2022 Formula Regional Asian Championship

2022 Formula Regional Asian Championship

Drivers' Champion: Arthur Leclerc
Rookie Cup winner: Pepe Martí
Masters Cup winner: Khaled Al Qubaisi
Teams' Champion: Mumbai Falcons India Racing

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2021  ( F3 Asia )

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2023  (FRAC)
2023  (FRMEC)

Support series:
Formula 4 UAE Championship

The 2022 Formula Regional Asian Championship was a multi-event, Formula Regional open-wheel single seater motor racing championship. The championship featured a mix of professional and amateur drivers, competing in Formula Regional cars. It was the fifth season of the championship, and the first season under the Formula Regional moniker, after a rebrand happened due to the FIA ending the F3 category name. ^{[1] [2]}

The season was held over five consecutive weekends in January and February 2022.

For the first time, the second race of a weekend was a reversed-grid race, reversing the top 10 finishers of race one. ^[3]

Arthur Leclerc won the drivers' championship with two races to spare, while his team, Mumbai Falcons India Racing, won the teams' championship. Pepe Martí, second overall, won the Rookie Cup, and Khaled Al Qubaisi earned Masters Cup honors.

Teams and drivers

Team No. Driver Status Rounds Evans GP 2 Patrik Pasma [4] 3–5 12 Sami Meguetounif [5] R 5 14 Nicola Marinangeli [6] All 30 Michael Belov [4] 3–5 74 Cem Bölükbaşı [7] 1 78 Frederick Lubin [8] R 1–3 Abu Dhabi Racing by Prema 3 Paul Aron [9] All 52 Jak Crawford [10] All 66 Khaled Al Qubaisi [11] M All 88 Hamda Al Qubaisi [12] R All 99 Amna Al Qubaisi [11] All Hitech Grand Prix 4 Gabriele Minì [13] 1–2, 4–5 5 Leonardo Fornaroli [13] R 1–3 6 Isack Hadjar [14] All 7 Joshua Dufek [13] R 1–3 Vladislav Lomko [a] [15] R 5 92 Owen Tangavelou [13] R 3–5 BlackArts Racing 9 Thomas Luedi [b] [16] M All 21 Brice Morabito [16] R 1 26 Ido Cohen [17] 1 Pierre-Louis Chovet [18] 2–5 36 Ido Cohen 4–5 Mumbai Falcons India Racing 10 Dino Beganovic [19] All 28 Arthur Leclerc [19] All 37 Oliver Bearman [19] R 4–5 46 Sebastián Montoya [19] R 1–3 Evans GP Academy 11 Levente Révész [20] R All 77 David Morales [21] R All 3Y by R-ace GP [22] 15 Oliver Goethe [c] [23] All 16 Lorenzo Fluxá [24] All 17 Hadrien David [25] 1–2 Léna Bühler [23] 4–5 18 Gabriel Bortoleto [26] 1–2 Francesco Braschi [27] R 3–5 Pinnacle Motorsport 23 Pepe Martí [28] R All 27 Dilano van 't Hoff [28] R All 34 Salih Yoluç [28] M All 55 Ayato Iwasaki [d] [28] R All

Icon Status R Rookie M Master G Guest drivers ineligible for points

• Esteban Masson was scheduled to compete for BlackArts Racing, but did not appear in any rounds. ^[29]

Race calendar

The first proposal for the race calendar was announced on 21 September 2021. As the COVID-19 pandemic meant that most parts of Asia still were under heavy restrictions, the calendar only consisted of races in the United Arab Emirates for the second year in a row. ^[30]

Round		Circuit	Date	Supporting	Map of circuit locations
1	R1	Yas Marina Circuit (Grand Prix Circuit)	22 January	6 Hours of Abu Dhabi Gulf Radical Cup'	Yas Marina Dubai
	R2		23 January
	R3
2	R1	Dubai Autodrome (International Circuit)	29 January	UAE Touring Car Championship
	R2		30 January
	R3
3	R1	Dubai Autodrome (Grand Prix Circuit)	5 February	Gulf Radical Cup UAE Touring Car Championship
	R2		6 February
	R3
4	R1	Dubai Autodrome (Grand Prix Circuit)	12 February	Asian Le Mans Series
	R2		13 February
	R3
5	R1	Yas Marina Circuit (Grand Prix Circuit)	19 February	Asian Le Mans Series
	R2
	R3		20 February

Race results

Round		Circuit	Pole position	Fastest Lap	Winning driver	Winning team	Rookie Winner
1	R1	Yas Marina Circuit (Grand Prix Circuit)	Sebastián Montoya	Hadrien David	Sebastián Montoya	Mumbai Falcons India Racing	Sebastián Montoya
	R2			Isack Hadjar	Gabriel Bortoleto	3Y by R-ace GP	Sebastián Montoya
	R3		Gabriele Minì	Pepe Martí	Gabriele Minì	Hitech Grand Prix	Pepe Martí
2	R1	Dubai Autodrome (International Circuit)	Sebastián Montoya	Hadrien David	Hadrien David	3Y by R-ace GP	Pepe Martí
	R2			Hadrien David	Arthur Leclerc	Mumbai Falcons India Racing	Pepe Martí
	R3		Hadrien David	Pepe Martí	Hadrien David	3Y by R-ace GP	Pepe Martí
3	R1	Dubai Autodrome (Grand Prix Circuit)	Sebastián Montoya	Sebastián Montoya	Sebastián Montoya	Mumbai Falcons India Racing	Sebastián Montoya
	R2			Dino Beganovic	Dino Beganovic	Mumbai Falcons India Racing	Pepe Martí
	R3		Dilano van 't Hoff	Sebastián Montoya	Arthur Leclerc	Mumbai Falcons India Racing	Pepe Martí
4	R1	Dubai Autodrome (Grand Prix Circuit)	Paul Aron	Paul Aron	Isack Hadjar	Hitech Grand Prix	Pepe Martí
	R2			Jak Crawford	Patrik Pasma	Evans GP	Oliver Bearman
	R3		Paul Aron	Dino Beganovic	Arthur Leclerc	Mumbai Falcons India Racing	Pepe Martí
5	R1	Yas Marina Circuit (Grand Prix Circuit)	Arthur Leclerc	Arthur Leclerc	Arthur Leclerc	Mumbai Falcons India Racing	Oliver Bearman
	R2			Isack Hadjar	Gabriele Minì	Hitech Grand Prix	Pepe Martí
	R3		Isack Hadjar	Gabriele Minì	Isack Hadjar	Hitech Grand Prix	Pepe Martí

Season report

The season started off at Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi, with Sebastian Montoya and Gabriele Mini sharing poles in qualifying. Montoya won the opening race, while multiple collisions behind him forced the race to end under the safety car. The second race was won by Gabriel Bortoleto, his maiden win in the FR category, remaining largely unchallenged as his biggest on-track rival, Isack Hadjar, retired halfway through the race. Race three saw a big crash at the start as Cem Bölükbaşı stalled on the grid and was hit by two other drivers, a collision heavy enough that the lengthy subsequent repairs on his car saw him withdraw from the championship. Gabriele Mini won the race, followed home by Jak Crawford and Hadjar. At the end of the first round, Mini led the standings by three points over Arthur Leclerc, with Montoya in third. ^[31]

As the championship headed into its three-round Dubai leg, Montoya took pole again, this time sharing the achievement with Hadrien David. The latter overtook the former on lap three of the first race and then led home in a race where championship leader Mini had to retire late on due to a mechanical failure. The reverse-grid race two not only gave Leclerc his first win of the season as he passed polesitter Pierre-Louis Chovet, he also took the points lead to which he held on until the very end. Hadrien David won again in the third race of the weekend, his last race of the season as the Frenchman left the championship following round two. Poor results meant Mini dropped out of the championship top three, while leader Leclerc was nine and twelve points clear respectively of French duo David and Hadjar. ^[32]

The circuit configuration was changed for the fourth round, but Montoya still prevailed in qualifying, accompanied by Dilano van 't Hoff. Montoya converted his race one pole into a win once again, heading a Mumbai Falcons 1-2-3 in a red-flagged race due to Francesco Braschi's engine blowing up halfway through. In race two, Dino Beganovic overtook four cars at the start and three more later to win from eighth place on the grid. Van 't Hoff wasn't able to hold on to his pole position, relinquishing the lead of the race to Pepe Martí, who was then overtaken for the win by Leclerc. The Monegasque now had a 35-point advantage over second-placed Martí, with Montoya in third, a further four points behind. ^[33]

The fourth round of the championship saw multiple changes in the driver lineup, as many drivers elected to only take part in three rounds to keep their rookie status for championships in the same category later in the year. Estonian driver Paul Aron took double pole for the third and last Dubai event, but it was Hadjar who took the first race win, after the pair battled all race long. Braschi started from reverse grid pole in race two, but was passed at the start by Patrik Pasma. Jak Crawford overtook Oliver Bearman, who made his debut in round 4, in the last corner of the last lap, finishing in second place by a tenth of a second. Leclerc once again extended his championship lead after taking race three victory from Aron, he was 40 points ahead of Martí and Hadjar heading into the last round. ^[34]

The championship returned to Abu Dhabi for its season finale, with Leclerc converting his race one pole into a dominant victory, claiming the drivers' championship in the process as Martí, the only other driver still in contention, had a horrible race and finished in 12th after dropping back to 23rd at one point. The penultimate race of the season was a chaotic one, with Mini taking a closely-fought win over Beganovic. Hadjar and Mini ended the championship with a Hitech 1-2 in the final race. ^[35]

At the end of the season, Leclerc had amassed a 60-point advantage over his closest rival, although the very competitive Montoya, David and Mini didn't enter all rounds. Martí was the biggest surprise of the season as came second and took a dominant rookie title. The 2022 season saw grids climb to record highs for the championship, culminating at 29 entries for the season finale. The addition of a reversed grid for the second race meant more overtakes, and even the Masters Cup was reintroduced and won by Khaled Al Qubaisi, after there were no masters' entries in 2021. Mumbai Falcons India Racing took their first teams' championship in their second season of competition, over 80 points ahead of second place.

Championship standings

Scoring system

Points were awarded to the top ten drivers.

Position	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th	10th
Points	25	18	15	12	10	8	6	4	2	1

Drivers' Championship

Pos Driver ABU1 DUB1 DUB2 DUB3 ABU2 Pts R1 R2 R3 R1 R2 R3 R1 R2 R3 R1 R2 R3 R1 R2 R3 1 Arthur Leclerc 3 3 5 9 1 7 2 3 1 4 5 1 1 3 12 218 2 Pepe Martí Ret Ret 4 2 7 2 4 4 2 3 4 3 12 4 6 158 3 Isack Hadjar 4 16† 3 8 3 3 5 11 Ret 1 11 10 4 25 1 134 4 Gabriele Minì 2 Ret 1 Ret 13 4 5 7 4 8 1 2 130 5 Dino Beganovic 5 Ret 11 5 2 5 3 1 15 Ret 14 27† 2 2 7 130 6 Jak Crawford 11 7 2 4 9 6 12 7 12 6 2 6 3 Ret 4 113 7 Sebastián Montoya 1 4 10 3 Ret 19 1 9 4 92 8 Paul Aron Ret 15 7 15 10 23 6 14 Ret 2 8 2 5 Ret 3 80 9 Hadrien David Ret Ret 9 1 4 1 64 10 Lorenzo Fluxá 6 2 8 13 5 9 11 5 8 11 9 16 16 9 8 64 11 Patrik Pasma 13 8 5 9 1 7 7 Ret 5 63 12 Michael Belov 10 2 6 15 6 5 14 6 9 55 13 Dilano van 't Hoff DNS DNS DNS 7 Ret 24† 7 6 3 8 13 12 9 5 11 51 14 Gabriel Bortoleto 10 1 6 6 Ret 8 46 15 Oliver Bearman 7 3 24 6 Ret 23 29 16 Pierre-Louis Chovet 10 6 12 8 12 7 12 10 11 10 8 10 26 17 Leonardo Fornaroli 8 5 22† 11 8 11 9 26† 9 22 18 Joshua Dufek 9 6 16 12 16 10 16 27† 10 12 19 Frederick Lubin 7 8 21 16 12 14 17 19 18 10 20 Sami Meguetounif 13 7 22 6 21 Ido Cohen WD WD WD 25† 26† 8 27 11 15 4 22 Francesco Braschi Ret 15 14 10 19 9 11 23 19 3 23 Levente Révész 13 9 12 18 14 13 15 13 Ret 18 21 17 20 14 14 2 24 Nicola Marinangeli Ret Ret 13 14 11 15 14 10 11 14 17 13 Ret 13 16 1 25 Oliver Goethe Ret 14 18 19 DNS DNS 23 18 13 13 12 14 17 10 17 1 26 Amna Al Qubaisi 14 10 Ret Ret 19 17 21 21 DNS 20 20 20 Ret 18 Ret 1 27 Ayato Iwasaki 15 11 15 21 18 18 19 25 17 22 16 23 19 16 20 0 28 Hamda Al Qubaisi 12 Ret 14 20 17 16 18 16 16 17 Ret 18 18 17 21 0 29 Léna Bühler 26† 18 15 15 12 Ret 0 30 Brice Morabito 18 12 17 0 31 Owen Tangavelou 20 17 20 16 15 25 23 20 13 0 32 Thomas Lüdi 19 13 20 24† 22 22 26† 24 22 24 22 22 26 24 25 0 33 David Morales 20† 17† Ret 17 15 Ret 24 20 19 19 25 19 22 19 18 0 34 Vladislav Lomko 21 15 26 0 35 Khaled Al Qubaisi 16 Ret 19 22 20 20 22 23 23 23 23 21 24 22 Ret 0 36 Salih Yoluç 17 Ret Ret 23 21 21 25 22 21 21 24 26† 25 21 24 0 — Cem Bölükbaşı Ret Ret Ret — Pos Driver R1 R2 R3 R1 R2 R3 R1 R2 R3 R1 R2 R3 R1 R2 R3 Pts ABU1 DUB1 DUB2 DUB3 ABU2

Colour Result Gold Winner Silver Second place Bronze Third place Green Points finish Blue Non-points finish Non-classified finish (NC) Purple Retired (Ret) Red Did not qualify (DNQ) Did not pre-qualify (DNPQ) Black Disqualified (DSQ) White Did not start (DNS) Withdrew (WD) Race cancelled (C) Blank Did not practice (DNP) Did not arrive (DNA) Excluded (EX) Bold – Pole Italics – Fastest Lap

Rookie Cup

Pos	Driver	ABU1			DUB1			DUB2			DUB3			ABU2			Pts
		R1	R2	R3	R1	R2	R3	R1	R2	R3	R1	R2	R3	R1	R2	R3
1	Pepe Martí	Ret	Ret	4	2	7	2	4	4	2	3	4	3	12	4	6	298
2	Dilano van 't Hoff	DNS	DNS	DNS	7	Ret	24†	7	6	3	8	13	12	9	5	11	167
3	Sebastián Montoya	1	4	10	3	Ret	19	1	9	4							145
4	Levente Révész	13	9	12	18	14	13	15	13	Ret	18	21	17	20	14	14	135
5	Leonardo Fornaroli	8	5	22†	11	8	11	9	26†	9							104
6	Hamda Al Qubaisi	12	Ret	14	20	17	16	18	16	16	17	Ret	18	18	17	21	92
7	Joshua Dufek	9	6	16	12	16	10	16	27†	10							89
8	Francesco Braschi							Ret	15	14	10	19	9	11	23	19	80
9	Ayato Iwasaki	15	11	15	21	18	18	19	25	17	22	16	23	19	16	20	80
10	Frederick Lubin	7	8	21	16	12	14	17	19	18							79
11	Oliver Bearman										7	3	24	6	Ret	23	73
12	David Morales	20†	17†	Ret	17	15	Ret	24	20	19	19	25	19	22	19	18	56
13	Owen Tangavelou							20	17	20	16	15	25	23	20	13	48
14	Sami Meguetounif													13	7	22	27
15	Brice Morabito	18	12	17													16
16	Vladislav Lomko													21	15	26	12
Pos	Driver	R1	R2	R3	R1	R2	R3	R1	R2	R3	R1	R2	R3	R1	R2	R3	Pts
		ABU1			DUB1			DUB2			DUB3			ABU2

Masters Cup

Pos	Driver	ABU1			DUB1			DUB2			DUB3			ABU2			Pts
		R1	R2	R3	R1	R2	R3	R1	R2	R3	R1	R2	R3	R1	R2	R3
1	Khaled Al Qubaisi	16	Ret	19	22	20	20	22	23	23	23	23	21	24	22	Ret	287
2	Salih Yoluç	17	Ret	Ret	23	21	21	25	22	21	21	24	26†	25	21	24	263
3	Thomas Lüdi	19	13	20	24†	22	22	26†	24	22	24	22	22	26	24	25	257
Pos	Driver	R1	R2	R3	R1	R2	R3	R1	R2	R3	R1	R2	R3	R1	R2	R3	Pts
		ABU1			DUB1			DUB2			DUB3			ABU2

Teams' Championship

Ahead of each event, the teams nominated two drivers that accumulate teams' points.

Pos	Team	Pts
1	Mumbai Falcons India Racing	348
2	Hitech Grand Prix	264
3	Pinnacle Motorsport	209
4	Abu Dhabi Racing by Prema	193
5	3Y by R-ace GP	128
6	Evans GP	118
7	BlackArts Racing	30
8	Evans GP Academy	8

Notes

1. Lomko is a Russian driver racing under a French licence.
2. Luedi is a Swiss-Chinese driver racing under a Hongkongese licence.
3. Goethe is a Danish-German driver racing under a Monégasque licence.
4. Iwasaki is a Japanese driver racing under a Philippine licence.

References

1. Wood, Ida (2 August 2021). "FIA brings end to F3 as a category, BRDC British F3 rebrands to GB3". Formula Scout. Retrieved 12 August 2021.
2. Wood, Ida (7 December 2021). "Confusion reigns as two series adopt FRegional Asia name for 2022". Formula Scout. Retrieved 7 December 2021.
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27. "Braschi con 3Y R-Ace GP per il finale di stagione". italiaracing.net (in Italian). 6 January 2022. Retrieved 6 January 2022.
28. Wood, Ida (11 January 2022). "Le Mans winner and F4 stars make Pinnacle Motorsport's FRAC line-up". Formula Scout. Retrieved 11 January 2022.
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External links

• Official website