Olivieri Seals the Formula Regional European Championship Title
Wheldon took the race win but Olivieri’s second place finish gained him enough points to walk away from Hockenheim as the Driver’s Champion for the Formula Regional European Championship in 2026.
It’s time for the race that decides it all at Hockenheim. A four-way championship fight going down to the last race of the season between Olivieri, Nakamura-Berta, Wheldon and Al Dhaheri for the overall drivers championship, who emerged victorious?
With Olivieri having secured the Rookie’s Championship at Imola last weekend and R-ace GP securing the team’s championship, can Olivieri or Al Dhaheri make it three for three for the team.
Going into the final race, Emanuele Olivieri still held the lead of the championship but with him not finishing the first race on Saturday, Nakamura-Berta narrowed the gap to only seven points between the two of them with Wheldon and Al Dhaheri close behind with 16 and 20 points between themselves and Olivieri respectively.
Following qualifying, only three of the four championship contenders started in the top-4 with Wheldon locking down the front row as he’s on pole, with Nakamura-Berta starting behind him in P2. Olivieri started the final race in fourth while his teammate Al Dhaheri started in 13th. The season so far had seen 11 different race winners, 8 teams taking race victories, 8 different pole sitters and 14 different podium sitters.
The lights went out and for the final time this year in the Formula Regional European Championship it was pedal to the metal, an exceptional start for Wheldon with Nakamura-Berta couldn’t catch up to the American driver. Olivieri was getting challenged by the MP Motorsport of Alexander Abkhazava whilst further down the grid there was a big incident involving three cars which were Štolcermanis, Almaosherji and Popov. Yellow flags were waved as the safety car deployed as marshals cleared the incident.
With the grid neutralised, the restart saw Wheldon build the gap to Nakamura-Berta to over a second in a lap. Five laps in, Al Dhaheri made his way up from 14th to 9th and back at the front, contact between Przyrowski and Nakamura-Berta allowed Olivieri to make his way up into second, vital to the Italian’s championship chances.
Ninovic made a move on Nakamura-Berta, another position lost for the championship contender, his chances started to slip away. Stewards handed Przyrowski a 10-second time penalty for causing a collision between himself and Nakamura-Berta.
Wheldon took race victory in the final race of the season as Oliveri in second gained an additional 18 points, securing him the Driver’s Championship for the 2026 Formula Regional European Championship, a trifecta for R-ace GP who took the rookie, team and drivers championship.
Article written by Ria Wiktor ©️ Ria Wiktor 2026
