Williams F1 juniors Nakamura-Berta and Bondarev crowned Formula Middle East champions in electrifying Qatar decider

• Formula Regional Middle East Trophy Rookie Kean Nakamura-Berta dramatically overturns Rashid Al Dhaheri’s lead with title-clinching double win

• Oleksandr Bondarev secures UAE4 Series crown as rival Andy Consani takes superb victory

• Standout talent Kenzo Craigie claims UAE4 Series Rookie honours for season

 

Qatar, February 13, 2026: Kean Nakamura-Berta and Oleksandr Bondarev, stablemates at the Prema-run Mumbai Falcons Racing team and both protégés of the historic Williams Formula 1 operation, were each title winners on the final day of the 2026 Formula Middle East season at Qatar’s Lusail International Circuit. Bondarev had to play the percentages to put the UAE4 Series crown beyond the reach of main rival Andy Consani. Then Nakamura-Berta overturned a daunting Formula Regional Middle East Trophy (FRME) points deficit to Rashid Al Dhaheri by romping to two victories and snatching the crown.

 

Remarkably, reigning Italian Formula 4 and Euro 4 champion Nakamura-Berta had not won a Formula Regional race since his step up to the category for 2026. But a string of consistently strong results had earmarked the 18-year-old, London-born Japanese-Slovakian as the only realistic rival to Mercedes F1 junior Al Dhaheri when the racing began. Nakamura-Berta was utterly unbeatable on the day, taking two pole positions and heading his American team-mate Sebastian Wheldon, son of the late IndyCar great Dan Wheldon, to a pair of Mumbai Falcons 1-2 finishes. In the first race, Al Dhaheri’s R-ace GP car finished sixth, his points lead over Nakamura-Berta slashed from 24 to seven; in the second, he could not improve upon seventh. Also on the podium with a third place apiece were RPM’s impressive Polish racer Jan Przyrowski, and Pinnacle Motorsport’s Jamaican-American Alex Powell.

 

Nakamura-Berta, who also put the Rookie crown to bed in race one, ended up beating Al Dhaheri to the overall title by 12 points, with Alexander Abkhazava 56 adrift in third. The unlucky MP Motorsport-run Kazakhstani entered the event just six points behind Nakamura-Berta, but the post-qualifying technical checks failed to yield sufficient fuel from his car for testing, so he started each race from the back of the grid and scored no points. In the Rookie classification, Maksimilian Popov ended his season as runner-up, with Przyrowski third. Mumbai Falcons Racing Limited earned Teams honours.

 

In the highly dramatic UAE4 action, Bondarev looked to have done enough to wrap up the title in race two after the R-ace GP car of Mercedes F1-backed Consani was eliminated in an incident. The Ukrainian was up to fifth place – enough to put things beyond doubt – but a red flag brought an early finish, and on results countback Bondarev was classified seventh, still two points short of the crown. That race was won in a composed performance by 15-year-old Ferrari Driver Academy member Niccolò Maccagnani, the Italian leading home welcome series returnee Tomass Štolcermanis, the Latvian driving for PHM Racing, and Xcel Motorsport’s British racer Joseph Smith.

 

Ninth place in the finale would suffice for the 16-year-old Bondarev to be crowned, and his eventual fifth place was more than enough. Consani, 16, put in a spectacular display for a dominant race victory, but it was all in vain as far as the title was concerned. The Frenchman headed home the Prema Racing cars of Romanian David Cosma-Cristofor and McLaren’s young Spanish prospect Christian Costoya. Rookie wins on the day went to PHM’s Italian youngster Iacopo Martinese and Costoya.

 

Bondarev therefore sealed the overall crown by eight points over Consani, with third-placed Briton Kenzo Craigie (R-ace GP) a further 65 behind. But Mercedes-backed Craigie had done enough to put the Rookie honours beyond reach in race two, with Costoya and Mumbai Falcons’ Turkish talent Alp Aksoy second and third respectively in the division. R-ace GP earned the Teams title.

Formula Regional Middle East Trophy Race 1 1st Kean Nakamura-Berta/Mumbai Falcons Racing Ltd 2nd Sebastian Wheldon/Mumbai Falcons Racing Ltd 3rd Jan Przyrowski/RPM Race 2 1st Kean Nakamura-Berta/Mumbai Falcons Racing Ltd 2nd Sebastian Wheldon/Mumbai Falcons Racing Ltd 3rd Alex Powell/Pinnacle Motorsport Drivers Champion: Kean Nakamura-Berta Rookie Champion: Kean Nakamura-Berta Teams Champion: Mumbai Falcons Racing Ltd UAE4 Series Race 2 1st Niccolo Maccagnani/Mumbai Falcons Racing Ltd 2nd Tomass Stolcermanis/PHM Racing 3rd Joseph Smith/XCEL Motorsport Race 3 1st Andy Consani/R-ace GP 2nd David Cosma-Cristofor/Prema Racing 3rd Christian Costoya-Sanabria Drivers Champion: Oleksandr Bondarev Rookie Champion: Kenzo Craigie Teams Champion: R-ace GP

 

 

Formula Regional Middle East Trophy

 

Race 1

The pendulum in the title battle truly swung during the two qualifying sessions. While Kean Nakamura-Berta put in scorching lap times to claim pole position for both races, points leader Rashid Al Dhaheri would line up fourth for race one, and eighth for the season finale.

 

Alex Powell was alongside Nakamura-Berta on the front row for the opening race, but fell to fourth place as they raced down to Turn 1, with Sebastian Wheldon and the fast-starting Jan Przyrowski – up from fifth on the grid – chasing Nakamura-Berta. Al Dhaheri’s task had got a whole lot greater, the Emirati dropping to seventh in the first few moments of the race, behind Kabir Anurag and Emanuele Olivieri.

 

Nakamura-Berta was already almost 1.5 seconds in front just over halfway around the first lap when the safety car was called. Maxim Rehm had tripped over Dion Gowda in the hectic jostling at Turn 6, and went airborne before landing in the gravel trap. Rehm was held to be responsible for the collision, and was given a grid penalty for race two. When the field was unleashed again, Nakamura-Berta calmly pulled out a second over Wheldon during the first two laps, kept it at that margin for a while, and then extended over the closing stages to lead his Mumbai Falcons team-mate home by 1.827 seconds.

 

Przyrowski dropped away from Wheldon so that his focus became staying ahead of Powell. That was something he accomplished in style to claim a fine third. Al Dhaheri made a fine outside pass on Olivieri at Turn 1 at the restart to take sixth and then tried to get onto terms with the ART Grand Prix car of Anurag, but the Singaporean Alpine F1 protégé kept the points leader at bay to take fifth. Al Dhaheri’s advantage over Nakamura-Berta was slashed to seven points going into the final race. Remarkably, Al Dhaheri was the leading non-Rookie at the finish, with the overall victory wrapping up the category crown for Nakamura-Berta.

 

Italian Olivieri took seventh ahead of R-ace GP team-mate Yuki Sano. Behind the Toyota-backed Japanese, Maksimilian Popov was ninth in his Trident car, and Mumbai Falcons-run Colombian Salim Hanna rounded out the top 10.

 

Formula Regional Middle East Trophy

 

Race 2

This time it was Sebastian Wheldon who sat on the front row alongside his pole-winning Mumbai Falcons Racing Limited stablemate Kean Nakamura-Berta. Should Nakamura-Berta win the race, then Rashid Al Dhaheri needed to climb all the way from eighth place to second for his points advantage not to be overcome. The Abu Dhabi native had it all to do.

 

Nakamura-Berta made a strong getaway once again, with Wheldon in pursuit, and there wasn’t much daylight between the leading duo over the opening stages before the safety car was called, swiftly replaced by a red flag. Meanwhile, Al Dhaheri had managed to squeeze his way past Jesse Carrasquedo at the end of lap one to move up to seventh.

 

The reason for the stoppage was a double incident. Alexander Abkhazava and Enea Frey collided at Turn 7, with both out of the race and Frey held responsible by the stewards, while Alceu Feldmann Neto got on the kerb on a corner exit, sending him into the barriers.

 

Nakamura-Berta got a fabulous restart to leave Wheldon fending off Alex Powell for second, while Kabir Anurag, Jan Przyrowski, Salim Hanna and Al Dhaheri were all very close in the fight encompassing fourth to seventh. Wheldon did not take long to shake off Powell and, even though Nakamura-Berta had stretched his advantage at the front to over a second, back came the American. Wheldon never got close enough to make a serious bid, but the gap ebbed and flowed and eventually Nakamura-Berta crossed the finish line with 0.765 seconds to spare – and the title in his pocket.

 

Powell had a strong run to third, with Anurag recovering from running wide out of Turn 6 on the final lap to retain fourth. Przyrowksi was fifth, with Hanna clinging on to sixth from the disappointed Al Dhaheri. The long-time points leader tried on numerous occasions to depose the Colombian, which in turn allowed Emanuele Olivieri to close in, but had to make do with seventh.

 

Carrasquedo, whose MP Motorsport car was passed impressively on the outside at Turn 1 by Olivieri on lap eight, finished ninth, but the Mexican was later excluded for not arriving for his weighing procedure after the race. That promoted Yuki Sano to ninth, with the final point of the Formula Regional Middle East Trophy season scored by 10th-placed Brazilian Miguel Costa (RPM).

 

UAE4 Series

 

Race 2

Joseph Smith had pole position on the reversed grid, but fellow front-row starter Niccolò Maccagnani made a much better getaway to grab the lead on the run to Turn 1. Tomass Štolcermanis also drafted past Smith, who had to shrug off a side-by-side challenge at the first corner from Elia Weiss to even retain third.

 

While Maccagnani looked comfortable at the front over the opening four laps, there was plenty of interest upon title contenders Oleksandr Bondarev and Andy Consani, who had both lined up on the sixth row. Bondarev made a good start to immediately rise from 11th to eighth, but there was disaster for Consani, whose car did not get away when the lights went out. Eventually he got going, but was way down in 25th position of the enormous 38-car field as they completed the first sector, improving to 21st by the end of the opening lap.

 

Bondarev pulled off a fine move around the outside of Kenzo Craigie at Turn 1 on the third lap to gain another position up to seventh, while Consani continued his progress to rise to 17th at the same time. Now Consani set his sights upon 16th-placed Adam Al Azhari, himself mounting a recovery after stalling at the start of Thursday’s race one. Al Azhari was not going to make things easy for Consani, and their battle ended in disaster on the fifth lap. Consani tried to pass around the outside of the tight Turn 6 left-hander, and was on the kerb on the exit, before a collision with Al Azhari as he tried to rejoin the circuit sent then spinning off into the barriers.

 

The race was red-flagged while the incident was cleared and, with Consani out of the race, Bondarev needed to gain one more position up to sixth in order to clinch the UAE4 title before the final race. Up front, Maccagnani nailed the restart to perfection, a stunning 2.241 seconds clear of the field after the first lap of racing. Bondarev, meanwhile, was thrusting to pass Christian Costoya for sixth when there was another red flag. This time, Lucas Pasquinetti had tangled with Bader Al Sulaiti at the looping Turn 7 right-hander.

 

As the cars sat in the pits waiting for the restart, the Mumbai Falcons crew elected to put a fresher set of tyres on Bondarev’s car, effectively compromising his hopes in race three in a bid to put the title to bed now. As the race resumed, the plan looked to be a masterstroke. Bondarev not only gained the position he needed by passing Costoya around the outside of Turn 2, but he also sailed around Weiss at Turn 4 to grab fifth. But there was another red flag due to an incident at Turn 2 between Kwan Ho Kingsley Zheng and David Cosma-Cristofor, for which Zheng was given a grid penalty for race three. This time the race was declared and, on the regulation laps countback, Bondarev was seventh after all. The title would have to wait.

 

Maccagnani was therefore the deserving victor, with Štolcermanis second ahead of Smith, German Weiss (R-ace GP) and Iacopo Martinese, whose own fine move on Weiss at Turn 1 after the last restart was scrubbed out by the results countback. The Italian did gain some consolation with Rookie class honours. Costoya was sixth, and second Rookie, ahead of Bondarev, with Craigie eighth – the Briton was third Rookie, and clinched the class title with a race to spare. The final points scorers were Hitech’s Swedish Red Bull Junior Scott Kin Lindblom (ninth) and Alp Aksoy (10th).

 

UAE4 Series

 

Race 3

Andy Consani had to win this race to stand any chance of the UAE4 Series title, and qualifying on pole position was the best start possible. It wasn’t easy though. Consani had set a time good enough to top the second qualifying session before it was disallowed for track limits, but he regrouped and completed a scorching lap at the chequered flag to take the prime spot ahead of David Cosma-Cristofor, while points leader Oleksandr Bondarev lined up fourth, alongside Christian Costoya. All Bondarev needed was to finish in the top nine and the crown would be his.

 

Consani made no mistakes at the start to lead from Cosma-Cristofor, Costoya and Bondarev. But in the lower reaches of the top 10, contact from Kenzo Craigie at Turn 4 caused race-ending damage to the car of Tomass Štolcermanis. The Latvian pulled off the track and the safety car was called to retrieve the stricken machine. Craigie was given a 30-second penalty for the incident, but retired later in the race anyway.

 

Bondarev looked vulnerable at the restart, with Scott Kin Lindblom putting him under immense pressure. A dive from the Swede at Turn 6 meant Bondarev ran wide on the exit, dropping to fifth. But at least he had the welcome presence of team-mate Alp Aksoy behind him. While Consani pulled away to a healthy two seconds lead over the next few laps, Cosma-Cristofor and Costoya ran very close in their battle for second, while Bondarev was feinting moves on Lindblom behind as they pulled away from Aksoy.

 

The safety car was called again when damage to his car sent Platon Kostin into the gravel at Turn 16, while Craigie was also sidelined at another part of the course. Four laps remained when the field was unleashed once more, and Consani drove perfectly to victory by 2.741 seconds, with Cosma-Cristofor beating Rookie winner Costoya to second. Lindblom was fourth, and Bondarev was crowned UAE4 Series champion in fifth.

 

Aksoy finished sixth, while Iacopo Martinese’s pass at Turn 1 on Adam Al Azhari after the final safety car gave him seventh position – and third Rookie behind Costoya and Aksoy. The Yas Heat Racing car of Dubai talent Al Azhari then dropped to a final position of 11th. Weiss was eighth, with Hitech’s British-Emirati Theo Palmer claiming ninth ahead of Joseph Smith, who scored the final point.