Freddie Slater of the UK has just given Southlanders another reminder of the fact that when the internationally renowned Castrol Toyota Formula Regional Oceania Trophy (CTFROT) series visits Teretonga Park in Invercargill we are seeing some of the best young racing drivers from around the world, including some who are Formula 1 bound.

The current Formula 1 grid features kiwi Liam Lawson, Argentinian Franco Colapinto, Canadian Lance Stroll and of course the current Formula 1 World Champion Lando Norris from the UK who have all raced at Teretonga Park.

This year they will be joined by another from the UK, Arvid Lindblad who just twelve months ago was racing, and winning, at Teretonga Park.

Japanese driver Yuki Tsunoda raced in the south in 2020 and just twelve months later was entering F1.

Commentators are convinced this year’s CTFROT grid also contained some F1 stars of the future and one who has a foot in the door is UK driver Freddie Slater who was at Teretonga just last month, winning two of the three races held including the prestigious Spirit Of A Nation Cup where his name joined those of Norris and Lawson.

Just days after racing here in Southland it was announced that Slater was the first driver signed to the fledging Audi F1 team’s Driver Development Programme.

While it is no guarantee of graduating to F1 it does mean that Slater has been identified as a talent capable of reaching F1.

He will race Formula 3 in Europe this season against many of the grid that lined up at Teretonga Park last month. Prior to his New Zealand campaign he had won the Formula Regional European Championship and before that both the UAE and Italian F4 titles. Before that he had taken karting titles including the 2020 Junior World Karting Championship and FIA Karting European Karting Championships in 2021 and 2023.

Will Slater be the next F1 star we have seen compete here?