Talent-packed entry unveiled for 2025 Macau Grand Prix – FIA FR World Cup
A galaxy of the world’s greatest up-and-coming young driving talent will fight it out for glory in the Macau Grand Prix – FIA FR World Cup from November 13-16.
An entry of 27 drivers has been assembled to weave their Formula Regional (FR) machinery around the challenging Guia Circuit. Practice and qualifying will take place on Thursday November 13, and Friday November 14, with the Qualifying Race on Saturday November 15, and the Macau Grand Prix – FIA FR World Cup itself the spectacular curtain-closer to the event on Sunday November 16.
The world’s most competitive FR series is the Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine (FRECA), and eight of the current top ten in the standings are entered. One of them was also champion this year in FR Middle East, while the top two from the Japanese FR series are venturing to Macao. Several drivers are making the step back from Formula 3, and there is even a multiple Macau Grand Prix winner on the entry list.
Taking pride of place on the entry list, owing to its superb victory with Ugo Ugochukwu in 2024, is R-ace GP. The French team is bringing Italian Matteo De Palo and Frenchman Enzo Deligny, second and third respectively in the FRECA rankings, with De Palo moving over from the Trident team for Macao. Like Deligny, Japan’s Jin Nakamura, a protégé of Toyota, has competed with R-ace all season. All three drivers made their first appearance at Macao last year in the race, with Deligny the best-placed in fourth.
De Palo has been locked all season in an intense battle for the FRECA crown with championship-leading Briton Freddie Slater, who remains with SJM Theodore PREMA Racing for Macao and spearheads the attack of the Italian team, which has had so much success in the Grand Prix across the years. Slater’s season-long team-mate, Emirati Rashid Al Dhaheri, will line up alongside him. This will be the third trip to Macao for both Slater and Al Dhaheri, whose first visit in 2023 came in the Macau Formula 4 Race held that year.
Intriguingly, the SJM Theodore PREMA Racing team is completed by local hero Charles Leong Hon Chio. Leong first competed in the F3 Macau Grand Prix in 2018, and then claimed victory when the race was run for F4 cars in 2020 and 2021. He was second in the 2023 F4 race, and this season has just been crowned Lamborghini Super Trofeo Asia champion.
ART Grand Prix, like Prema, is a former winner of the Macau Grand Prix, albeit under its former name of ASM. The French single-seater giant brings its FR Middle East champion Evan Giltaire, plus Japanese pair Taito Kato (who is backed by Honda) and Kanato Le. All three have been competitive in FRECA this season with ART, and Giltaire and Le are making their second visits to Macao.
While De Palo has moved on from the team, Trident is putting its faith in leading drivers from the FIA F3 Championship. Noah Strømsted finished sixth in that series with the Italian squad in 2025, while Thai Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak was a double race winner – if the surname is familiar, that is because his father Vutthikorn has competed in GT races at Macao many times. They will be joined by young Briton Reza Seewooruthun, who raced predominantly in the British FR-level GB3 series this season. All are making their Macao debuts.
More F3 talents line up for the two-car Pinnacle Motorsport attack. Spaniard Mari Boya makes his return to the Irish-licensed team with which he finished seventh in the Macau Grand Prix – FIA FR World Cup last year. He will aim to improve on the fourth place he achieved in the F3 Macau Grand Prix in 2023. Alongside him, France’s Théophile Naël was also on the grid 12 months ago.
Over at Evans GP, an interesting line-up at the Australian team features two brothers whose father finished seventh in the 1995 F3 Macau Grand Prix. Charlie Wurz returns for the first time since 2023, and his younger brother Oscar makes his debut here after competing this season in Eurocup-3, in which the cars are almost identical to those you will see fighting it out on the Guia Circuit. Austrian racing great Alexander Wurz, who won the Le Mans 24 Hours and was a Formula 1 podium finisher, will no doubt be giving them plenty of advice. The Evans team is completed by another Macao rookie in the form of talented Japanese FRECA ace Hiyu Yamakoshi.
The Eurocup-3 representation does not stop with the youngest Wurz. Newly-crowned champion Mattia Colnaghi returns for his second crack at Macao with German team PHM Racing. China’s Enzo Yeh competed at the event in 2023 in the Macau F4 Race, while José Garfias will experience the Guia Circuit for the first time, the Mexican moving across after a successful season in Euroformula Open.
The Euroformula champion, Poland’s Tymek Kucharczyk, has limited experience in FR machinery, so he is an intriguing entry for Macao with Van Amersfoort Racing (VAR). The cars in which he has been winning this season after very similar in concept to the former F3 machinery that raced in Macao up to 2018. FR Japan championship leader Kiyoshi Umegaki is another entry from the Dutch VAR stable, which is completed by Chinese driver Newman Chi Zhenrui, who steps up from a strong season in Italian F4. All are first-timers in Macao.
Umegaki’s main title rival this season is Tokiya Suzuki. Both have raced with the Toyota-affiliated TOM’S Formula in 2025, and Suzuki remains at the team for his maiden visit to Macao. His stablemate is Yuki Sano, runner-up with TOM’S in Japan’s Super Formula Lights series, in which the cars are almost identical to those in Euroformula.
A third French team, Saintéloc Racing, brings the entry to 27 cars. This operation brings further Eurocup-3 contenders in the form of American James Egozi and French-Vietnamese Owen Tangavelou, who has also been racing in the IndyCar-supporting USF Pro 2000 series. As with TOM’S, both the Saintéloc drivers are making their Macao debuts.
They will have a lot to learn, since the Guia Circuit is legendary for throwing the unexpected at all participants. With such a potential-packed entry, it promises to be a classic Macau Grand Prix – FIA FR World Cup.
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Macau Grand Prix Organizing Committee