Photo: Paul Hurley
Formula E-bound Taylor Barnard’s rookie Formula 2 season with AIX Racing has come to an early end, and Niels Koolen has been signed as his short-term replacement.
Barnard was announced on Tuesday as stepping up to FE full-time with McLaren next year, having impressed in three races with them earlier this year.
While the entry list for this weekend’s F2 round at Monza was yet to be published, his name had alread been scrubbed from it and Koolen’s was shown in his place. However the announcement of Koolen’s arrival in F2 did not come until Thursday.
The 20-year-old Barnard departs F2 after 20 races with one win, claimed on the streets of Monaco, but only three other appearances in the points positions and he is currently 20th in the standings. He came 22nd in FE as a part-timer.
Barnard, who will remain part of the separate PHM Academy, expressed his “very mixed emotions” about his departure from the team. “Personally I would like to say a big thank you to team PHM/AIX for the last three years of my career. It has been a blast. I am sad to say goodbye to everyone, but looking forward to the future! Best of luck for the rest of the season!”
Koolen, who is 23, is signed only for two rounds. He is unlikely to fare better than Barnard as only once in his single-seater career has he finished a race in the top 10.
As a car racing rookie in 2022 he spent three weekends in Formula 4, with a best result of 17th, then last year did 35 races in Formula Regional-based championships and two 12th places were his highest placed finishes.
He leapt up to Indy Nxt for 2024, and came 10th in his third race in IndyCar’s primary feeder series. He did six more races, with a 12th being his next best result, before dropping off the grid. The Dutchman has also been racing prototype sportscars this year, scoring points in the European Le Mans Series’ LMP2 class and doing one race in Ultimate Cup Series’ LMP3 class.
Since last December, his career has been overseen by Fernando Alonso’s A14 Management company.
Koolen said: “I am very happy with the opportunity from AIX Racing to participate in F2 in Monza and Baku. A few years ago I had the dream to get into formula racing. Since then I have been training constantly to prepare myself for this step. I want to thank all people who supported me in this journey and look forward to my first F2 race.”