After a strong rookie year in FR Europe in which he scored two overall podiums, Pedro Clerot is set to return to Van Amersfoort Racing for his sophomore season in the championship, where he aims to fight for the title.

Hailing from Brasilia, Pedro Clerot began his career in his native Brazil. Racing in karts until 2021, Clerot won the Brazilian Open Cup twice in 2020 and 2021 before switching to single-seaters for the rest of the 2021 season.

Racing in Formula Delta, known as a “Formula 5” championship to most, Clerot won two races and finished runner-up in the standings to Gabriel Fonseca in his first single-seater season.

Stepping up to Formula 4 for 2022, Clerot made two appearances for AKM Motorsport in the Italian F4 championship, nearly scoring points in his second-ever race with an 11th-place finish at Imola. Heading back to Brazil to compete in the inaugural season of the Brazilian F4 Championship, Clerot took pole and won the championship’s first-ever race, at Velo Città.

After finishing fourth in race two, Clerot passed Lucas Staico on the first green flag lap of the race and held him off to take his second win in three races.

With strong momentum from the first round, Clerot kept his form throughout the rest of the season, taking five more wins and eleven total podiums to win the title ahead of Staico at the final round of the season, in Interlagos.

Reflecting on his experience racing at home, Clerot said: “It was really good, people don’t know how nice and difficult tracks in Brazil are. I had some decent experience coming over to Europe but in Brazil, they don’t do as much testing as they do here in Europe so it’s completely different but I’ve learned a lot.”

Clerot’s 2023 “a good year for learning”

In the winter of the following year, the Brasilia-born driver joined MP Motorsport to compete in the final two rounds of the Formula 4 UAE Championship. Scoring two top-five finishes in six races, with a best result of fourth, Clerot finished 13th in the standings in his first foray outside of Brazil.

Staying with MP Motorsport for the rest of 2023, Clerot competed in the F4 Spanish Championship, kicking off the season with a double win and a second-place finish at Spa-Francorchamps to take an early championship lead.

Despite a promising Spa round, Clerot wasn’t able to build on the strong form, finishing no higher than fourth in the remaining races, ultimately dropping him to sixth in the points at season’s end.

Speaking of the transition from Brazil to Europe, Clerot said: “[It was] tricky, I won’t lie, we had a really good weekend in Spa, so I was really confident but some things went out of our control, but I think it was a good year for learning. I think pace was there the whole year, just never got it right.”

Stepping up to Formula Regional

Moving to Formula Regional for 2024, Clerot competed in the Middle East championship for Sainteloc on a part-time basis before moving to Van Amersfoort Racing for a full season in the European championship.

Starting the season at the Hockenheimring, he scored points in race two by finishing seventh on the road, later promoted to sixth post-race. He then headed to Spa-Francorchamps, but his return to the Belgian track proved to be tough as he retired in race one and struggled to make progress in race two after starting 20th.

However, fortunes changed at Zandvoort, where stayed out of trouble to finish fourth and earn his first rookie win in a wet race one and took fifth in race two after a daring overtake on Tuukka Taponen in the closing stages.

Following an eighth-place finish in Hungary, Clerot kicked off the Mugello weekend by finishing fourth in race one after running third for most of it. In race two, Clerot finished fourth on the road after a robust overtake on Tuukka Taponen, but was promoted to third post-race after Rafael Camara was given a two-place penalty for forcing the Finn wide during the race.

After a scoreless Paul Ricard round, Clerot stayed out of trouble in a chaotic Imola weekend to take tenth- and sixth-places. In the following week in Austria, he qualified fourth for race one but after a trip to the gravel on the opening lap, he could only recover to 20th. Starting fifth for race two, Clerot recovered from ninth to finish sixth after mid-race overtakes.

Clerot admitted the weekend was challenging, saying; “It’s been tricky, I won’t lie. It’s been a bit tough, pace has been there since the beginning of the weekend.” 

“We started with a P3 in test 1 and P8 in test 2. Yesterday, we had a good quali, we qualified p2 and it was unfortunate as on my last lap, I was improving but I made a mistake on the last lap, but then the race was pretty tricky, the conditions change every time, it’s really difficult to get it right and it’s a shame that whenever it really mattered, we didn’t maximize it.”

“Next year we can fight for the championship”

Starting the Barcelona round with a retirement in race one, Clerot turned things around in race two, scoring his second overall podium and third rookie win of the season by finishing third. Despite not finishing both Monza races, he finished eighth in the overall standings and third in the rookies’. 

Speaking of his maiden season in FRECA, Clerot said: “[It has been] very good, the team has helped me in every aspect to improve, it’s been a tricky season, quite up-and-down, we’ve shown some good speed and potential like in Mugello.

“It’s missing small pieces to maximize everything but I think the team is doing really good steps with all 3 cars, we’ve been quite competitive the whole year and if you check all three of us are in the top ten [in points], I’m quite confident that the work we’ve been doing and the work we’ve done in the past is working out.”

Last November, it was announced that Clerot would stay with the Dutch squad for his sophomore season in the championship.

“I think next year we can fight for the championship,” he said. “Some things went wrong but now I’m mature enough to realize what went wrong and I’m quite confident next year we can do a good job. Pace has been there for the last few rounds, it’s just a matter of putting everything together, I’m happy with the progress done this year but I’m confident we can do even better next year.”

Header photo credit: FRECA / ACI Sport