The FIA Formula Regional European Championship heads to the Hungaroring this weekend for the fifth of its eight rounds of the season, just two weeks after the previous event at Monza. The 4.381-kilometre circuit near Budapest will welcome the series from 3-5 July, ahead of hosting Formula 1 later that month.
The first half of the season has highlighted the competitiveness of the field, producing seven different winners from the opening 10 races, two of them Rookies. With three drivers having already topped the standings and less than 50 points covering the top five, the title fight remains finely poised.
After losing the championship lead at the Spa round, MP Motorsport's Sebastian Wheldon moved back to the top of the standings following the Monza weekend. Having claimed a pair of victories at Zandvoort and added three more podium finishes to his tally, he now holds a slender seven-point advantage over Kean Nakamura-Berta. The PREMA Racing driver has once again underlined his outright pace this season, having already secured four pole positions and two victories.
Among the leading contenders is also Rashid Al Dhaheri, whose season tally includes two victories and five podium finishes. The R-ace GP driver has scored points in nine of the first 10 races and heads to the Hungaroring sitting 15 points adrift of championship leader Wheldon.
Monza proved to be a breakthrough weekend for Emanuele Olivieri, who celebrated his first victory in the championship and climbed to fourth in the standings, 21 points behind his team-mate Al Dhaheri. The Italian continues to lead among the Rookies, holding a 48-point advantage over Alexandre Munoz. The French ART Grand Prix driver opened his winning account in the series at Spa, mastering the wet conditions, where he split the wins with Trident Motorsport's Maksimilian Popov.
Reno Francot's victory at Spielberg marked the first ever success for CL Motorsport in the series and lifted the Dutchman to fifth in the standings ahead of Salim Hanna. Meanwhile, PREMA Racing's Colombian driver, already a three-time podium finisher in 2026, heads to the Hungaroring after making his FIA Formula 3 debut in Austria last weekend, becoming the first driver from the Tatuus T-326 second-generation era to graduate to the next step of the FIA single-seater ladder.
A total of 13 drivers have reached the podium so far this season, including Rodin Motorsport duo Alex Ninovic and Reza Seewooruthun, MP Motorsport's Alexander Abkhazava, Van Amersfoort Racing's Andrea Dupé and, most recently, R-ace GP's Yuki Sano, who finished third in Race 3 at Monza.
The Hungaroring round will also mark the series debut of 19-year-old Australian Noah Lisle, who joins CL Motorsport.
WEEKEND SCHEDULE
Track action will get underway on Thursday with two 90-minute collective test sessions. Friday's schedule features the two 50-minute Free Practice sessions, which are set to start at 11:38 and 16:41 CEST respectively. Saturday will see the 30 drivers split into Groups A and B for Qualifying 1, which is scheduled to get underway at 11:35 CEST. Later in the day, the first of the two races will start at 18:20 CEST and will run over 30 minutes plus one lap. Qualifying 2 is due to begin at 08:30 CEST on Sunday morning, while Race 2 will start at 15:55 CEST.
WHERE TO WATCH
The two races from the Hungaroring will be broadcast across more than 200 territories worldwide, including on ACI Sport TV. In addition, both qualifying sessions and the races will be available via live streaming on the championship's official YouTube channel, @fiaformularegionaleu.
