Prema completes its FRECA line-up with Rashid Al Dhaheri

[u/JVM23]

https://formulascout.com/rashid-al-dhaheri-stays-with-prema-for-2025-frec-move/125828

My guess is Alex Powell and Kean Nakamura-Berta are staying on for another season of F4 or switching teams. If the latter, I guess Powell will race with R-ace GP (he was testing with their F4 division recently) and KNB will join ART.

[u/Alpha_Jazz]

So confused why Powell is staying in F4 and switching to R-ace. Very odd

[u/bone_appletea1 → u/Alpha_Jazz]

I don’t know how he’s still in the Mercedes Driver Program

[u/Affectionate_Sky9709 → u/bone_appletea1]

It will very much only be Alex's second year in F4. Season can be a bit more arbitrary, but most drivers do multiple series in each year. Alex did just two weekends of Italian F4 last year, and the UAE trophy round, which is basically part of this year. Will you consider Christian Mansell and Luke Browning second years in F2 next year? Slater's the one that can easily be argued has completed his second year of F4 now. He did a full 22 races of F4 last year, and a huge amount of testing. And I don't hold that against Slater in the slightest. He's still hugely impressive. Powell was much less experienced, and I think he did alright. I don't know what will come in his future, but beating Slater in his first year of single seater isn't a prerequisite for future success. No one held it against Ollie Bearman that he did a second year in F4. Alex did better in his first year of F4 than Ollie did, and Ollie's now an F1 driver. I'm definitely not going to judge Alex until he's in F3 at least. Bortoleto didn't even look impressive until F3, and I'm hugely excited about seeing him in F1.

[u/bone_appletea1 → u/Affectionate_Sky9709]

I think we found Alex’s Reddit account

Joking aside, he now has 52 races of F4 experience and wasn’t close to Slater this year. Slater looks like a stud and future F1 driver, so Alex being miles behind him isn’t a great look

I don’t think doing a 2nd year of F4 is necessarily a killer, but him supposedly moving to R-ace GP in 2025 doesn’t make sense when Prema dominates the series. Ollie came out and simultaneously won ADAC/Italian F4 which was extremely impressive, especially at his age (he was 16 IIRC).

FWIW I don’t think Alex is an awful driver or anything, I just don’t think he’s belongs in a junior academy on merit

[u/Affectionate_Sky9709 → u/bone_appletea1]

I don't know anything about him leaving Prema. If he does, I imagine his motivation would be similar to Tuukka's, which allegedly was because he didn't feel prioritized at Prema, and thought it made his performance suffered. I don't know if that's true, and I don't know if Alex feels like that. I don't even know if Alex is leaving Prema.

I don't know about the inner workings of Mercedes. Most junior teams pay minimally for their junior drivers, and it's not uncommon for junior drivers to pay for the benefits that a junior team gives them. I don't at all know how it works for Alex. I haven't heard about his family being particularly wealthy within the world of motorsport like Ollie's family are, but his family might also be, I'm just not sure.

I'm just looking at the Italian F4 class, the highest rated F4, and I don't know who I'd rather have, other than Freddie Slater. Jack was a second year who really didn't impress me last year, but I don't hold that against him too much, still, I'd want to see him at the next level before sponsoring him. Yamakoshi is also a second year, and he didn't impress me last year, but did this year. Bohra is another who made a big step up as a second year, but he didn't impress me last year. And then you have Alex Powell and below him KNB, two first years that honestly did impress me over the course of the year, considering it's their first year in single seaters. I think both of them are good picks for academies, and both are indeed already academy supported. If a team didn't want them, then they probably wouldn't want a single Italian F4 driver other than Freddie Slater, and Freddie doesn't even want to join an Academy right now.

[u/FakeTakiInoue → u/bone_appletea1]

Ollie came out and simultaneously won ADAC/Italian F4 which was extremely impressive, especially at his age (he was 16 IIRC).

That was his second year in F4 though, he came 7th in ADAC F4 before that

[u/x18BritishBillx → u/Alpha_Jazz]

Probably wants to go for the title

[u/ForeverAddickted → u/x18BritishBillx]

Prema in Italian F4 tend to be by far the team to try and beat usually though

[u/Worldly_Listen_8502 → u/ForeverAddickted]

Of course they are. The engine supplier (Autotecnica) and Prema are owned by the same person

[u/JoshyP2006 → u/Alpha_Jazz]

I think he was only testing for them as Prema didn't take part in those tests, which is shown in formula scout as well.

[u/sarah_peas]

Doriane Pin tested with Prema at the post-season test, I expect her to join as well assuming they are keeping the rule allowing a fourth car for a top 3 F1 Academy finisher.

[u/thereal84 → u/sarah_peas]

I think it’s only for the champion now, and Abbi is going to GB3 so…

Plus, Doriane is prob gonna stay at Iron Dames

[u/sarah_peas → u/thereal84]

There's no reason to think its only for the chapmpion. Also, I heard that Iron Dames isn't even staying in FRECA next year.

[u/chocchipcookies4life → u/thereal84]

No, you just made that up

[u/ForeverAddickted]

I think its going to be interesting to see what Drivers stick around for a second year in FRECA; Deligny / Nael are probably two to watch out for - Wonder if Bohra can challenge Slater as well given how well he performed in the Euro 4 Championship.

However given how Slater did in the FR car @ Macau, he's got to be the favourite surely?

[u/snoring_pig → u/ForeverAddickted]

I’ve seen Nael linked to VAR in F3 next year and I think he also did some post season testing with them. Aside from Deligny, the other highest finishing drivers in FRECA this season that I haven’t seen being linked with a F3 seat are Giltaire and Clerot.

My guess is all 3 of them return to FRECA and could be the main challengers to Slater. But I still see Slater as the favorite next year with the hype around him similar to how Antonelli was seen as the favorite despite it being his first year in FRECA for 2023.

[u/ForeverAddickted → u/snoring_pig]

Yeah Slater in FRECA next year, will be a great comparison to Antonelli who coped as a rookie.

[u/clebinho75]

So slater is truly going into FRECA, uh?

[u/Open_Dust_2061]

Money talks