NEWS

Freddie Slater and Emanuele Olivieri Star on Opening Night in Abu Dhabi

Jan 19,2025


  • Freddie Slater leads Rashid Al Dhaheri in Mumbai Falcons Formula Regional 1-2


  • Emanuele Olivieri has the measure of competitive Formula 4 field


  • Total of 55 drivers fight it out under the Abu Dhabi floodlights




UAE, January 19, 2025: The Formula Middle East extravaganza kicked off in style at Abu Dhabi’s Yas Marina Circuit with superb showcases for the world’s up-and-coming racing talent in the Formula Regional Middle East (FRMEC) and Formula 4 Middle East (F4ME) Championships. The Saturday action under the night-time floodlights drew 55 young racers from around the globe, and two 16-year-olds stood proud among their peers.

 

British sensation Freddie Slater, last year’s F4 UAE champion who then went on to claim title glory in the Italian F4 Championship, led the Formula Regional action from start to finish in his Mumbai Falcons Racing Limited car. An equally consummate performance was put in during the Formula 4 curtain raiser by exciting Italian Emanuele Olivieri, who strode away from the field with his R-ace GP machine on his first racing appearance in the Middle East.

 

In FRMEC, Slater led home a 1-2 for the Prema Racing-run Mumbai Falcons squad ahead of his team-mate, Abu Dhabi’s local hero Rashid Al Dhaheri. Completing the podium was Frenchman Evan Giltaire with ART Grand Prix. Prema also got two cars on the podium in F4. Mumbai Falcons’ Anglo-Japanese Alpine Formula 1 protégé Kean Nakamura-Berta finished second to Olivieri, with American Sebastian Wheldon, the older son of the late IndyCar hero Dan Wheldon, claiming third place in a car run under Prema’s own name.


Formula Regional Middle East 

Race 1

1st Freddie Slater/Mumbai Falcons Racing Limited

2nd Rashid Al Dhaheri/Mumbai Falcons Racing Limited

3rd Evan Giltaire/ART Grand Prix

 

Formula 4 Middle East
Race 1

1st Emanuele Olivieri/R-ace GP

2nd Kean Nakamura-Berta/Mumbai Falcons Racing Limited

3rd Sebastian Wheldon/Prema Racing


Formula Regional Middle East

 

Race 1:

 

Freddie Slater only snatched pole position away from Evan Giltaire as one of the last drivers to take the chequered flag at the end of the opening qualifying session, with the margin a mere 0.070 seconds. Whether Giltaire could keep that pressure on in the race will remain a question for now because a spectacular move carried Rashid Al Dhaheri into second place around the outside of Turn 9 – the first corner this weekend owing to FRMEC using the alternative start-finish line on the far side of the circuit from the Formula 1 pits.

 

Slater was more than a second in front by the end of the opening lap and he simply carried on pulling further away from Al Dhaheri. After 17 laps the gap between the duo – who were also first and second in the Rookie class – at the finish of the race was 7.434s. Giltaire gave pursuit to Al Dhaheri during the early laps as the leading trio put on a superb display of driving, pulling themselves away from the action in their wake.

 

Brando Badoer made his way up to fourth place on the opening lap, and for most of the race the Italian’s PHM Racing car looked secure in that position. But Red Bull’s new Mexican talent Ernesto Rivera had other ideas. Rivera, representing Pinnacle Motorsport, was seventh on the opening lap, but moved up to sixth next time around when his compatriot Jesse Carrasquedo lost fifth position by running wide at Turn 12. Rivera then set off after Ugo Ugochukwu and, midway through the race, he demoted the 2024 Macau Grand Prix winner at Turn 9.

 

There was a substantial gap to Badoer, but Rivera was right with him with a lap remaining. He lost some ground with a bold attempt at Turn 9 and, despite another last-ditch move that brought him almost level with the experienced Badoer at the finish, Rivera had to settle for fifth on his Formula Regional debut, and third in the Rookie class.

 

American Ugochukwu, R-ace GP’s junior driver for the McLaren F1 team, came under further threat from reigning French F4 champion Taito Kato. The Japanese Honda prospect had his ART car in front with a lap to go, only for Ugochukwu to get back ahead for sixth on the road.

 

Contact during a move on the inside by Ugochukwu resulted in an off-course excursion for Carrasquedo at Turn 12, costing the Mexican a position to Kato and leaving him vulnerable to those behind. The incident resulted in a five second penalty for Ugochukwu, demoting him to tenth in the final classification and without the benefit of pole position for the top-ten reverse grid for race two courtesy of a four-place grid penalty. Carrasquedo eventually dropped to 11th, with Frenchmen Enzo Deligny (R-ace) and Théophile Naël (Saintéloc Racing) in seventh and eighth respectively. Another ART-run Japanese, Kanato Le, finished ninth, while making it three Japanese drivers in the points in 12th was R-ace contender Jin Nakamura.

 

Le will start race two on Sunday from pole position on the reversed grid, while Slater is at the front again for the third and final race of the weekend after also topping the second qualifying session.



Formula 4 Middle East

 

Race 1:

Everything looked rosy for the R-ace GP team in qualifying for the first race, with Emanuele Olivieri heading a front-row lockout ahead of his team-mate, American-Jamaican Mercedes F1 protégé Alex Powell. The better start looked to have been made by Powell, but then suddenly Olivieri regained the initiative and the sister car was slowing. Powell was in trouble, and was forced into the pits for the R-ace GP squad to make repairs while the safety car emerged on track to rescue the car of Fu Yuhao from the barrier.

 

The unfortunate Powell did rejoin adrift of the back of the field, and made some good progress once he had caught the tail-enders, but an incident eventually forced him back into the pits and retirement.

 

Kean Nakamura-Berta emerged from the first-lap battles in second place with Latvian team-mate Tomass Štolcermanis making it a temporary 2-3 for Mumbai Falcons. It appeared that this pair were comfortably keeping Sebastian Wheldon at arm’s length, but with five laps remaining Štolcermanis suddenly lost a lot of ground. While Olivieri went on to defeat Nakamura-Berta to victory by 6.571 seconds, attentions turned to the fighting behind.

 

Wheldon wasted little time in dispatching Štolcermanis at the Turns 6/7 chicane with four laps to go, and next to challenge the struggling Baltic talent was his Mumbai Falcons team-mate Salim Hanna. The Colombian got ahead to take fourth at Turn 9 with three laps remaining, and was followed home by the Prema car of Chinese racer Chi Zhenrui.

 

Moving in the opposite direction to Štolcermanis was Reno Francot. The first-lap skirmishes had left the AKCEL GP/PHM Racing-run Dutchman well outside the top 10, but he stormed through the field to snatch sixth place, with Ukrainian Oleksandr Savinkov (R-ace GP) seventh and Štolcermanis fading to eighth. Dubai racer Adam Al Azhari ran as high as sixth for Yas Heat Racing Academy and finished ninth, with South African Cole Hewetson (Xcel Motorsport) and Hungarian Martin Molnár (Evans GP) also part of this spectacular battle on their way to 10th and 11th respectively. Molnár’s Evans team-mate, Macanese Tiago Rodrigues, claimed the final point in 12th.


There was more good news for Hewetson: not only was he third in the Rookie class behind category winner Hanna and runner-up Chi, but his 10th place gives him reversed-grid pole position for race two. Powell, after heading the second qualifying session, has the opportunity to make up for his bad luck of Saturday from pole position for the weekend’s third race.