Van Hoepen on Melbourne F2 podium: “We knew it was going to be a tough job”

Trident spent the majority of 2025 forming the tail of Formula 2’s ever-competitive field. In stark contrast to their F3 counterparts, the last time a Trident driver stood on a podium was in 2024. However, F2’s Melbourne weekend reaped massive rewards for a team looking ahead to an optimistic 2026. 

van Hoepen took Trident's first F2 podium since Baku in 2024 | Credit: Formula 2

However, as torrid as 2025 went, the opening round of 2026 brought a new dawn in the team’s F2 journey. Laurens van Hoepen drove superbly to climb four spots in Saturday’s sprint race, before doubling up with a stellar drive to take a special podium the following day. 

Amidst the coming together of the two Rodin Motorsport cars and a brief sparring cameo by VAR’s Nicolás Varrone in the lead, van Hoepen’s drive flew under the radar. 

Even race winner Nikola Tsolov expressed his delight at seeing the Trident man finish in a podium position. “I was quite impressed to see him (van Hoepen) on the podium. I actually had no clue until I looked back after my celebration. I am happy for him, we even used to be F3 teammates,” Tsolov said, speaking to the media after the Feature Race. 

In stark contrast to Tsolov and second-placed Rafael Câmara, van Hoepen’s race was more of a steady climb, with plenty of overtakes along the way. 

While he gained places due to incidents on track, the Trident driver would also make overtakes at the start, climbing up to fifth in the first three laps. 

Having jumped past Ollie Goethe in the pits, he would then trail pole-sitter Dino Beganovic mid-race, benefitting from the DAMS driver’s reliability problems to climb up another spot. A final overtake on one-time race leader Varrone confirmed his spot on the podium, the Dutchman terming it a great race for the team.

“Yes, I'm super happy. I think we did a really good race. Starting from P11, for sure, I was not really expecting to be on the podium. But yes, I think the team and I did an amazing job. The pit stop was really good from the team as well. We managed to jump a position there,” van Hoepen said, looking back on his race.

Van Hoepen mentioned the encouragement provided from the pit wall when he found himself behind Varrone during the second safety car period, mentioning how this confidence kept him calm and helped him eventually nail the overtake for the podium after a few laps.

“I thought I was in third already until basically I saw Nico (Varrone) passing the safety car. I was like, ‘Oh, maybe we're not in third’.

"And then when I saw Varrone in front, I got good encouragement from the engineers in the pit hall, and they just kept me calm, saying, ‘Okay, you're on the quicker tyre after a couple of laps.’ And yeah, at that point, I just stayed calm and waited for a good moment to overtake. It was just about managing the tyres and hoping that the option (soft tyre) would click at some point, which it did,” van Hoepen said, speaking about his battle for the podium. 

van Hoepen fended off Ollie Goethe on his way to P3 in Melbourne | Credit: Formula 2

A feature of van Hoepen’s race was having to fend off fourth-placed Goethe, with the German even getting alongside for a couple of moments during the race. But being in proximity to the battling Varrone and Câmara would help van Hoepen maintain his position.

“The DRS was quite powerful. But as soon as you're in a DRS train, it's very difficult actually, to make an overtake,” van Hoepen expressed, speaking on that phase of the race. “Luckily, there was some exciting stuff happening in front of me, which I could get through quite cleanly, and which helped me a lot.

“Also, with Varrone, it was a bit tricky to get past. But as soon as you have a good exit and he (Varrone) didn't have the DRS, it wasn’t too difficult,” van Hoepen said.

The Dutchman had already built up a few races of experience in 2025, driving for Trident in Baku as well as the final Middle Eastern double-header in Qatar and Abu Dhabi. Given that Trident had only been able to score two points in 2025, van Hoepen mentioned the team had been putting in the hard work and efforts right away to ensure they were ready for the Australian weekend.

“Yes, I'm super happy. We've done so much work in the off-season. From the moment I joined the team in Baku last year, we knew it was going to be a tough job. But from that point on, we started working like crazy,” van Hoepen said, speaking on the team’s efforts in the lead-up to this season.

“I'm very impressed with the team, how much they've done in the off-season to give me a car that's capable of doing this in the first round already. We knew we were on the right track after testing in Barcelona, but we also still have a lot to improve.

“But to be here already (on the podium) is a good start for sure,” van Hoepen concluded, reflecting on his performance in the opening weekend of the season.

An important pillar of van Hoepen’s progress through the ranks has been mentor Nyck de Vries, who was also present on the Trident pit wall in Melbourne, overseeing the team and his protégé’s progress.

The 2019 F2 champion and current Mahindra Formula E driver has mentored van Hoepen all the way through his F3 days, and serves as an inspiration for his own countryman looking to grow his career. “It's super nice to have Nyck in my corner,” van Hoepen mentioned, speaking on de Vries’ influence.

“He has so much experience in F2, but also in any other category outside of Formula 1. He's a very established driver, and he really knows how this road works.

“Also, to have him here this weekend (in Melbourne) helps. We just mainly speak about the things we can do better, and how the mindset should be going into a race weekend. To learn from his experience is, of course, super nice,” van Hoepen concluded.

Van Hoepen will now be looking to carry the momentum for a rejuvenated Trident squad going into the season, as he looks to emulate mentor de Vries in his quest for F2 glory in 2026.