Teams and drivers
The same twelve teams that contested the 2023 season were also pre-selected for the 2024 season. [1] Arden Motorsport and Monolite Racing later relinquished their entries, confirming their withdrawal in April, while Iron Dames joined the championship, fielding an all-female lineup. [2] [3] [4]
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Team changes
Arden Motorsport withdrew from the championship, instead electing to focus on their GB3 and GB4 efforts. [2]
Monolite Racing, a mainstay in the series since 2020, also elected to withdraw, after talks with GB3 race winner James Hedley and Jacques Villeneuve protégé Kevin Foster did not materialise. [9] [3]
Iron Dames, the female talent development project of Iron Lynx, an endurance racing team owned by the same parent company as Prema Racing, entered the championship with two cars. [4]
Driver changes
Reigning Teams' Champions Prema Racing saw two of their driver leave the championship, with reigning Driver's Champion Andrea Kimi Antonelli graduating to the team's Formula 2 outfit and Lorenzo Fluxá joining Cool Racing's ELMS program. [10] [11] To replace them, Prema signed 2023 Euro 4 champion, McLaren junior Ugo Ugochukwu, and 2023 F4 UAE Champion James Wharton. [12] [13]
R-ace GP have an all-new lineup in 2024 as their three drivers Martinius Stenshorne, Matías Zagazeta and Tim Tramnitz all graduated to FIA F3 with Hitech Pulse-Eight, Jenzer Motorsport and MP Motorsport respectively. [14] [15] [16] The team signed three F4 graduates for their 2024 lineup: UAE Formula 4 runner-up and Ferrari junior Tuukka Taponen stepped up to FRECA after winning FRMEC with the team over the winter, Red Bull junior Enzo Deligny debuted in the category after coming fourth in Spanish F4 with Campos Racing and Zachary David joined the series after a pair of seventh places in Italian F4 and Euro 4 with US Racing. [17] [18]
Van Amersfoort Racing saw Joshua Dufek graduate to FIA F3 with PHM AIX Racing, Niels Koolen move over to America to join HMD Motorsport in Indy NXT and Kas Haverkort join GP Elite in the Porsche Supercup. [19] [20] [21] The trio was replaced by three drivers stepping up from F4. 2022 Brazilian F4 champion Pedro Clerot graduated to Formula Regional after coming sixth in the 2023 Spanish F4 Championship with MP Motorsport. [22] The other two drivers stemmed from VAR's own Italian F4 and Euro 4 outfits in Ivan Domingues, who already debuted for the team as a guest driver during the final two FRECA rounds of that year, and Brando Badoer, who also collected Formula Regional experience through a FRMEC campaign with PHM AIX. [23] [24]
RPM also saw all three of their drivers leave the series. Santiago Ramos joined Trident for F3, Adam Fitzgerald joined Turn 3 Motorsport in USF Pro 2000 and Macéo Capietto joined Iron Lynx in ELMS. [25] [26] [27] The team signed two F4 graduates and a series sophomore in Noah Strømsted, who stepped up from Spanish and UAE F4 competition after a successful guest driver cameo in 2023, Edgar Pierre, who came 9th in French F4 in 2023, and Giovanni Maschio, who embarked on his second season in the championship after coming 34th with Monolite Racing in 2023. [28] [29] [30]
G4 Racing saw Alessandro Giusti move over to ART Grand Prix for his sophomore season, while Pierre-Alexandre Provost joined MV2S in the European Endurance Prototype Cup and Michael Belov left the championship. [31] [32] Three more F4 drivers joined the grid for G4, two of them with previous Formula Regional experience. Romain Andriolo came fourth in French F4 in 2023, Jesse Carrasquedo Jr. competed in Spanish, Italian and UAE F4 before debuting in the championship as a guest driver for VAR for two rounds in 2023, and Kanato Le, the first Japanese driver racing in the series, came seventh in British F4 ahead of a FRMEC campaign with R-ace GP. [33] [34] [35]
MP Motorsport promoted Valerio Rinicella from their Spanish and UAE F4 outfit after he came third and fourth respectively in 2023. [36] He replaced Sami Meguetounif, who stepped up to Formula 3 with Trident. [37] The team also recruited Nikhil Bohra, who moved over from Trident after coming 12th with the Italian team in 2023 to fill the seat of the late Dilano van 't Hoff. [38] MP's lineup was completed by Nikita Bedrin, who embarked on the 2024 campaign alongside an FIA F3 campaign with PHM Racing after four guest appearances in 2023 with Monolite and VAR. His dual campaign saw him miss the round at Spa to prioritize F3. He replaced Victor Bernier, who joined Martinet by Alméras in Porsche Supercup. [39] [40]
Trident signed two new drivers to replace Eurocup-3-bound Owen Tangavelou and MP-bound Nikhil Bohra. The team recruited Alpine Academy driver Nicola Lacorte, who stepped up to the category after coming ninth in both the Italian F4 and the Euro 4 Championship in 2023, and Ruiqi Liu, who also contested multiple Formula 4 championships in 2023, culminating in a fourth place in the Formula Winter Series with US Racing. [41] [42]
ART Grand Prix promoted two drivers to FIA F3 in Laurens van Hoepen, who remained with their outfit, and Charlie Wurz, who joined Jenzer. [43] [44] Marcus Amand also left the team to join Schumacher CLRT in Porsche Carrera Cup France. [45] Alessandro Giusti replaced van Hoepen, moving over from G4 Racing after taking three victories and sixth place with the team in his rookie season in 2023. [31] Yaroslav Veselaho replaced Amand after making his Formula Regional debut in the Middle Eastern championship with Xcel Motorsport. [46] 2023 French F4 Championship champion Evan Giltaire remained with ART after already joining the team as a guest driver for the last two rounds of the 2023 season in place of Wurz. [47] F1 Academy runner-up Léna Bühler completed ART's lineup, returning to the championship where she drove for R-ace GP in 2021 and 2022 as part of an agreement allowing FRECA teams to run a fourth car for one of the top three F1 Academy finishers. [48]
Saintéloc Racing fielded an all-new lineup after Lucas Medina, Emerson Fittipaldi Jr. and Esteban Masson left the team, with Fittipaldi Jr. moving to Eurocup, Masson joining Akkodis ASP in the World Endurance Championship and Medina joining Team Virage in the Ligier European Series. [49] [50] [51] The team signed three F4 graduates: Matteo De Palo, who competed in four different Formula 4-level series in 2023 and came fifth in the Spanish championship, French Formula 4 runner-up Enzo Peugeot and Théophile Naël, who won the Spanish F4 championship and already completed a FRMEC campaign, both also driving for Saintéloc. [52]
KIC Motorsport saw their only full-time driver Maya Weug leave the team to join Prema Racing in F1 Academy. [53] The team recruited Costa Toparis, who drove for Evans GP in FRMEC at the start of the year and received technical assistance from the Australian team. [54] Nandhavud Bhirombhakdi, who competed in various Formula 4 championships in the previous two years, and Alex Sawer, who came fifth in the inaugural Indian F4 Championship, joined him. [55] [56]
Newcomers Iron Dames fielded an all-female lineup consisting of 2023 F1 Academy champion Marta García, who was previously slated to drive a fourth Prema entry, [57] and Mercedes junior Doriane Pin, who is also currently competing in F1 Academy. [4]
