Coming into 2025 with only two podiums in his racing career, Everett Stack turned things around in his rookie Euroformula Open campaign, scoring two wins and positioning himself as a constant threat for the top five in the second half of the season. Feeder Series caught up with the American to learn about his career and understand what triggered the sudden improvement in his results.

By Marco Albertini

In race one of the final round of the 2025 Euroformula Open season at Monza, Everett Stack achieved his second win of his car racing career. But from where he’d started the race – never mind the season – it was a result he didn’t see coming.

Lining up ninth of 12 cars on the grid, Stack moved up to seventh on the first lap of 16 before overtaking Fernando Barrichello on the following lap. On lap three, he set the fastest lap as he pursued the top five, eventually catching and passing the BVM duo of Enzo Yeh and Tymek Kucharczyk to move up to fourth on lap eight.

Three laps later, Stack overtook Michael Shin at the Roggia chicane and began fighting for the lead with two of his Motopark teammates, Yevan David and José Garfias. Stack stole second from David with two laps to go, which became first after Garfias and David collided at Turn 1. With his main rivals sinking down the order, Stack had a clear path to take a surprising win.

“To be honest, I am shocked myself,” he told Feeder Series at the time. “I started P9. I had an issue in qualifying. I had the wrong setup. I knew I had the pace, but I never expected to win. I mean, I know Monza is great for racing and it creates drama, let’s say, and it created some drama today.

“The race was crazy. I had a pretty good start, lost a couple positions in Turn 1, and then made it up again. Then I had a lot of momentum starting from ninth, so that helped with the whole process, and then people making mistakes ahead, like the last lap with Joss and Yevan, was a bit unfortunate for them. But I benefitted from it and I’m happy.”

Just three years before, Stack was still in karting, with limited experience. He and his family, unsure of what steps to take next, attended the 2022 British Grand Prix as a guest of Aston Martin – and got some career-changing advice. 

“I was in Silverstone in 2022 during the F1 grand prix, and I was there with Aston Martin and I met René Rosin, the owner of Prema,” Stack said. “He talked to my dad about [the fact] that there’s a step up to Europe. The driving is different. Europe is a bit more competitive than America, at least in the feeder series area, so I would say that influenced me and my family to make the step, just talking with people that know better than us.”

Though Europe was in his sights, Stack began his car racing career stateside in 2023, initially racing in the F4 United States Championship with Jensen. After not scoring points in the first four rounds, he switched to FR Americas for the final two rounds of the championship, taking a best result of seventh four times to end the season 13th in points.

In parallel, Stack also raced in the Atlantic Championship’s Open class at the Summit Point round a few hours from his home, finishing second in both races while piloting F4 US machinery. Those were his only two podiums prior to his Euroformula Open move.

The Virginia native then moved to Europe the following year, joining PHM Racing to compete in the F4 UAE, Italian F4 and Euro 4 championships as well as a round of F4 CEZ. Though it was a step down on the ladder from where he finished 2023, Stack faced much stiffer competition. 

He was largely anonymous in his first year outside the United States, scoring only one point courtesy of a 10th-place finish in race three at Paul Ricard in Italian F4. He ended that season 27th in points while finishing 34th and 30th overall in F4 UAE and Euro 4 respectively. By contrast, Rosin’s Prema Racing won the drivers’ title in both Italian F4 and F4 UAE with Freddie Slater, while none of their full-time drivers placed any lower than 14th in any of the three championships Stack entered.

“Moving away from home, because I’d always lived in America, was the biggest difference,” Stack said about his move to Europe. “From a living standpoint, I was living in Italy for the year. I was living outside of Bologna and that was a big part of it, staying away from my family, my friends and whatnot. But in terms of driving, the way they do it in Europe is so much different compared to what they do in America, at least from the team I was with in America and the team I was with in Europe.

“PHM was very welcoming to me and I thank them from the bottom of my heart for giving me a chance. I’m very thankful to them for teaching me and helping me last year. It’s really hard to compare again because it’s a different team, different teaching style, and PHM was really good in the transition process. Now, the step with Motopark is even better with the learning and the team and whatnot.”

Following a one-off appearance in Eurocup-3 at the end of 2024 for Palou Motorsport, Stack began 2025 in the Middle East, continuing with PHM Racing for his return to FR competition. Having raced with both Ligier- and Tatuus-built Formula Regional cars, Stack also sampled Euroformula Open machinery during the winter, driving the Dallara 320 chassis in private tests in Europe.

“Formula Regional Americas and the Formula Regional in the Middle East are completely different by themselves,” Stack said. “[They] require completely different driving styles. Euroformula is just even a bigger step. The lap time depends on the track, but four seconds is roughly where it is.

“The driving style is completely different. In testing, the winter tests I did in Euroformula with the old one [Dallara 320], the car is really amazing. This one [the Dallara 324] is also really nice to drive. Not as nice as the older generation, but it’s hard to compare the two, like brake shapes and driving style. Motopark also has a [specific] way of doing things, so that also influences me a bit.”

Instead of racing in FR Europe for the rest of the year as many of his FR Middle East counterparts did, Stack opted to join Motopark to compete in Euroformula Open. Following a rocky start to the season, Stack achieved his maiden podium in race two at Hockenheim, where he fended off Garfias and Ed Pearson to finish second.

After holding off Shin in Hungary to take his second podium of the season in race one, Stack began finishing inside the top five on a more consistent basis. He had risen to seventh in the standings by the summer break, before his breakout round at the Red Bull Ring round in September.

Stack opened up the weekend by finishing fifth. He crossed the line third in race two, but he was relegated to eighth in the latter after receiving a five-second penalty for accumulating too many track limits violations.

In race three, Stack started from reverse grid-pole and led the first half from Garfias, who overtook him on lap 11 after the American ran wide at the exit of Turn 4. Two laps later, Garfias locked up heading up to Turn 3, opening the door for Stack, who got past and led the final stages to take his first win in Euroformula Open by 2.184s over Garfias.

“Going into it, I was thinking that I could win it, which maybe is not the best way to go into a race,” Stack said. “The race was, from the first couple laps, pretty straightforward. I was leading; Joss was behind. And then I made a mistake in T4. I went off and then I was behind Joss. Then I followed him for two laps and then he made a mistake going into Turn 3, locking up from defending for me. So then I overtook him. So it was two mistakes, which then just evened out and made it the same it was before. I was really lucky to have that.”

In Barcelona, Stack was on course for his fourth podium of the season in race three, but a last-lap puncture while running third relegated him to ninth at the flag. The American then won race one at Monza a month later and stood on the podium in the other two races of the final round to end the year sixth in points, one point behind fifth-placed Pearson, as the second-highest-placed rookie.

Stack hailed Motopark as ‘a great help, a great learning tool’ as he tackled his sophomore year in Europe. 

“Coming into the season, I didn’t have the most experience with bigger machinery,” he said. “I drove F4 last year and I did Formula Regional Middle East this winter, but I didn’t do a lot of testing in the Euroformula [car]. I did a winter test. The start of the season was all right. I was not the greatest. I mean, I’m still not, but I was improving every race. Ever since the [summer] break after Paul Ricard, it’s been quite good, always improving every race. I was always learning, but it’s been more visual, let’s say, in more recent weeks.”

“Every driver here and even in the past would agree with me,” Stack said, “[that] Motopark does a great job of teaching. Motopark does a really good job with the car they have. You can do a lot with setup and stuff to make it suit a driver, make it more difficult or less difficult to drive. With the car that Motopark has, they do the best with it for a driver to learn the most.”

Header photo credit: Euroformula Open Championship