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MP Motorsport had a very good 2024 Formula 2 season, finishing third in the Teams’ Championship with 220.5 points, a step up from 2023 where they scored 172 points and ended up seventh.
They did this having started the year with Dennis Hauger and Franco Colapinto in their cars before ending the season with Oliver Goethe and Richard Verschoor.
The latter pair are set to continue with them in 2025 but are they capable of bringing both titles back to the Netherlands?
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One thing going in their favour is familiarity. Both Verschoor and Goethe have a long history with MP, which includes completing the 2024 season in orange.
Verschoor for example made the step up to single seater racing in 2016 in an MP car, winning the Spanish F4 Championship that year.
He raced with them also in the 2019 and 2020 Formula 3 seasons, the 2021 Formula 2 campaign and their partnership proved to be the winning combination at the 2019 Macau Grand Prix.
Since then, Verschoor has gone on to win multiple races with several other teams in F2 before returning to the team for the final two rounds of the 2024 campaign. He achieved a podium in his first race back at the Lusail Sprint and also at the Yas Marina Feature.
Those final two rounds showed the potential of both Verschoor and MP and as he enters his fifth campaign in the Championship, the Dutchman is confident that this could prove to be a title-winning combination once again.
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The post-season test would have also been invaluable in getting him even more comfortable ahead of the 2025 campaign, and if their performance across the three days was anything to go by, Verschoor and MP will be a combination to contend with again.
Like Verschoor, Goethe also raced with MP in Spanish F4 back in 2020 as well as the Formula Regional European Championship in 2021.
After a title-winning season at the 2022 Euroformula Open Championship, Goethe made the step up to Formula 3, fighting for the title in 2024 – his second full season in the category.
But before the final round he graduated to Formula 2 to replace the Formula 1-bound Colapinto at MP and after taking a couple of rounds to settle he ended the 2024 campaign in fine form.
His best result came in the Lusail Feature Race where he finished fourth having pushed Isack Hadjar all the way to the line for the final spot on the podium.
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Goethe then finished in the points in the same event at Yas Marina before taking part in the post-season test. The Red Bull Junior Team and MP driver also proved to be a successful combination at Macau, finishing second in a rain-affected event.
Speaking recently, he acknowledged that there were a few areas that he had to work on ahead of the season when compared to Verschoor, especially in their long runs.
What he does believe is working in his favour is the experience he has gained from the four rounds he took part in, as well as having Verschoor and the team to learn from.
He was confident that once he addresses those weaknesses, he has what it takes to fight for the title in his first full campaign.
Given the form MP showed last season with four drivers the team will certainly feel that they are in a strong position to once again hit the ground running.
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Whether they will win either title remains to be seen but they have set themselves up well with a familiar lineup of Verschoor and Goethe.
Both drivers will be comfortable in their surroundings and in the car meaning a fast start in Melbourne could be on the cards, positioning themselves to have a very strong season.