Feeder Series testing round-up: 17 September–2 October

The end of the FR Europe and Indy NXT seasons brought shifts to post-season tests, which have illuminated a number of the possible driver line-ups for 2027. From Italy to Indiana, Feeder Series brings you all you need to know about who tested where these past weeks.

By Archie Harper

FR Europe: Line-ups solidify as post-season testing wraps up

After its first test at Hockenheim on 15 and 16 September, FRegional Europe held its second official post-season test on 22 and 23 September at Le Castellet.

Champions R-ace GP retained their trio of Yuki Sano (#12), Kenzo Craigie (#71) and Oleksandr Bondarev (#73). MP Motorsport brought only Dries van Langendonck (#98) to the test; Feeder Series understands that other regulars Rocco Coronel and Kasper Schormans could not attend the test because they were racing at Jerez immediately after in Spanish F4.

McLaren junior Dries Van Langendonck took the overall fastest time at Le Castellet | Credit: Dutch Photo Agency

Prema Racing had Alp Aksoy (#51) and Oleksandr Savinkov (#60) testing in their cars again alongside newcomer Edu Robinson (#88). CL Motorsport maintained their line-up from Hockenheim, bringing Miguel Costa (#24), Alexander Chartier (#46) and 2026 race winner Reno Francot (#69), while Rodin kept Alex Ninovic (#2) and Alisha Palmowski (#4) with the addition of previous RPM and Trident tester Bernardo Bernoldi (#78).

All three of Van Amersfoort’s drivers from Hockenheim – Pedro Lima (#7), Scott Kin Lindblom (#11) and Fernando Rivera (#55) – remained for the second test. ART also kept their trio for the first day, testing Alexandre Munoz (#27), Mattéo Giaccardi (#95), and Thibaut Ramaekers (#19). Notably, Ramaekers surrendered the French F4 championship as a result, with the FFSA-run series conferring guest driver status upon those who test beforehand at circuits coming up on the calendar. For the second day, Munoz was replaced by 2025 ART FR Europe driver and recently crowned 2026 Super Formula Lights champion Evan Giltaire (#27).

One surprise came at RPM, where F3 driver and Red Bull junior Fionn McLaughlin (#5) joined Andre Rodriguez (#8) and Emily Cotty (#99), who stayed for a second test. Trident kept their line-up unchanged, running Ludovico Busso (#33), Ary Bansal (#47) and Dominik Simek (#87), as did G4 Racing, who housed Zhao Zijun (#3), Rahim Alibhai (#23) and Oscar Repetto (#67) beneath their awning for the second test running.

Le Castellet, 22–23 September	P1	P2	P3
FREC, Day 1	Oleksandr Bondarev, 1:58.296	Dries Van Langendonck, +0.058s	Kenzo Craigie, +0.136s
FREC, Day 2	Dries Van Langendonck, 1:58.213	Kenzo Craigie, +0.100s	Alp Aksoy, +0.273s

FR Europe then held its final official post-season test at the Red Bull Ring a week later, with some teams maintaining their line-ups and others bringing entirely new faces.

MP Motorsport have not run any other combination but the three drivers they had at Spielberg, with Rocco Coronel (#15) and Kasper Schormans (#27) returning to join Dries Van Langendonck (#98) for a second test together.

Prema, however, changed things up again as Ty Fisher (#88) occupied their third seat. CL Motorsport had Prema’s 2026 driver Tomass Štolcermanis (#24) for both days, with Reno Francot (#69) only driving for day one before being replaced by Miguel Costa (#69) on day two.

CL Motorsport’s Reno Francot topped the times on day one of the test in Austria | Credit: Dutch Photo Agency

Costa took Rodin’s third car for day one before returning to CL, with 16-year-old Canadian Jensen Burnett (#78) taking his place on day two.

For the first time in any of the post-season tests, a driver who had not previously raced for the squad joined ART on day one. That was Edu Robinson (#19), who was then replaced by Alexandre Munoz (#19) on day two.

RPM have been chop and change throughout the testing season, and Spielberg was no different. They had Felipe Reijs (#5) and Kabir Anurag (#8) for the first day before both were replaced on day two by Teo Borenstein (#5) and Marcus Sæter (#8).

G4 Racing saw one change from Paul Ricard as Thomas Ingram Hill (#67) stepped into their third car for the test.

Spielberg, 29–30 September	P1	P2	P3
FREC, Day 1	Reno Francot, 1:25.262	Dries Van Langendonck, +0.170s	Kenzo Craigie, +0.266s
FREC, Day 2	Kenzo Craigie, 1:25.066	Dries Van Langendonck, +0.027s	Rocco Coronel, +0.116s

F4: Monza test gives glimpse into the future

A large test organised by Kateyama took place on 1 and 2 October at the Temple of Speed. Current teams’ championship leaders US Racing brought all their 2026 drivers minus Edu Robinson, who was replaced by Iacopo Martinese (#28), who sits 29th in Italian F4 with PHM Racing.

Reigning teams’ champions Prema Racing brought Filippo Sala (#5) and Vicky Farfus (#12) in addition to their 2026 drivers excluding David Cosma Cristofor, who is at Sepang for Formula Trophy Malaysia.

Jenzer Motorsport’s three-car line-up included just one of their 2026 drivers. Teo Borenstein (#20) was joined by Amir Sabirov (#23) and Pavel Abrosimov (#24), who have both raced in the SMP F4 championship this year. Van Amersfoort Racing brought their 2026 drivers, while Trident Motorsport added Sun Yibei (#24), their development driver, to the drivers in their mainsquad in 2026.

R-ace GP brought five of the drivers they fielded in 2026 alongside regular tester Jesse Phillips (#31). Half of PHM Racing’s line-up was familiar, with Oscar Repetto (#6) and Roland Kuklane (#47) partnering new duo of Swiss karter Paul Andriotis (#81) and Eduardo Salamonde (#928).

Cram Motorsport had one new name in their car, bringing their F4 CEZ driver Leo Nilsson (#40) to Monza. From AKM Motorsport’s 2026 line-up, only Vittorio Orsini (#88) was present, joining frequent tester Gregorio Prandi (#3) and karter Ludovico Mazzola (#63). PA by AS Motorsport had three cars testing, occupied by prior PA tester Luis Fernando Nunez (#10), recent F4 CEZ debutant Máté Kocsis (#16) and Nicholas Reino (#64).

Four squads not currently on the Italian F4 grid tested cars at Monza. SG Motors brought karter Niccolò Cantuseno, while Technorace tested their F4 CEZ driver Antonio Errigo (#99), who currently sits 14th in the standings.

Two of the non-Italian F4 teams had multiple cars on track. Motorsport Performance Academy had Samuel Del Gaudio (#3) and Pedro Bartelle (#9) behind the wheel, while FR Europe’s CL Motorsport, who announced the return of their F4 programme on 3 August 2026, gave FR Europe drivers Chi Zhenrui (#27) and Reno Francot (#30) a go in their F4 machines.

Monza, 1-2 October	P1	P2	P3
F4, Day 1	Noah Killion, 1:52.163	Luka Sammalisto, +0.087s	Iacopo Martinese, +0.103s
F4, Day 2	Antonio Errigo, 1:51.715	Vittorio Orsini, +0.049s	Iacopo Martinese, +0.147s

Italy also hosted a number of other smaller-scale tests over the last two weeks. In our last report, we left off with a test Cremona for Eduardo Salamonde and Nawin Natiphanon. They remained in Italy to test F4 machinery at Cremona on 17 September.

The 15-year-old Brazilian Salamonde tested with SG Motors, while 16-year-old Thai driver Natiphanon stayed with Monster Racing. Natiphanon makes his F4 race debut this weekend in Formula Trophy Malaysia.

The following week, Natiphanon returned to test at Cervesina with Trident Motorsport.

Also at Cervesina were Augusto Farfus’ Motorsport Performance Academy, who brought along Champions of the Future competitors Samuel Del Gaudio and Pedro Bartelle to test their F4 machines. Scuderia Buell gave MP Kart driver Antonio Cochianella a spin in their F4 car.

The same day, on 23 September, there was a separate F4 test at Varano. There, AKM Motorsport ran Amir Sabirov (#63), PA Racing had Luis Fernando Nunez (#10) testing, and AS Motorsport operated one of their F4 CEZ machines for Italian Pietro Bagutti (#16).

A week later, on 29 September, Nunez returned to Cremona with PA Racing, alongside Sabirov, who remained with the team for a one-day test the following day at the Tazio Nuvolari circuit.

Austrian squad Renauer Motorsport tested at the Slovakiaring on 29 and 30 September, bringing Hungary’s Viktor Papp and German karter Ramon Göde. For the second day of the test, the team had Austrian Samuel Lex (#6) testing alongside the other two drivers.

Lastly, Spanish-licensed karter Leo Sapgir (#7) tested at Navarra with G4 Racing on 30 September and 1 October.

GB3, GB4, F4: LN4 Fusion appears at Pembrey

George Proudford-Nalder, currently fifth in British F4, jumped into a GB3 machine with Xcel at Anglesey on 17 September between rounds of his main campaign.

Action then ramped up later in the month, with a British-centric test at Pembrey completing a quartet of tests taking place on 29 and 30 September.

In GB3 machinery, Fortec fielded Indonesian sports car racer Nadeem Rustombi (#25), who has tested with GB3 machinery for VRD and previous-generation FR machinery with the Mumbai Falcons this year. He was joined by two Fortec GB4 testers in Germany’s Luke Kaminski (#27) and British karter Max Yuill.

The Lando Norris–backed LN4 Fusion brought three cars overall, with a carbon-liveried F4 car identified as driven by FF Corse GT academy driver Connor Large and another fully LN4-liveried car being driven by Jiang Houzai (#4).

On 2 October, LN4 Fusion again tested three cars, this time at Croft, though no drivers were identifiable.

F3, F4: Previous-generation F3 machinery offers 2027 clues

A large test at Valencia took place on 28 and 29 September, with F2, F3, FR and F4 cars running.

DAMS were present at the Spanish track with 2026 F3 driver Nandhavud Bhirombhakdi and FR Europe podium finisher Alexander Abkhazava testing two of their F3 cars. ART were also there with two copies of the previous generation of F3 car – the F319 – driven by two recently crowned champions, Euroformula Open’s Enzo Yeh and FR Europe’s Emanuele Olivieri.

Both Tecnicar and Campos were also present testing two F4 cars each, with Marco Arcas (#13) in one of Tecnicar’s F4s.

Indy NXT: Drivers broaden their horizons with official test

A major test at the iconic Indianapolis Motor Speedway on 21 September gave us a glimpse of how next season’s grid might be shaping up, with plenty of talent crossing the pond from Europe.

The team with the largest contingent was HMD Motorsports, who brought four cars to the test. Two seats were filled by brothers Rodrigo González (#71) and Patricio González (#17), who moved from the USF ladder to GB3 partway through 2025, while F3’s Bruno del Pino (#45) also evaluated his American options. A final car was filled by 2025 USF Juniors champion and USF Pro 2000 runner-up Leonardo Escorpini (#67), who signed a development deal with HMD in June.

Leonardo Escorpioni is widely expected to race for HMD Motorsports in 2027 | Credit: Matt Fraver / Penske Entertainment

The HMD-affiliated AJ Foyt Racing squad’s sole tester was USF Pro 2000’s third-place finisher Teddy Musella (#4).

Andretti Global brought USF Pro 2000’s third-place finisher G3 Argyros (#27), GB3 race winner Abbi Pulling (#29) and recent F3 debutant Alex Powell (#26).

Cape Motorsports, who took Nikita Johnson to the title last month, tested 2026 F3 driver José Garfias (#20) and GB3 championship leader Nikita Bedrin (#21) in their two cars. Chip Ganassi Racing brought only one car to the test, fielding Super GT GT300 class driver and Super Formula reserve Souta Arao (#10).