2024 Formula Regional Middle East Championship

The 2024 Formula Regional Middle East Championship was a multi-event, Formula Regional open-wheel single seater motor racing championship. The championship featured a mix of professional and amateur drivers, competing in Formula Regional cars. It was the second season of the championship, held in January and February of 2024.

Finnish driver Tuukka Taponen, driving for R-ace GP, won the Rookie Cup after the fourth round at Yas Marina with three races to spare. One race later, after the first encounter of the final weekend, he also won the overall Drivers' Championship, while his team clinched the Teams' Championship.

Teams and drivers
All drivers competed using identical Tatuus-built Formula Regional cars powered by a 270HP turbocharged Alfa Romeo engine and on Giti tires.

Race calendar
The 2024 calendar was officially announced on 21 August 2023. The Kuwait Motor Town rounds that featured in the 2023 season were removed from the calendar, with the championship consisting only of rounds held in the UAE.

First half
The second season of the Formula Regional Middle East Championship opened up around Yas Marina's Corkscrew Layout with last year's runner-up Taylor Barnard taking a pair of pole positions for PHM AIX Racing. He held his first place ahead of R-ace GP's Tuukka Taponen all race, taking an unthreatened victory, while Taponen's teammate Martinius Stenshorne rose from seventh to the final podium spot. The second race saw a very similar outcome, with the top two, Mumbai Falcons's Arvid Lindblad and R-ace GP's Zachary David, holding stationary all race, while Stenshorne once again climbed from eighth to third. The third race saw a fight for the win for the first time when Stenshorne got past Mumbai Falcons's Ugo Ugochukwu at the start and then attacked Barnard for the lead. After two laps, he managed to get past and led Barnard and Ugochukwu home, before his move was judged to have been made off track. The ensuing penalty gave Barnard his second win, together with a six-point standings lead.

When the championship moved to the circuit's Grand Prix Layout one week later, Taponen was the man to beat, taking two pole positions in qualifying. The first race saw Saintéloc's Théophile Naël pitch Barnard into a spin at the start. Taponen converted his lead into a win, only threatened during a mid-race safety car restart by Stenshorne, who eventually finished second ahead of Pinnacle's Mari Boya. Naël's penalty for his move on Barnard moved him up the reverse grid into third, from where he was able to profit off Ugochukwu's poor start to claim the race lead. PHM's Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak moved into second, while Ugochukwu continued dropping down the order, allowing Boya to take another podium. Ugochukwu then collided with his teammate James Wharton and retired. Taponen was back on top for the final race, resisting pressure amid a last-lap safety car restart to take a second win ahead of Naël and Barnard. This saw him take the championship lead, while two pointless races saw Barnard drop to third.

After a break weekend, the championship moved to Dubai Autodrome for round three, where Barnard and Mumbai Falcons's Rafael Câmara shared pole positions. The pair started race one alongside each other, before Taponen overtook Câmara and started pressuring the leader. The pair battled all race, but Barnard held on to win. A similar battle for third between Câmara, Boya and Stenshorne ended with the former coming out on top. MP Motorsport's Nikhil Bohra took the lead off Naël at the start of race two, with the Frenchman then dropping down the order before eventually retiring. This allowed Inthraphuvasak and PHM's Brando Badoer to take the podium spots. The third race saw Taponen part of another battle for the lead. While his opponent was Câmara this time, the outcome was much the same. Câmara claimed the win, with Taponen second once again and Badoer in third. With Barnard only managing fourth after an overambitious move for the lead, Taponen extended his championship lead to 32 points.

Second half
Teams and drivers then returned to Yas Marina, where championship challengers Barnard and Taponen took the pole positions. The Brit resisted the Fin at the start of the first race and kept a steady gap to him from then on to take his fourth win of the year, with Evans GP's Costa Toparis five seconds back in third. MP's reverse grid polesitter Bruno del Pino was almost wiped out at a safety car restart during the second race, when others assumed the race had already begun again. His suspension then broke one lap later, resulting in Câmara taking the lead and another safety car. The Brazilian converted this lead into a win, with Ugochukwu coming second and David in third. The final race also had two safety car phases, but polesitter Taponen was unbothered by them to take another win. Wharton and David also both finished where they started, in second and third. Barnard was now 50 points behind Taponen, who, with only 75 points still on offer, had already wrapped up the Rookie Cup and all but secured the championship.

Taponen only needed to finish inside the points to deny Barnard any chance at the championship, but he began the final weekend in Dubai with two pole positions in qualifying. He claimed his championship in dominant fashion with a lights-to-flag victory in the first race, leading his teammate David home to also secure the Teams' Championship for R-ace GP. Ugochukwu came third, passing Badoer who had started second and dropped to fifth through the race. The penultimate race of the season was then won by Barnard, who thereby took the runner-up position for the second year in a row by starting third, dropping to fifth and fighting his way back into the lead. Inthraphuvasak and Wharton completed the podium. Taponen ended the season with his fifth win, the same amount as Barnard, by leading Badoer and Naël home in another dominant display. This saw him grow his final championship advantage to 79 points.

With Barnard returning for a second stab at the FRMEC title after coming second in 2023, many already felt the championship a done deal after his double win in the first round. But when his momentum was then harshly stopped through the second round, Taponen emerged as a serious title contender. While both drivers took five wins each, the same tally as Antonelli the year before, Taponen's consistency saw him never leave the points-paying positions and only finish outside the top five twice. He amassed 255 points, 63 more than Antonelli in 2023, convincingly beating any opposition from the rest of the field.

Scoring system
Points were awarded to the top ten classified drivers.

Teams' Championship
Ahead of each event, teams nominated two drivers that accumulated teams' points.