FIA Formula 4 race winner Ricardo Baptista \u2013 or Cadi as he is known in the motorsport world \u2013 is the latest confirmation for what is set to be a thrilling 2026 Castrol Toyota Formula Regional Oceania Trophy.<\/p>\n
Brazilian Baptista, 18, will join TJ Speed with HMD Motorsport for the four-round championship, which begins in just under three weeks at Hampton Downs International Motorsport Park in New Zealand\u2019s North Island.<\/p>\n
He joins a stellar cast which includes race and championship winning drivers from F2, F3, F4 and Formula Regional as well as two-time world rally champion Kalle Rovanper\u00e4.<\/p>\n
Baptista, from Sao Paolo, is a former Brazilian karting champion even though he was a late starter to karting at 15 years old, inspired by watching his father\u2019s race GT.<\/p>\n
In 2025, he enjoyed a promising season in Brazilian Formula 4 with one win and numerous placings that gave him 11th overall. He also made one-off appearances in Spanish F4 and the country\u2019s Formula Winter Series \u2013 also F4 \u2013 earlier this year.<\/p>\n
The popular NZ championship \u2013 which has been a stepping stone on the career paths of F1 world champion Lando Norris, Liam Lawson, Yuki Tsunoda, Franco Colapinto and Lance Stroll \u2013 will be a fresh challenge for Cadi, but one he is relishing.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am really looking forward to driving in New Zealand and to experience racing outside of Brazil and Europe for the first time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to score points in the races and learn as much as I can, it\u2019s going to be a great experience and hopefully will set me up for a strong 2026 season in the northern hemisphere.\u201d<\/p>\n
TJ Speed with HMD Motorsports is one of two new teams to have joined the New Zealand championship since it strategically reduced its season from five to four rounds to avoid clashes with northern hemisphere testing. A high quality field is promised.<\/p>\n
Fans will be able to follow the championship easily. Qualifying will be livestreamed on TOYOTA GAZOO Racing New Zealand\u2019s YouTube channel. Races will also be on that channel and on SkySport domestically in New Zealand. Races will also be streamed live on the Motorsport.TV platform.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FIA Formula 4 race winner Ricardo Baptista \u2013 or Cadi as he is known in the motorsport world…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":196951,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[70634,121599,84892,121600,121601,29882,1199,121602,45552,121603,121604,111,43,139,69,121605,121606,13401,78698,121607,121608,121609,121610,121611],"class_list":["post-196950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-bridgestone-gr86-championship","tag-etec","tag-euromarque-motorsport-park","tag-giles-motorsport","tag-hampton-downs-motorsport-park","tag-highlands-motorsport-park","tag-hitech","tag-james-wharton","tag-louis-sharp","tag-m2-competition","tag-mtec","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-nzmotorracing","tag-ricardo-baptista","tag-ryan-wood","tag-talkmotorsport","tag-taupo-motorsport-park","tag-tj-speed-with-hmd-motorsport","tag-toyota-86-championship","tag-toyota-86-trophy-series","tag-toyota-gazoo-racing-86-championship"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=196950"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196950\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/196951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=196950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=196950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=196950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}