At Monza, champion Rafael Camara wins the final race of the year and Noah Strømsted takes the Rookie Title
The 2024 season of the Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine comes to a close with another victory for champion Rafael Camara (Prema Racing). The Ferrari Driver Academy driver wraps up his year in the best way possible, cementing his status as the record-holder in this championship. Camara holds the record for wins across the 2023 and 2024 seasons with nine victories, the record for podium finishes with 17, and a total of 309 points this season, the highest single-season tally. It has been a triumphant year for the Prema Racing team, which, in addition to the drivers’ title and the team title, today celebrated the second place in the final championship standings secured by James Wharton, thanks to his third-place finish in Race 2. The bronze medal went to Tuukka Taponen (R-ace GP).
A solid performance in the race also came from Alessandro Giusti, who, after starting from second place alongside pole-sitter Théophile Naël, managed to stay with the leading pack throughout and finished in second. Naël’s story was different, as he was overtaken by Camara at the Roggia on the first lap and then by Giusti and Wharton, eventually finishing fourth. Enzo Peugeot (Saintéloc Racing) also performed well, maintaining a steady pace to secure fifth place from start to finish. Sixth place went to Nikita Bedrin (MP Motorsport), who finished ahead of Ugo Ugochukwu (Prema Racing), Zachary David (R-ace GP), and Kanato Le (G4 Racing). Completing the top 10 was Noah Strømsted (RPM), who, with this result, secured the rookie title, a category in which the Danish driver has shown exceptional skill throughout the season. Just behind him in eleventh was another contender for the rookie title, Evan Giltaire, who saw his hopes for the top rookie honor slip away.
The race saw two safety car periods, the first caused by a collision between Ruiqi Liu (Trident) and Romain Andriolo (G4 Racing), which forced the latter out of the race. The second incident involved a multi-car collision at the first chicane between Pedro Clerot (Van Amersfoort Racing) and Matteo De Palo (Saintéloc Racing), which led to De Palo colliding with Tuukka Taponen (R-ace GP), who was caught up through no fault of his own, forcing all three cars to retire. A red flag was also waved in the final stages of the race after the cars of Liu and Nandahavud Bhirombhakdi (KIC Motorsport) came to a halt against the barriers.
Noah Strømsted secured the rookie title.
Rafael Camara – Prema Racing
“I’m very happy about this season, we did a very good job, always consistent, only Red Bull Ring we missed a bit but other than that we did a very good job as a team. It was brilliant to work with everyone at Prema this year, some of them I knew from last year, but some were new and I think this was just amazing to work with such good professionals and such good people which makes this so special.”
Alessandro Giusti – ART Grand Prix
“I’m quite disappointed to be 2nd and to miss 3rd in the championship, we were close just a couple of points away. We were just missing the win with there being a lot of safety cars unfortunately, we were the fastest car out there I believe, and we did the fastest lap. It is a shame to not get 3rd place in the championship, but it is what it is.”
James Wharton – Prema Racing
“I had a really tough start to the season, but I have come back super strong, Vice FRECA Champion in my first season is quite good and the only person in front of me is a second year driver in Rafa. I’m super proud of myself, super proud of the team, and my engineer Nicolas who has done everything for me the last 3 seasons, we stuck together the whole time. It’s sad to leave, it’s on to new things now, but I just can’t thank the team enough for this season I have been super-fast every weekend, a double podium to end is all I can ask for.”
Enzo Peugeot – Sainteloc Racing
“It was quite an eventful race, which was very tricky, we had 3 laps at the start of safety car, then one more lap before a red flag. It was a bit frustrating because we had the pace, thanks to the team who gave me a mega car also in the rain for qualifying this morning. But it’s good to finish this season on a high and let’s see what we can do next season.”
Noah Strømsted – RPM
“It’s a great result at the end of the season! We’ve had a good season, there have been ups and downs, but to end like this is super nice. Also for the team, it’s a first championship win so it means a lot for them and for me too. After the summer break, we were stronger than ever before, we scored quite a few podiums and good points throughout the last few races, here was not the best of weekends but we still got some points in the last race to defend the rookie title.”