Van Hoepen grateful for TRIDENT’s ‘hard work’ after podium in Melbourne

Laurens van Hoepen was basking in his maiden Formula 2 podium in Melbourne, as he praised TRIDENT for all the work they did over the winter that put them in the mix for the Feature Race.

The Dutch driver and his team showed good potential in pre-season where he was fourth fastest on the final morning of testing when times were at their quickest.

They continued to show strong pace in Qualifying, although van Hoepen narrowly missed out on a place in the top 10 by just 0.023s to Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak.

But he made his way forward in both races, finishing seventh in the Sprint Race, before making a good start in the Feature.

The 20-year-old was up to fifth in the opening few laps and showing strong pace and, after making a late move on Nico Varrone, found himself in third.

Van Hoepen managed his pace and gap to fourth-placed Oliver Goethe to finish third, giving him his maiden podium in F2 and TRIDENT’s first since Baku in 2024.

“It’s great,” said van Hoepen. “It’s the first Feature Race of the season, so to be on the podium is a great feeling. We worked really hard in the offseason to improve from last year. We tested a lot last year and it just shows that the hard work pays off.

“So super happy, super grateful to the team because they've worked super hard. So it’s a very, very good first weekend.

“It's a great, great, great achievement for us. The main thing is now to just keep going, keep working because we can definitely still improve and we need to.

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“But it’s just actually motivating for us to keep going. I am really, really motivated to just keep going and to see if we can do even better.”

Van Hoepen believes that TRIDENT have a car that is good both in the Qualifying laps and in race simulations, and that a top 10 result on Friday was on if not for a bad first sector.

The Dutchman says he and his team just need to continue putting things together.

“Even the quali pace was good,” said van Hoepen. “I had a bit of an issue starting my lap, so I lost a lot in the first sector.

“But the second sector and the third sector looked strong, everything looked very competitive. So we already knew we had the pace going into the Sprint Race, which was okay.

“A couple of mistakes, a couple of things to get used to, but then still finished in the points, and then the Feature Race was just strong.”

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Van Hoepen also reflected on the battles he had out on track, going wheel-to-wheel with the likes of Rafael Câmara, Dino Beganovic, Goethe, Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak and Nico Varrone.

“I mean, it was super fun,” said van Hoepen. “So much stuff was happening in the beginning of the race with battles on track, which was really fun to go through.

“Then in the end, it was kind of a bit nerve wracking with Varrone, with that battle. But in the end, it all worked out well, and it was a good race.”