We talked about Tuukka Taponen’s first successes in the Formula Regional Middle East (FRMEC) winter championship in January, when he opened the scoring for victories. But the 17-year-old Finnish racer didn’t stop there and now, one stage before the end of the series, he is confidently leading the individual competition.
Yesterday at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi, the Ferrari Racing Academy student took his third victory and in total he has finished on the podium seven times in the last twelve races. By the way, all three times he won, he started from pole.
“The weekend was again very successful for me,” said Tuukka, who rides for the French team R-ace GP. – I rode very confidently and we earned a lot of points. It didn’t go as well as my second race weekend (Taponen took two wins in three races), but it wasn’t bad.”
After four stages, each consisting of three races, Tuukka is 50 points ahead of his nearest rival, Taylor Barnard. Now he only needs to beat the Briton once in the remaining three races of the final weekend in Dubai to become champion of the winter series. The FRMEC season ends in a week.
“Let’s just say that we didn’t even set such serious goals for ourselves before the start of the season. The team did not expect that we would achieve such high results,” the Finnish newspaper Ilta-Sanomat quotes Taponen. “But everything went surprisingly smoothly, beyond our expectations.” And I don’t see any reason why we could have any problems in Dubai.
Although now that we are fighting for victory in the championship, we have to drive a little more carefully. You shouldn’t take unnecessary risks, but I think I’m still quite aggressive on the track.”
After completing the Middle East series, Taponen will continue the 2024 program in the European Formula Regional, which starts in May at Hockenheim, although some of his current rivals have already signed contracts with Formula 3 and even Formula 2 teams, like Barnard.
“It was absolutely impossible to go to F3, I didn’t even think about it,” Tuukka explains. – Now I’m playing in a series that allows me to prepare for the main season. If I achieve success in the European Formula Regional, it will be a significant achievement. But there is no point in going to F3 straight after FRMEC.”
Source: F1 News
I am Christopher Clyde, an experienced journalist and content writer with a passion for sports. I have been writing about Formula 1 news for the past five years and am currently employed as an author at athletistic.com, one of the top sports websites in the US.
