Photo: Davy Delien / Pro-photos-sport.com
Laurens van Hoepen has secured a seat at ART Grand Prix in Formula Regional European Championship for his second year in car racing.
The Dutch racer – whose career has been advised by Formula E champion Nyck de Vries – debuted in single-seaters in the 2021 Ultimate Cup Series Single-Seater Challenge, which uses the same Tatuus T-318 chassis and Renault engine as FREC.
He only contested the season’s second half, after turning 16, and took pole on his debut. From his nine races in the series he ended up taking six wins, going unbeaten in qualifying against FE race-winner Nico Prost and taking third in the standings.
“I’m really looking forward to joining ART Grand Prix for my debut [full] season in single-seaters,” said van Hoepen.
“The team did an amazing job winning the drivers’ championship and finishing runner up in the teams’ championship last year. I know it’s a big step from karting to FREC but during the pre-season tests, I instantly felt comfortable with the team and the car.
“This is a very competitive championship and the circuits in this series are fantastic. I can’t wait to get started and I’m sure that together with the team we can make it a successful year.”
Van Hoepen joined ART GP for post-season testing at the end of 2021, driving at Monza, the Red Bull Ring, Barcelona and Mugello.
He has risen up the karting ranks over the last few years, being a European champion on Mini karts in 2017, then spending a year-and-a-half in junior and then senior karting. He came eighth in the CIK-FIA World Karting Championship for OK-Junior karts in 2019, and matched that position in the equivalent European championship for OK karts in 2020.
Last year he progressed into shifter karting and came seventh in the WSK Open Cup for KZ2 karts, and this year is contesting the WSK Super Master Series with Leclerc by Lennox Racing. The opening round is this weekend.
ART GP’s president Sebastien Philippe says the team has “been enthusiastic about [van Hoepen’s] ability to learn so much from his interactions with the technical team” during testing.
Van Hoepen completes the team’s line-up alongside Nicolas Todt protege Gabriele Mini and Mari Boya.