The entry list for the 2024 FIA FR World Cup in Macau has today, 22 October, confirmed that 27 drivers from 15 different nationalities will take to the grid in on November 17 for the iconic Macau Grand Prix.
Australia, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Macau, Mexico, Spain, Sweden, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and the United States will all be represented in Macau, as some of their top talents test their skills and look to impress on the world stage.
This truly international field will continue the long and illustrious history of the unique event as they fight to join the list of star drivers who have previously conquered the immense challenge of Macau’s city streets.
Following the switch to Formula Regional machinery for this latest iteration of the blue riband junior single-seater event, front-running drivers from every FR Championship have been confirmed today during the event’s official pre-event press conference in Macau.
FR Americas, European, Japanese, Middle East and Oceania are all represented, and the 2024 move to this globally-accessible platform also means that teams and drivers from domestic Japanese series are returning to Macau for the first time since 2018. 2023 FR Japanese Champion Sota Ogawa will likely be a standout competitor from this contingent.
The roster boasts plenty of success within the FIA’s junior pathway for single-seater drivers, from FIA Karting through to FIA-certified Formula 4 Championships and then Formula Regional.
The FR category has already cemented its position on the ladder to the FIA Formula One World Championship, as evidenced by 2023 Formula Regional European Champion Kimi Antonelli, who will become a Mercedes F1 driver in 2025. Every current F1 team has junior drivers competing in a Formula Regional championship, and five drivers racing at this year’s FR World Cup are a part of these programmes.
Dino Beganovic (Ferrari Driver Academy) is another former FRECA champion, and he will joined by fellow F1 junior drivers Alexander Dunne (McLaren Driver Development Programme), Oliver Goethe (Red Bull Junior Team), Tuukka Taponen (Ferrari Driver Academy) and Ugo Ugochukwu (McLaren Driver Development Programme).
In addition to the F1 juniors and FR champions, no fewer than nine FIA Formula 4 Champions from 2023 are set to line up for the FR World Cup, including F4 Spanish champion Théophile Nael, F4 Indian Champion Cooper Webster, F4 Chinese Champion Tiago Rodrigues, F4 Japanese Champion Rikuto Kobayashi, F4 French Champion Evan Giltaire, F4 UAE Champion James Wharton and F4 NACAM and US Champion Noel Leon.
The FIA FR World Cup takes place from 14-17 November, with two practice sessions and two qualifying sessions setting the grid for the Qualification Race, which in turn sets the final grid of the weekend for ultimate honours – the Macau Grand Prix itself.
The FIA FR World Cup, along with the co-headlining FIA GT World Cup, will benefit from extensive live streaming via the FIA’s official YouTube channel.
Emanuele Pirro, President of the FIA Single-Seater Committee, said: “I am really happy to see so many of the most talented junior drivers and teams committed to the FIA FR World Cup. This event has always been one of the toughest and more rewarding challenges on the pathway for young drivers as they progress towards the ultimate goal of Formula 1 and our other FIA World Championships, and to have so many different former champions of F4 and Formula Regional coming to Macau really brings the spirit of this historic race. I will be watching the weekend very closely, with a bit of nostalgia, and I am sure the same is true for all the Formula 1 teams.”
Source : Fia
