Four drivers will battle for the inaugural FIA Formula Regional European Championship (FREC) title at Hockenheim this weekend. Emanuele Olivieri, Sebastian Wheldon, Kean Nakamura-Berta, and Rashid Al Dhaheri all remain in contention for the crown.
Olivieri heads to Germany with a 20-point lead over Wheldon at the top of the standings. The R-ace GP driver took a win and a second place at Imola in the penultimate round, strengthening his grip on the championship. After a slow start at the Red Bull Ring, Olivieri has been the most consistent points-scorer of the quartet. He won at Monza and finished second four times, including at Emilia-Romagna. In fact, he has not finished below fourth in any non-reverse-grid race since Spa-Francorchamps in May. Olivieri also wrapped up the rookie title at Imola, and his R-ace GP team are on the verge of retaining their teams' title.
"I wasn't expecting to leave Imola leading the championship, but the team and I worked extremely hard during the summer break to find the performance we showed here," Olivieri said. "I don't have a particular strategy for Hockenheim. I'll simply do everything I can, give it my best and see what the outcome is."
R-ace GP is the only team to have put all three of its drivers on the top step of the podium this season. Olivieri's teammate, Al Dhaheri, has a 35-point deficit to make up, but with 56 points on offer, the Mercedes-AMG F1 junior should not be written off, especially if he can regain the form he showed in Hungary at the start of the summer.
Anglo-American racer Wheldon has won three times, adding a victory at Paul Ricard to his sensational double at his team's home event at Zandvoort. However, failing to score at the Hungaroring cost him momentum ahead of the summer break. Prema have won every drivers' championship since 2022, thanks to Dino Beganovic, Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Rafael Camara, and Freddie Slater.
The Italian team's lead driver, Kean Nakamura-Berta, came into the season as many people's favourite but has endured a rollercoaster season. On his day, the Williams F1 Team Academy driver has been unbeatable, winning at the Red Bull Ring, Monza, and Paul Ricard. But in between, his season has been compromised by driver errors and technical issues. Nakamura-Berta went from championship leader to third after a "tough weekend" at Imola. "We left too many stones unturned and didn't look deeply enough into some problems that were arising early in the weekend, and that ended up being very costly," he commented after the weekend.
Of course, the championship contenders will not have the luxury of a private battle. Van Amersfoort Racing's Oleksandr Bondarev, like Nakamura-Berta backed by Williams, won on his series debut at Imola, while Prema's Salim Hanna, a protege of Juan Pablo Montoya, took his first win in the reverse-grid race, having dropped away after a promising start.
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