Written by Caitlyn Gordon
Welcome to Feeder Series Recap, your weekly series bringing you the best of driver announcements from the world of Formula 2, Formula 3, as well as F1 Academy. With announcements coming in from Formula 2, Caitlyn guides you through the news you need to know....
Formula 2: Richard Verschoor joins MP Motorsport for the remainder of the season and 2025
The 23-year-old returns to his debut team for the remaining races of this season and will continue with the team until 2025.
Dennis Hauger, who started the year with the Dutch outfit, was announced to be taking the next step in his career by heading into the IndyCar feeder series with top team Andretti. Verschoor will replace the Norwegian for the final two races in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.
Verschoor has a long-standing relationship with MP Motorsport dating back to his Formula 4 days, when the pair dominated and secured two titles back-to-back. The relationship goes further than F4, with Verschoor competing with the team in other events such as Formula Renault, GP3, and FIA F3, and his notable victory in the 2019 Macau Grand Prix with the team.
Despite having some bad luck this season, with two disqualifications due to technical infringements, the Dutchman secured two wins in the 2024 season and is currently 10th in the standings.
Following his return, Verschoor expressed his delight about returning back to his former team, stating it feels like ‘coming home’:
“Signing up with MP for more Formula 2 feels like coming home”, Verschoor said,
“I spent half of my entire racing career with MP, so it means a lot to me that we are able to move forward together for 2025 while also adding the two final 2024 rounds at Losail and Yas Marina.
“It’s been a partnership that has led to success in Formula 4, Formula 3 and Formula 2, including that legendary victory at Macau. I can’t wait to travel to Qatar and go back to working with the team once again.”
"I would like to fight for the championship one more time with this professional team. This year's performance in itself has not been so bad, although I have been very unlucky."
MP Motorsport will end their 2024 season with an entirely different lineup than to which they started with, after Franco Colapinto was promoted to F1 with Williams, Oliver Goethe was confirmed to be replacing the Argentine for the remainder of the season.
Max Esterson joins Trident’s F2 lineup for remainder of 2024 season
Max Esterson will take over Verschoor's place at Trident for the remainder of 2024. The American made his F3 debut in 2024, running a full campaign in the series racing with Jenzer Motorsport. His best result of the season came in Bahrain when he crossed the line in sixth. As the season wrapped up in September, he rounded out his first year in F3 21st.
Despite most competitors in F3 following the traditional route into motorsports by starting in karting, the American had a unique path into cars, starting originally with sim racing.
After competing in iRacing competitions and becoming one of the top sim racers in the world at just 13 years old, he took the next step in 2021 in BRSDCC.
Esterson's campaign in the series brought a spotlight to his name after securing nine wins and 23 podiums, rounding off the year in third overall whilst also clinching the prestigious Walter Hayes trophy.
The 21-year-old took the next step up the following year, entering into GB3, where success continued to follow and he picked up another race win and three podiums. He continued in GB3 for a further year before jumping into an F3 seat for a full season this year. Esterson will replace Verschoor for the closing rounds of 2024 in the Middle East.
“It’s great to be making the step up to Formula 2, even if it’s a little sooner than I had imagined,” Esterson said.
“Just two years ago I was running a Formula Ford and winning the FF Festival, and now I’m about to make my debut in Formula 2.
“We are excited to finally be working with Max in a race situation,” Trident’s team manager Giacomo Ricci expressed.
“We first met him over two years ago when he was still driving FFords and have closely followed his progress since then.
“He had some very strong outings this year in FIA F3, his first year in international competition, especially as he was with one of the smallest teams, and on circuits which were almost all new to him.
"He is smart and has a mature, calm personality; he is hard working, and while he has already shown great pace, he is only in his fourth full year of racing and still learning – so we’re excited to see his progress this year.”
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