Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd
Formula 2 runner-up Frederik Vesti has secured a seat in the European Le Mans Series for this year, but is still aiming to step up to Formula 1 in 2025.
Vesti will drive an LMP2 prototype sportscar for Cool Racing in ELMS, and will share the car with Ferdinand Habsburg – an LMP2 class champion in the World Endurance Championship, Asian Le Mans Series and ELMS – and Formula 3 graduate Alex Garcia.
The season-opening Barcelona Four Hours in April will mark Vesti’s first experience of sportscar racing.
“Frederik fits well within our philosophy and we can be ambitious in our objectives,” said Cool Racing’s co-founder Nicolas Lapierre.
For the past three years, Vesti has been racing as a Mercedes-AMG F1 junior. In 2021 he came fourth in the FIA F3 Championship with ART Grand Prix, taking one win, and the year after stepped up to F2 with the team and again took a single victory. Moving to Prema for the 2023 season resulted in six wins but coming just short of being champion.
Before F2’s title-deciding round, Vesti was in the F1 paddock to make his free practice debut with Mercedes in Mexico City. He drove again in F1 practice for the finale at Yas Marina Circuit, but the team has not announced any 2024 plans for him since.
Recently he told Danish news website B.T.: “The goal is for me to drive F1 in 2025. I will fight really hard for that to happen.”
Theo Pourchaire, who beat Vesti to the F2 title, will spend 2024 racing in Super Formula with Team Impul.
Also headed to ELMS’s LMP2 class this year is Jonny Edgar, who has been signed by TF Sport. He will share a car with ex-F1 driver Robert Kubica and Louis Deletraz, who is already a champion in WEC and ELMS.
Edgar was ADAC Formula 4 champion in 2020, and ended his three-year FIA F3 career with a first victory in his final start at Monza last September.
“I’m really excited to join such a great team and I am looking forward to work with Louis and Robert,” said the 19-year-old Briton.
“They have both won many races in important categories and I want to learn as much as I can from them. There will be challenges this year, as it is a new category and a new style of racing for me, but I am confident that TF Sport is the best home for this next step in my career.”