Joshua Dufek will once again team up with Van Amersfoort Racing in his bid for the 2023 Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine (FRECA) title.
The 2023 campaign will be Josh's third with VAR, having first raced with the Dutch team in the 2021 ADAC and Italian F4 championships, which resulted in a race win and multiple podiums as Van Amersfoort clinched both teams' titles. The combination then came within a handful of laps of clinching the 2022 FRECA rookie championship after a spirited second half of the season established Josh's credentials within the F3 category.
Entering its third season since merging with the Formula Renault Eurocup, the 2023 FRECA calendar visits ten current or former F1 circuits between April and October — including a first-ever trip to Germany — and features on the support bill of the prestigious Spa 24 Hours in July. Preparations for the campaign, which features three back-to-back sequences in a busy second half, kick off with three official pre-season tests at Barcelona, Paul Ricard and Monza before the teams transfer to Imola for the opening triple-header round on April 21-23.
Josh, who races under a Swiss flag, completed the recent Formula Regional Middle East series with a handful of podiums — including a win on the road in Kuwait — and returns to VAR's single-spec Tatuus T318-Renault confident that he will be challenging for overall honours in the European campaign.
“I’m extremely happy to be teaming up with VAR for another year in FRECA,” Josh said. “I’m really excited for the season to start and hope to build on the progress we made with the team last year and make it a successful championship for all of us.”
Having joined the company ahead of his 2021 campaign, Josh will continue to benefit from the specialist management and coaching services of Peak Performance Management this season.
“We’re excited to confirm that Josh will be returning to the Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine for 2023, especially after such a strong end to last season,” PPM director Kevin Korjus commented. “His performances in the recent Formula Regional Middle East series were very encouraging and rejoining Van Amersfoort Racing not only provides familiarity with a very competitive team, but should also allow Josh to pick up from where he left off at Mugello and be a contender for the overall championship this season.”
