VAR’s John Bennett coming to terms with “flipped around” reality in maiden F2 campaign
- Vyas Ponnuri
- Sep 5
- 7 min read
Written by Vyas Ponnuri
Nothing could have prepared Van Amersfoort Racing’s John Bennett for the next step in his racing career.
When his compatriots on the 2025 Formula 2 grid were all taking part in Monza’s Formula 3 or Formula 2 weekends, Bennett found himself spending his weekend in a soaking wet GB3 race at Donington Park.
A podium would follow, and two further top-seven finishes kept Bennett in close contention with championship leader Louis Sharp. While the New Zealander would take the overall honours at the season finale in Brands Hatch, Bennett’s brace of runner-up finishes got him within 22 points of Sharp’s tally.
The normal transition for a driver racing in Britain’s premier open-wheel single-seater series is to move to Formula 3 after a successful season, as evidenced by the likes of champion Louis Sharp, and formerly Callum Voisin, Joseph Loake and Luke Browning.
However, two post-season F3 tests in Jerez and Barcelona for Dutch outfit Van Amersfoort Racing saw Bennett go one step further, earning an elevation to round out the F2 season for the team alongside Mexican racer Rafael Villagómez.
Bennett made his F2 debut in Qatar, a track featuring vastly different characteristics to the ones he had raced on at home. Fast corners, harsh kerbs and intense heat awaited the youngster from Salisbury at the Lusail International Circuit, a completely new environment in a new championship.
While the weekend would deliver an indication of a driver in his first F2 race, Bennett still managed to show his raw speed and talent on his maiden weekend. Having stalled his car on the opening lap, the Van Amersfoort racer would go on to benefit from a race of attrition, converting 19th on the grid to eighth at the flag in the Feature Race, taking home his maiden F2 points.
It’s a moment Bennett savours when remembering his developing F2 career so far.
“Yeah, my highlights really would be sort of last year, but the points at Qatar in my first feature (race). You know, that was a real high point. Actually, it's a high point of my career as a whole,” a delighted Bennett mentioned.
While he managed to score his first F2 points in 2024, Bennett hasn’t yet managed to get off the mark in 2025, as he navigates the ins and outs of racing in the top single-seater series on the road to Formula One.
Bennett’s run of results indicates that of a rookie finding his feet in the series. The 21-year-old followed up 18th in the Melbourne sprint with 20th and 17th in the following round in Bahrain, not troubling the front-runners along the way.
A late crash in qualifying around Jeddah at turn 18 prompted a red flag, with Bennett losing his quickest lap and being demoted to the rear of the grid for both races. Once again, he would circulate towards the rear of the field, finishing last on the road in both races. He would cop a penalty in the sprint for a safety car infringement, while an early crash in the Feature Race put him a lap down.
Imola and Monaco did not bring about points either, with Bennett clipping the wall at Sainte-Devote corner in the latter weekend, retiring from the sprint. A silver lining for the Briton, though, was his best finish of the season in 11th, in an extremely manic Feature Race.
While the Spanish weekend marked more of the same, it was on a stretch of tracks around which Bennett had previously raced in GB3 that saw the Van Amersfoort racer finally manage to show his pace. Qualifying tenth on Friday meant he would start the Saturday sprint on reverse-grid pole.
While he was caught up in a multi-car pile-up at Turn 3 on the final lap and dropped out of the points, the Briton holds the Austrian weekend as one of the happiest, being able to race at the top with the more experienced F2 racers and the championship contenders.
“This year has been a bit trickier, but I was quite proud of the P10 (in qualifying) at Red Bull Ring. Putting it on pole for the sprint race was good. And then being able to fight up the front with those guys was a cool opportunity,” Bennett mentioned, speaking highly of the weekend.
His home weekend in Silverstone and the ensuing weekend at Spa-Francorchamps yielded better fortunes, with Bennett leveraging his GB3 experience around both venues to finish in the top 12 thrice, with a best finish of ninth in a sprint riddled with incidents and safety cars.
The stark contrast between the GB3 and F2 calendars reveals only three circuits shared by both championships: Silverstone, Spa-Francorchamps and the Hungaroring, all tracks that saw Bennett fare well at. But on the rest of the circuits, it’s been a tale of getting up to speed and learning the ropes for the youngster, something he terms as “flipped around” from his GB3 days.
“That's been quite a big jump,” Bennett said, referring to his elevation from GB3 to F2. “And yeah, it's been quite difficult to ease in for many reasons. I think some of the biggest things are about track knowledge.
“Out of the 14 rounds, I've only been to two of the tracks, whereas quite a few guys have been racing there basically their whole careers. So yeah, it just comes down to a lot more preparation, really.
“I mean, we only get one Free Practice, and then it's straight into qualifying on a different type of tyre. Whereas, what I'm used to in GB3, it's basically two days of prep and then qualifying on the exact same tyre, doing sort of the exact same lap time.”
The nature of GB3 means it’s more dependent on the drivers to perform across the three races. A 250 bhp GB3 car equivalent to that of a Formula 4 or Formula Regional car, fewer race weekends and less intensive preparation mean the bulk of the leg work is done on the racetrack.
It’s almost in striking contrast to F2, where drivers spend more time in the simulator and the garages to find the ideal set-up for the race weekend, before heading out onto the track, something Bennett delved into when speaking about the challenges faced in his maiden F2 season.
“In GB3, I actually never went to my team's workshop once,” Bennett said. “We never did simulator preparation. We had no pre-event meetings. It was just getting the car and driving ready.
“Whereas in F2, you do a lot more preparation than you actually do driving, which is kind of flipped around.
“There are also lots of other things. The car's a lot faster. There's tyre management, tyre degradation to consider.
The tyre only lasts for one or two laps in qualifying. I mean, that's just all things I've had to adapt to and try to learn as quickly as possible. And yeah, I'm helped by the experience of my team and my teammate. Every weekend, it’s all about trying to get better at those aspects,” Bennett concluded, bringing in the vast landscape surrounding both championships.
Bennett has never raced at Monza before, and is the only driver on the grid to have never taken to the Temple of Speed. But this has become an all too familiar situation for the GB3 vice champion, and the support from Van Amersfoort Racing has helped him get up to speed and keep up with the pace of an F2 weekend.
“It's not very common that a driver will skip F3 and then also have not done track or something like that, which also visits lots of these tracks. So yeah, it's been a big challenge of the season. But you know, we've been preparing as best we can,” Bennett said.
“We've been putting in a lot of hours on the sim, re-watching all the races, learning what I can about the tracks, looking at all the data. So yeah, I mean, VAR (Van Amersfoort Racing) have been really crucial in my ability to adapt to the race tracks.
“But you know, like with most things in Formula 2, it comes down to the preparation. Because you don't really get much time on track to learn it once you're there,”
“You know, I get on very well with them (VAR). I get on well with my engineer. And yeah, I think it's a good environment to learn in,” Bennett concluded, referring to the intense work put in behind the scenes in a regular F2 weekend.
With long gaps between race weekends, and F2 not supporting Formula One during the American rounds, there exists the anomaly of a nearly two-month gap of inactivity between F2’s Baku and Qatar weekends.
“Yeah, I mean, it's something that is pretty tough,” Bennett said, referring to the gaps in between the upcoming race weekends.
“I would just be trying to stay sharp in any way I can, keeping ourselves prepped up, trying to get out, doing something like that, just so you don't lose that feel of the speeds. just trying to stay sharp and trying to keep working every day and trying and go into the last rounds,” he continued.
When asked where he could see himself in five years, Bennett replied, “Formula One world champion,” outlining his ambitions clearly, the dream of every single-seater racer.
“I haven't done F4, haven’t done F3. You know, I've only done GB3 and F2 as my single-seater championships. So, you know, it's been a weird career so far.
“And yeah, in terms of the future, we are trying to make a professional career in motorsport. You know, Formula One's the goal, and that's why I'm in Formula 2. But obviously, you know, I've looked at other paths as well.
“You know, I think how the end of this season and how next season might turn out will be very crucial to where I end up going,” Bennett said, referring to opportunities in endurance, F1 and Formula E.
As much as he would love to explore, Bennett mentioned it was important for him to stay in the present and focus on the task at hand.
“There are lots of ventures. But yeah, I mean, the main focus right now is just on the present and trying to do the best job I can to see where that leads me,” he said.
Bennett will certainly be looking to make the best of his first appearance at the daunting Monza circuit, as he looks to build momentum and end his maiden F2 campaign on a strong note.
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