Photo: Joe Portlock / GP3 Series Media Service
Alessio Lorandi will step up from GP3 to Formula 2 with the Trident team to replace the disgraced Santino Ferrucci for the rest of the season.
Lorandi will take over the seat that became vacant when Ferrucci was banned from the next two F2 rounds after colliding with team-mate Arjun Maini after the sprint race at Silverstone.
Trident subsequently terminated its contract with Ferrucci, citing not only events at Silverstone but also a failure by the American to pay the team as required.
Nineteen-year-old Italian Lorandi steps up to F2 while sitting seventh in the GP3 standings, having joined Trident at the start of this season.
He finished last season in the same position while driving with Jenzer Motorsport, taking one win in the reversed-grid race in Jerez after three other podium finishes earlier in the campaign.
Lorandi took one GP3 podium with Trident in the first race at the Red Bull Ring, despite racing with a broken collarbone sustained while karting.
?I?m really happy and extremely motivated,” he said.
“I will need to adapt myself to the car really quickly and there will be a lot of things to learn.
“I am working hard with the team to prepare for my debut at Hungaroring. I am really excited about this amazing new challenge.”
Lorandi joins Arjun Maini in Trident’s F2 line-up: the third time that the pair have been team-mates during their single-seater career, at the third different team and in a third different series.
They were previously together in European Formula 3 with Van Amersfoort Racing in 2015 – alongside Charles Leclerc – and then again in GP3 with Jenzer after both abandoned F3 campaigns during the 2016 campaign, and they remained as team-mates through 2017.
?We are delighted to promote Alessio Lorandi to our line-up for the FIA Formula 2 Championship,” said Trident team manager Giacomo Ricci.
“His experience and driving style impressed Team Trident?s technical staff, and they believe he is ready to take a step up to Formula 2.
“Lorandi will receive maximum support from the team so he will be able to quickly learn all the secrets of the new series for him.
“With Alessio and Arjun, the team will be able to rely on a tight-knit pairing. They have already been team-mates in Formula 3 so we are sure that they will work well together.”