Christian Mansell finishes the season in Formula 2 with Trident instead of Roman Staněk
Roman Staněk announced he was ending his collaboration with Trident after the Monza weekend. The team has chosen F3 driver Christian Mansell for the rest of the season.
It is finally the Australian Christian Mansell, fifth in the Formula 3 championship, who will finish the season at Trident in F2, replacing Roman Staněk. The Czech driver was only under contract until the last round in Monza and did not have the budget or performance to stay on the grid for the final three rounds taking place outside of Europe.
Mansell thus takes a new step after a solid 2024 season in F3. Before that, he finished third in the GB3 championship in 2021 and third in the Euroformula Open championship in 2022. He is also no stranger to the F2 championship as he participated in the post-season tests in 2023 with Trident, at Yas Marina.
The 19-year-old driver will participate in the Bakou races this weekend, then he will be back in the cockpit in December at Losail and on the Yas Marina circuit. A real challenge for the Australian pilot, given that he has never raced on these three circuits.
The latter did not fail to express his joy at the announcement of the decision: “I can’t wait to make my debut in the FIA Formula 2 with Trident Motorsport. I am extremely happy to race with this Italian team on the urban circuit of Baku and during the next two events before the end of the season. It will be a fiery debut on a track as challenging as Azerbaijan’s, but I must admit that I am more excited than nervous.”
The team manager, Giacomo Ricci, also expressed his enthusiasm at the idea of welcoming Mansell to the team: “We are extremely happy to have Australian driver Christian Mansell compete in the next three rounds of the FIA Formula 2 Championship. I consider him one of the most talented emerging drivers we have seen this year in the FIA Formula 3 Championship, where he was in contention for the title until the final round in Monza. Christian is a complete driver, fast in qualifying, and extremely skilled at managing tires and overtaking. Making his debut in Baku will certainly be an ambitious goal, not easy at all.”
Mansell will not be the only driver to make his F2 debut in Baku as Prema has also called on Gabriele Mini to take the place of Ollie Bearman, who will be competing in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Formula 1 for Haas this weekend, as a replacement for Kevin Magnussen.
