the start of the year. Moreover, he had to grapple with having less preparation and experience coming into the season, as unlike several of his teammates and rivals, he did not run in any winter series.

David still managed to dominate the start of the championship, with three wins in the first four races. On the podium at least once in every round, the 18-year-old lost some of his spark in the middle of the season but still collected three further wins.

Though he did not secure the overall title, he was the rookie champion and most notably the best Motopark driver, beating drivers in their third or fourth season at this level. Next year, he will join AIX Racing in F3 and will have a winter program this time in FR Oceania to prepare. 

After winning twice in a one-off appearance in EFO last year, David came into 2025 as the favourite for the title as he joined reigning teams’ champions Motopark. Taking four wins in the first three rounds, David led the standings in the first half of the season but fell to third following a mid-season slump. That proved to be costly as he ended 2025 as the runner-up despite a strong end to the year in which he took five podiums, which included two wins. The Sri Lankan will begin 2026 by racing in FR Oceania for Kiwi Motorsport, ahead of his rookie year in F3 for AIX Racing.

— Marco Albertini, Euroformula Open, F4 CEZ and Americas editor

* Partial season

#9 – Yuki Sano (Super Formula Lights: P2, 104 points; FR World Cup: P9)

Part of the Toyota Gazoo Racing Driver Challenge Program, Yuki Sano was the best Toyota-supported driver last season in Japanese F4. Promoted to Super Formula Lights, he was notably partnered with last year’s runner-up Rikuto Kobayashi. The rookie was quick to adapt to the new Dallara 324 and dominated the first four races of the season.

He had to face a comeback from Honda-supported driver Yuto Nomura and could do little to stop him, but he still finished two-thirds of the races in 2025 on the podium en route to finishing as the runner-up and best Toyota-supported driver. 

But instead of taking the classic Japanese pathway and looking at a step up to Super Formula, he will switch to European racing. He will follow the footsteps of Jin Nakamura, another Toyota-backed driver, by taking his seat at R-ace GP in FR Europe. He joins the series as it changes to a new Tatuus chassis.

Though it was with the old car, he had his first taste of the category on the streets of Macau, where his surge from 18th to ninth in the Macau Grand Prix’s main race did not go unnoticed.

Toyota junior Yuki Sano only came fourth in his second year Japanese F4 last year and was the manufacturer’s only driver to graduate to Super Formula Lights in 2025. He kicked off his campaign with four wins in the first four races and he led the championship by 25 points over then-second-placed Kaylen Frederick. However, the 19-year-old was unable to take any further wins and settled for second in the championship, 49 points behind Yuto Nomura but ahead of fellow Toyota junior and Super Formula–bound rival Rikuto Kobayashi. Having initially been expected to step up to Super Formula himself for 2026, Sano will instead race with R-ace GP in Formula Regional in the Middle East and Europe. 

—Finjo Muschlien, Super Formula Lights editor

#8 – Enzo Deligny (FR Middle East: P5, 147 points; FR Europe: P3, 235 points; FR World Cup: P3)

Having finished 12th in his rookie season in FRegional Europe last year, Enzo Deligny was eager to prove his worth again after being released by the Red Bull Junior Team. Too young last year to race in FR Middle East, he was able to race during the winter this time, and after an underwhelming start to his campaign, he gained confidence over the final two rounds and scored his maiden FR win in the final round in Lusail, elevating him to fifth in the standings. 

He then maintained this momentum in Europe, being the only sophomore driver of his team in the flagship FR series. The Chinese-born driver was expected to be the lead driver of R-ace GP, and he filled the role comfortably by scoring more than half of the team’s points total.

Moreover, he delivered solid drives such as in race two at Spa-Francorchamps, where he took his first FR Europe win. Another strong result was to come in Hungary, where he was cruising to the most dominant success of his career, but a loss of engine power dropped him to third. He then drove dangerously close to some marshals on the cooldown lap and reached almost racing speeds under double yellow flags, earning him a disqualification.

Despite this setback, he was able to refocus in the second half of the season, remaining a championship contender until the final round of the season. With three more wins and three further podiums, he finished third in the drivers’ standings and helped R-ace become teams’ champions. He then led the French team to the podium at the Macau Grand Prix, battling with Naël and Mari Boya on the decisive penultimate lap that decided the result. After this strong year, he has come back on the radar of F1 junior teams as he steps up to F3 with Prema Racing in 2026.

Enzo Deligny did not reach his full potential in 2025. He arguably could have won both the FR Europe title and the Macau Grand Prix had he extracted the maximum out of his car, while his choleric outburst behind the wheel after race two at the Hungaroring was indefensible. In all other areas, however, Deligny demonstrated significant growth from 2024, becoming the steady pair of hands that helped lead R-ace GP to a hard-fought teams’ title. Splitting from the Red Bull Junior Team last winter seemed to be a blessing in disguise for the Frenchman, who now heads to F3 as a faster, more independent and more complete driver. 

—Michael McClure, head of content

#7 – Tymek Kucharczyk (Euroformula Open: P1, 362 points; FR World Cup: P13)

For the first time since 2018, a driver from Motopark or one of its satellite teams did not clinch the Euroformula Open drivers’ title. Instead, that honour went to BVM Racing’s Tymek Kucharczyk, who fended off the Motopark armada in dramatic fashion. 

Kucharczyk had perhaps the most impressive record on the grid when he joined the series, with multiple wins and overall podiums in Spanish F4 and GB3. He had little track time before the season started, however, and had not raced in seven months prior to his first appearance in Euroformula Open in 2025.

The Pole endured a challenging first half of his season and sat 30 points away from championship leader Michael Shin at the season’s midpoint. From there, however, he started a seven-podium streak that propelled him to the lead – one that culminated in a maiden single-seater title after a photo-finish win over David in the penultimate race of the season in Monza.

He finished his year at the Macau Grand Prix with Van Amersfoort Racing, one of the two teams new to the FR-level event this year. His weekend was challenging with a small but costly mistake in the qualifying race, but he recovered from it during the main race to rise from 24th to 13th. 

His Euroformula Open title in an underdog team has opened several doors for him, with tests in Indy NXT and in F2 with Trident. His future still remains unclear at this point.

Kucharczyk’s Euroformula Open title was something straight out of a movie. He joined minnows BVM last-minute after a drive in F3 didn’t materialise and was quick from the get-go. Despite a rocky start to the year owing to a hard-to-learn clutch, Kucharczyk brilliantly fended off the attacks ofMotopark’s top three drivers and clinched the title in a memorable photo finish in race two at Monza. Whilst Kucharczyk’s plans are not yet clear, he has proven himself to be a quick driver in any car even with limited tests and competitive sessions under his belt.

—Marco Albertini, Euroformula Open editor

#6 – Evan Giltaire (FR Middle East: P1, 264 points; FR Europe: P5, 185 points; FR World Cup: P6)

2023 French F4 champion Evan Giltaire had an inconsistent 2024 in FR Europe, still finishing seventh overall. He kicked off his sophomore year in FR by competing in FR Middle East with ART GP.

His winter campaign quickly turned into a duel with Freddie Slater, with Giltaire taking dominant wins in Yas Marina and Dubai while his rival finished off the podium. On the contrary, when Slater won, Giltaire was still on the podium each time. Eventually, this consistency paid off for the Frenchman, who took the title with one race to go in Losail.

His FR Europe campaign started with a near-perfect season opener at Misano, where he took the championship lead with one win and one second place. However, this turned out to be his only victory of his campaign; Giltaire struggled with the setup of the Pirelli tyres and adaptation across the weekend for much of the season.

Though he fell out of title contention, he still finished his FR Europe stint on a high with three podiums in the final three races, enough for him to finish fifth overall and secure the points required for an FIA Super Licence. His last race with ART was at Macau, where he finished sixth in the final race despite taking a strong third place in qualifying.

Because of budget issues, he will not be going to F3 next season, although he has shown great interest in making a sideways step to Super Formula Lights. As the quickest driver overall in three of the four sessions of the official post-season test with B-Max Racing, the 19-year-old could well revitalise his career in Japan next year.

Throughout the past two and a half years, Evan Giltaire has become one of the finest interpreters of FR-level racing. A brilliant display of both maturity and composure led him to take home the drivers’ title in FR Middle East, thus giving him his second crown across feeder series championships. However, his performances in FR Europe were not on par with what he had previously showcased. Still, he finished in the top five in the drivers’ standings, which is not an easy feat in such a historically competitive series. 2026 will be a huge season for him as he looks for a change of scenery in Japan. Will a potential side-step help him progress towards the most prestigious single-seater championships in the future?

— Daniele Spadi, FR Middle East editor

#5 – Yuto Nomura (Super Formula Lights: P1, 153 points)

After an underwhelming start to his single-seater career in France three years ago, Yuto Nomura was undoubtedly a late bloomer, taking the Japanese F4 title with Honda’s support last season. His promotion to Super Formula Lights with B-Max Racing was expected, and he was naturally tipped as one of the dark horses coming into this season.

The first five races were filled with only three podiums, but that would be the lowest point of his season, which shows how outstanding 2025 has been for him. He then embarked on a streak of eight wins in a row, eventually taking 12 wins in 18 races to equal Ritomo Miyata’s series record back in 2020.

Alongside this domination, he also got acquainted with GT racing, taking a win at Sepang in the GT300 category of Super GT. In single-seaters, with a 49-point gap over Sano, he also pulled out the largest championship-winning margin in Super Formula Lights history.

While championship rival Sano set to switch to Europe, Nomura has already been announced to be stepping up to the premier tier of Japanese single-seaters. He will make his Super Formula debut with B-Max in 2026.

Former Red Bull junior Yuto Nomura clinched the Super Formula Lights title in his rookie season, becoming the first driver ever to do so. The 20-year-old was Honda’s only protégé in the championship after he dominantly won the Japanese F4 title with seven wins last year. He took 12 wins and 153 points in SF Lights this year, equalling the series’ records. His season was almost flawless. Initially, TOM’S’ Yuki Sano was the one to beat, having won the first four races, but Nomura’s eight in a row gave him the championship lead and the title in the penultimate round. In contrast with what Honda is understood to have had planned ahead of the season, Nomura will step up to Super Formula with B-Max Racing.

— Finjo Muschlien, Super Formula Lights editor

#4 – Matteo De Palo (FR Middle East: P19*, 4 points; FR Europe: P2, 277 points; FR World Cup: P8)

Having finished 17th in FR Europe last year with a best race result of fourth, Matteo De Palo switched teams for his sophomore season in the category, going from Saintéloc to Trident, a team present in the series since 2022 but yet to score a win. The Italian driver made that statistic outdated right after the opening race in Misano, but it was no fluke. He and Trident carried on this level of performance to transform him into a title contender.

Scoring more than 90 per cent of his team’s points, De Palo delivered consistency on top of his lights-to-flag victories, with 18 points finishes, 17 of them inside the top six. He exchanged the championship lead with Slater, being four points away from the British driver before the season finale in Monza. Eventually, after a tough final round, he finished as the runner-up, a historic performance for a Trident driver and one that rewarded him with a top seat in F3 for 2026.

His breakthrough season has also enabled him to join the McLaren Driver Development Programme. He drove with papaya colours for the first time in the Macau Grand Prix and finished in eighth position. In 2026, he will be the McLaren protégé highest on the feeder series ladder and will have the opportunity to get revenge on Slater, who will be one of his teammates next year.

Matteo De Palo may not have won the 2025 FRegional Europe title, but he achieved something that’s even more valuable. He proved everyone wrong. As the season approached, very few counted him in as a championship contender. Nevertheless, the driver-team dynamic – for the first time, he could speak his own language with his engineers – and that first-win confidence really put him on the right track for glory, and boy, was he close to achieving it. The deals with McLaren and Trident in Formula 3 have set up De Palo for further success, and he has got all the right stuff to continue being a protagonist in 2026.

— Francesca Brusa, FR Europe editor

* Partial season

#3 – Alex Ninovic (GB3: P1, 524 points)

Alex Ninovic has flown under the radar since the start of his single-seater career back in 2023. Though he was the best-placed Rodin driver in Spanish F4 in 2023 and in British F4 the year after, he had been outshone by Deagen Fairclough’s domination in the latter. 

Though Ninovic had a slow start to his GB3 campaign, the opening round of the season would prove to be his only one without at least one win. He had accumulated nine wins by the end of the year and secured the title with a blistering performance at Donington Park, overcoming a 10-second penalty en route to his eighth win. With nine race wins to his name, all in regular-grid races, the Australian scored the most points for a GB3 driver since Zak O’Sullivan in 2021.

Unfortunately for Ninovic, despite this domination, he will become the first-ever GB3 champion not to step up to F3 next year. He will instead step sideways to FR Europe, still with Rodin, who will join the championship. 

Alex Ninovic’s GB3 dominance perhaps took a lot of people by surprise this year. He came into the same championship as Deagen Fairclough, to whom he finished a distant second in British F4 in 2024. Many expected the same to happen in GB3. However, clean and consistent performances in races, matched with impressive one-lap pace in qualifying, gave Ninovic the edge on the rest of the field throughout the season. He hugely impressed and will now head to FR Europe looking to continue his hot form.

— George Sanderson, GB3 editor

#2 – Mattia Colnaghi (Eurocup-3: P1, 256 points Eurocup-3 SWC: P2, 97 points; FR World Cup: P4)

After becoming Spanish F4 champion in his rookie year in single-seaters, Mattia Colnaghi was expected to be a frontrunner this year in Eurocup-3 despite his youth and inexperience. His debut in the Eurocup-3 Spanish Winter Championship was solid with two wins, but he eventually finished as the runner-up behind his rookie teammate Maciej Gładysz after experiencing issues in qualifying at the final round.

In the main series, he consistently fought for wins in the first half of the season against more experienced drivers such as Valerio Rinicella or Kacper Sztuka. He was engaged in a four-way title battle with them and Ernesto Rivera, who held the championship lead by four points at the season’s halfway point at Monza. After a dominant weekend in Assen, where he took the lead, he was signed by the Red Bull Junior Team for the end of the season.

While some drivers could have rested on their laurels, the Italian-Argentinian driver became even more dominant after this signing, securing the title with one round to go with five wins across the season and finishing on a streak of seven podiums in a row.

Thanks to a last-minute deal with PHM Racing, he prioritised the Macau Grand Prix over the Eurocup-3 finale. Though he had to race a different version of the Tatuus F3 T-318 to what he normally raced in Eurocup-3, he finished fourth overall after a clean weekend. He will continue his rise through the feeder series ladder with MP Motorsport in F3 alongside Ferrari junior Tuukka Taponen and Williams junior Alessandro Giusti.

Mattia Colnaghi may have lost out on taking two drivers’ titles this year, but he can still definitively judge his 2025 as a year of great success and progress. His consistent results across the Eurocup-3 season, where he never finished below seventh bar one non-score, and a well-fought fourth place in the Macau Grand Prix was nothing to scoff at. Indeed, it’s no surprise that he heads into 2026 not only with a seat in F3 but with the backing of the Red Bull Junior Team and as one of the most promising talents on the junior ladder.

— Seb Tirado, Eurocup-3 editor

#1 – Freddie Slater (FR Middle East: P2, 228 points; FR Europe: P1, 313 points; GB3: P12*, 203 Points; FR World Cup: DNF)

Every time Freddie Slater enters a new championship, he is naturally tipped as the favourite. As the reigning Italian F4 champion, he entered FR Middle East in the winter with Prema and started his campaign with a double win. He was, however, challenged by ART’s Giltaire and finished as the runner-up despite scoring one more win than the Frenchman. Even with an inconsistent winter campaign, Slater already made a strong first impression for his first full season in FRegional.

While his main program was in FR Europe, Slater also made his F3 debut with AIX Racing with a podium in the sprint race in Sakhir. He also joined Hillspeed for a part-time programme in GB3, winning twice on home soil in Silverstone at the season opener and winning another time at Spa-Francorchamps by starting from 23rd and last on the grid.

In FR Europe, he fought for pole positions and race wins right from the start with dominant displays such as in Paul Ricard, where he took a double win. His disqualification for a technical infringement in Imola ignited a four-way title battle with De Palo, Deligny and Clerot, but Slater edged clear and eventually secured the title with another double win in Monza. 

With eight successes and his consistency in the top positions, he scored the most points for an FR Europe driver since the merging of the series with Formula Renault Eurocup in 2021.

He then concluded his year at the Macau Grand Prix. While he utterly dominated the qualifying race, a crash five laps from the end of the race took him out of a possible victory. Once again in 2026, Slater will enter a new category as a rookie, in F3 with Trident, and once more, he is tipped by many as the biggest title favourite.

Freddie Slater’s 2025 is a year he’ll remember for a really long time, and so will we. Although he won not one but two titles in 2024, he undoubtedly learnt the most this year. We can almost say that Slater always had it easy. It is not necessary to refresh everyone’s memory with the statistics from his record-breaking championship-winning run in Italian F4 in 2024. In 2025, however, he learnt to lose, to reset and to bounce back. This year, Slater learnt the most important lesson he ever could – to be resilient, and this could make him unstoppable in the future.

— Francesca Brusa, FR Europe editor

* Partial season

Editors surveyed: Francesca Brusa, Seb Tirado, George Sanderson, Finjo Muschlien, Daniele Spadi, Marco Albertini, Kaylene Lau, Laura Anequini, Perceval Wolff-Taffus.

Header photo credit: ACI Sport