Trident gave Christian Mansell his debut in Formula 2 at the latest round in Baku after making the step up from Formula 3.
The Italian outfit opted to part ways with Roman Stanek after 11 rounds of the championship. The Czech driver claimed one victory at the Sprint Race in Australia, but only scored points on two more occasions.
Ahead of the next round in Azerbaijan, Trident brought in Mansell from Formula 3 having finished the 2024 season in fifth.
The Aussie drove with ART Grand Prix and finished one point behind Arvid Lindblad in fourth. Despite not winning a race, Mansell did secure five podiums across the season, three of which being second places.
Following Stanek’s axing, the 19-year-old was given the chance to make the step up to Formula 2 for the remainder of the season.
Trident team manager Giacomo Ricci left ‘extremely impressed’ by Christian Mansell on his debut
Mansell was not the only F3 talent to be called up for the round at Baku, as Gabriele Mini replaced Oliver Bearman at PREMA following his call up to Haas in Formula 1.
Luke Browning also made his debut with Trident, after he was drafted in to replace Zak O’Sullivan for the rest of the year after the latter was forced to pull out of the series due to a funding issue.
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In qualifying, Mansell put his car in 10th for the Feature Race, which put him on pole position for the Sprint Race on Saturday. But in that race, Mansell dropped down the order to finish eighth, registering his first point in F2.
The Aussie held position in the Feature Race to finish 10th and score another point and speaking on the F2 website, Trident team manager Giacomo Ricci lauded Mansell’s performance but stressed that there are still things to learn.
“I have to say for the first weekend I have been extremely impressed with him,” he said.
“He did a brilliant job and was fast in Qualifying despite Free Practice being quite chaotic. We know how difficult it is to jump into a different car with no track time.
“He did good in Qualifying without making a mistake, qualifying P10. Yesterday he could hold P1 for some laps and then of course as a rookie he felt a little bit of tyre degradation but again it was very good learning for him and for him to do a result like this is a big plus.
“To end both races with points is something special and again another important point, yesterday starting from pole as a rookie he was very calm, had a mega start and was able to open the gap. So, really proud of him and we are looking forward to the next two race events and we are sure he will improve race by race.”
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Richard Verschoor grabbed his first win of the season for Trident in Baku
While Mansell impressed on his debut, his teammate Richard Verschoor secured his first win of the season in the Feature Race.
The Dutchman grabbed pole position in qualifying, but after the top 10 was reversed for the Sprint Race, Verschoor finished down in 17th.
On Sunday, the 23-year-old converted pole to victory for his first win of 2024. Verschoor had won the Sprint Races in Jeddah and Budapest, but he was disqualified from both at the end of the event.
Verschoor moves to 10th in the drivers’ standings following the result as the Dutchman continues his streak of winning a race in every season he has competed in F2.