Williams F1 juniors Nakamura-Berta and Bondarev crowned Formula Middle East champions in electrifying Qatar decider

Kean Nakamura-Berta and Oleksandr Bondarev, stablemates at the Prema-run Mumbai Falcons Racing team and both protégés of the historic Williams Formula 1 operation, were each title winners on the final day of the 2026 Formula Middle East season at Qatar’s Lusail International Circuit. Bondarev had to play the percentages to put the UAE4 Series crown beyond the reach of main rival Andy Consani. Then Nakamura-Berta overturned a daunting Formula Regional Middle East Trophy (FRME) points deficit to Rashid Al Dhaheri by romping to two victories and snatching the crown.

Remarkably, reigning Italian Formula 4 and Euro 4 champion Nakamura-Berta had not won a Formula Regional race since his step up to the category for 2026. But a string of consistently strong results had earmarked the 18-year-old, London-born Japanese-Slovakian as the only realistic rival to Mercedes F1 junior Al Dhaheri when the racing began. Nakamura-Berta was utterly unbeatable on the day, taking two pole positions and heading his American team-mate Sebastian Wheldon, son of the late IndyCar great Dan Wheldon, to a pair of Mumbai Falcons 1-2 finishes. In the first race, Al Dhaheri’s R-ace GP car finished sixth, his points lead over Nakamura-Berta slashed from 24 to seven; in the second, he could not improve upon seventh. Also on the podium with a third place apiece were RPM’s impressive Polish racer Jan Przyrowski, and Pinnacle Motorsport’s Jamaican-American Alex Powell.

Nakamura-Berta, who also put the Rookie crown to bed in race one, ended up beating Al Dhaheri to the overall title by 12 points, with Alexander Abkhazava 56 adrift in third. The unlucky MP Motorsport-run Kazakhstani entered the event just six points behind Nakamura-Berta, but the post-qualifying technical checks failed to yield sufficient fuel from his car for testing, so he started each race from the back of the grid and scored no points. In the Rookie classification, Maksimilian Popov ended his season as runner-up, with Przyrowski third. Mumbai Falcons Racing Limited earned Teams honours.

In the highly dramatic UAE4 action, Bondarev looked to have done enough to wrap up the title in race two after the R-ace GP car of Mercedes F1-backed Consani was eliminated in an incident. The Ukrainian was up to fifth place – enough to put things beyond doubt – but a red flag brought an early finish, and on results countback Bondarev was classified seventh, still two points short of the crown. That race was won in a composed performance by 15-year-old Ferrari Driver Academy member Niccolò Maccagnani, the Italian leading home welcome series returnee Tomass Štolcermanis, the Latvian driving for PHM Racing, and Xcel Motorsport’s British racer Joseph Smith.

Ninth place in the finale would suffice for the 16-year-old Bondarev to be crowned, and his eventual fifth place was more than enough. Consani, 16, put in a spectacular display for a dominant race victory, but it was all in vain as far as the title was concerned. The Frenchman headed home the Prema Racing cars of Romanian David Cosma-Cristofor and McLaren’s young Spanish prospect Christian Costoya. Rookie wins on the day went to PHM’s Italian youngster Iacopo Martinese and Costoya.

Bondarev therefore sealed the overall crown by eight points over Consani, with third-placed Briton Kenzo Craigie (R-ace GP) a further 65 behind. But Mercedes-backed Craigie had done enough to put the Rookie honours beyond reach in race two, with Costoya and Mumbai Falcons’ Turkish talent Alp Aksoy second and third respectively in the division. R-ace GP earned the Teams title.

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The race was red-flagged while the incident was cleared and, with Consani out of the race, Bondarev needed to gain one more position up to sixth in order to clinch the UAE4 title before the final race. Up front, Maccagnani nailed the restart to perfection, a stunning 2.241 seconds clear of the field after the first lap of racing. Bondarev, meanwhile, was thrusting to pass Christian Costoya for sixth when there was another red flag. This time, Lucas Pasquinetti had tangled with Bader Al Sulaiti at the looping Turn 7 right-hander.

As the cars sat in the pits waiting for the restart, the Mumbai Falcons crew elected to put a fresher set of tyres on Bondarev’s car, effectively compromising his hopes in race three in a bid to put the title to bed now. As the race resumed, the plan looked to be a masterstroke. Bondarev not only gained the position he needed by passing Costoya around the outside of Turn 2, but he also sailed around Weiss at Turn 4 to grab fifth. But there was another red flag due to an incident at Turn 2 between Kwan Ho Kingsley Zheng and David Cosma-Cristofor, for which Zheng was given a grid penalty for race three. This time the race was declared and, on the regulation laps countback, Bondarev was seventh after all. The title would have to wait.

Maccagnani was therefore the deserving victor, with Štolcermanis second ahead of Smith, German Weiss (R-ace GP) and Iacopo Martinese, whose own fine move on Weiss at Turn 1 after the last restart was scrubbed out by the results countback. The Italian did gain some consolation with Rookie class honours. Costoya was sixth, and second Rookie, ahead of Bondarev, with Craigie eighth – the Briton was third Rookie, and clinched the class title with a race to spare. The final points scorers were Hitech’s Swedish Red Bull Junior Scott Kin Lindblom (ninth) and Alp Aksoy (10th).

Andy Consani had to win this race to stand any chance of the UAE4 Series title, and qualifying on pole position was the best start possible. It wasn’t easy though. Consani had set a time good enough to top the second qualifying session before it was disallowed for track limits, but he regrouped and completed a scorching lap at the chequered flag to take the prime spot ahead of David Cosma-Cristofor, while points leader Oleksandr Bondarev lined up fourth, alongside Christian Costoya. All Bondarev needed was to finish in the top nine and the crown would be his.

Consani made no mistakes at the start to lead from Cosma-Cristofor, Costoya and Bondarev. But in the lower reaches of the top 10, contact from Kenzo Craigie at Turn 4 caused race-ending damage to the car of Tomass Štolcermanis. The Latvian pulled off the track and the safety car was called to retrieve the stricken machine. Craigie was given a 30-second penalty for the incident, but retired later in the race anyway.