About Our Championship
Delivering fast, competitive racing, New Zealand’s premier single-seater category attracts drivers from around the globe. The Castrol Toyota Formula Regional Oceania Championship is New Zealand’s fastest racing category providing winter training in a southern hemisphere summer.
The championship is officially recognised by the world’s governing body the FIA as one of its six global Formula Regional Championships and as such is recommended as a critical part of the career for any young racing driver serious about making it to Formula One or other high level international motorsport championships.
Five Circuits, Five Weekends
The New Zealand championship, in particular, offers some unique benefits. Running across five weekends in January and February it attracts the focus of the motorsport world, including the top motorsport teams.
Looking ahead to its 19th season, the 2024 Castrol Toyota Formula Regional Oceania Championship will be as closely fought, exciting and dramatic as ever.
With a modern state of the art Tatuus chassis, the latest FIA safety features including the halo, and 285 horsepower, this is a championship that prepares drivers for Formula Regional European or American
Championships, FIA Formula 2, FIA Formula 3, and USF2000 or IndyPro200.
It is the premier single seater championship not only in New Zealand but also in Oceania and gives drivers vital experience with top engineers, wings and slicks cars and composite technologies right when they need it ahead of northern hemisphere championships. And it comes with 18 valuable FIA Super Licence points for its champion and points all the way down to ninth place in the championship standings.
The series also includes the New Zealand Grand Prix, one of only two FIAsanctioned Grand Prix race events outside of Formula One. With winning names like Stewart, McLaren, Brabham, Rosberg, Norris, Lawson and more recently Fraga and Van Gisbergen, it remains a world class motorsport event rich in history and prestige.
Toyota’s support for the only manufacturer- based single seater class in New Zealand and indeed Australasia extends beyond the cars, teams and track to the most advanced trackside hospitality facilities in the country. Add to that an F1-style travelling set up that features a paddock area and marquee bay so that each competitor works in a self-contained professional environment alongside the race teams. It’s a paddock presence that supports the race teams, the sponsors and the families of the competitors.
The Circuits
The race tracks utilised by the Castrol Toyota Formula Regional Oceania Championship are some of the most charismatic and challenging in the world and add a particular dimension to the New Zealand championship. New Zealand drivers continue to impress on the world stage and one of the key reasons is the grounding and experience they gained on New Zealand’s circuits. All of those used in the championship are FIA-Grade 3 with Taupo Motorsport Park an FIA-Grade 2 circuit.
They demand precision as well as technique and speed and all offer very particular challenges to drivers. Working with our professional race teams, drivers will learn how to set up the cars for different surfaces, for circuits with fast and slow corners, for circuits with cambered corners, high speed and slow speed chicanes, hairpins and numerous other features that tend not to be as obvious in F1 size and style
tracks.
It’s an aspect of the championship which almost all of the drivers who complete the series comment on as one of the major benefits.
2024 Calendar
R1 | TAUPO INTERNATIONAL MOTORSPORT PARK | 19-21 JAN
R2 | MANFEILD CIRCUIT CHRIS AMON | 26-28 JAN
R3 | HAMPTON DOWNS MOTORSPORT PARK | 2-4 FEB
R4 | EUROMARQUE MOTORSPORT PARK | 9-11 FEB
R5 | HIGHLANDS MOTORSPORT PARK 68TH NEW ZEALAND GRAND PRIX | 16-18 FEB
Weekend Format
THURSDAY
Testing Sessions (2x 30 Minute)
Practice Starts
FRIDAY
Practice Sessions (3x 30 Minutes)
SATURDAY
Qualifying 1 (15 Minutes)
Race 1 (Grid set by Q1 Results) 75kms (# Laps Fixed)
SUNDAY
Qualifying 2 (15 Minutes)
Race 2 (Grid determined by reversing top 8 finishers of Race 1) 75kms (# Laps Fixed)
Feature Race (Grid set by Q2 Results) 90kms (# Laps Fixed)