Competition, staying active and no sitting still: Behind the Visor with Laurens van Hoepen

He made his step up to Formula 2 around one of the tougher venues on the calendar, and a lot of work went into Laurens van Hoepen’s promotion with TRIDENT.

But, what does the Dutchman like to get up to outside of his time racing? Well, it will come as no surprise that as a racing driver, he likes to keep things competitive no matter what he’s doing.

Sports, sports and more sports are the theme for van Hoepen, who has a few favourites he enjoys in his time outside of the F2 paddock and away from the race track.

“I really enjoy sports, anything to do with sports I really like. I’m always trying to be active and doing different types of activities. For example, I love playing golf, tennis and keeping busy. I am really bad at just sitting still with nothing to do.

READ MORE: Getting to know PREMA Racing Teammates Gabriele Minì and Sebastián Montoya

“I like padel as well, we all play quite a bit in the paddock. So I’m always doing some kind of sport usually whenever I have time off from racing. It’s a classic racing driver kind of thing.

“There’s karting, golf, tennis and padel. Apart from that, I don’t really do much when I’m not in a racing car.

“Over the summer break, I went to Spain, it was nice to spend some time on the beach and by the sea. We had quite a bit of time to do that, and apart from training, there’s not so much to do outside of that. Swimming in the summer is good, but it’s about staying active.

“When I have days where I’m a bit more chilled out, watching a movie or something like that, but I prefer staying active, but it’s still always nice to have some time off you know and just chill out a little bit.

READ MORE: Nicolás Varrone joins Van Amersfoort Racing for the 2026 season

“If I had to choose one sport to do over the rest, I’d pick karting. It’s close with that and tennis, but I think I’d choose karting because I’m still racing that way.

“It’s just a bit of fun though. I went with my dad one time, and he drove as well which was fun, I was trying to show him up a bit and it got super competitive, but it was nice.

“So apart from that, everything is focused on racing and that is the way I prefer it.”