After finishing at an impressive third position in its debut F3 Asian Championship season, Mumbai Falcons are all set to undertake yet another expedition, as the team readies to participate in the Formula Regional Asian Championship. Moreover, the racing unit based out of Mumbai revealed its driver's line-up, as well as announced an extension of its partnership with the Italian squad PREMA Racing. The drivers, that are all set to adorn the Mumbai Falcons colors, include Arthur Leclerc, Dino Beganovic, Oliver Bearman, and Sebastian Montoya.
A Mumbai Falcons official said, “We are delighted to enter our second Formula Regional Asian Championship season. The success we achieved last year was a great start and definitely helped the growth of India's motorsports movement, which is essential to our program. We are proud to field drivers from the prestigious Ferrari Driver Academy, and we are looking forward to working with PREMA Racing. We cannot wait for the season to start and while we expect it to be quite challenging, competing against the best in the world is always an exciting prospect.”
Three out of the four drivers revealed are part of the prestigious Ferrari Driver Academy.
Before we delve deeper into the driver's line-up, we shall take a quick brief about the Formula Regional Asian Championship. Well, for starters, it is an FIA-certified regional Formula 3 racing series, which commenced from 2018, under the F3 Asian Championship banner, until it was rebranded as the Formula Regional Asian Championship last month.
Coming back to Mumbai Falcons, three out of the four drivers revealed, are part of the prestigious Ferrari Driver Academy, and are on loan for this particular season. As many would've guessed by now, Arthur Leclerc is the 21-year-old younger sibling of Charles Leclerc, who currently races in Formula One for Scuderia Ferrari. The 21-year-old racer from Monte Carlo has one full FIA Formula 3 season under his belt, in addition to entering Formula Regional two years ago. Then there is Dino Beganovic from Sweden, who returns from his maiden Formula Regional European Championship with Alpine last year and will be in for some mileage as he prepares for his second year in the same championship. Leclerc and Beganovic will take part in the complete Asian season.
Colombian Sebastian Montoya, son of F1 great, Juan Pablo Montoya, steps from Formula 4 to Formula Regional ahead of a potential full European campaign. He will be joined by Italian and German F4 Champion Oliver Bearman, as the 16-year Briton driver prepares for a transition to FIA Formula 3. Sebastian will also be part of the rookie category and hence race in only three of the five scheduled circuits, while Bearman will participate in the other two races along with Leclerc and Beganovic.
The Formula Regional Asian Championship will also serve as an introduction to the 2022 Formula Regional and Formula 4 Indian Championships, which will start in November 2022.
