Zane Maloney, who finished runner-up in the FIA Formula 3 championship this year, will make his Formula 2 debut in next week’s season finale at Yas Marina.
Trident will promote him from their F3 squad in place of Calan Williams, whose departure from the team was announced last month. He will drive alongside the team’s regular racer Richard Verschoor.The 19-year-old from Barbados ended the F3 championship in a strong vein of form, taking three wins and a second place from the final four feature races. Having lain 14th in the standings at the halfway mark, Maloney’s excellent second half of the season saw him end the year just five points off champion Victor Martins, leapfrogging Ferrari’s Oliver Berman and Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar in the final race at Monza.
Trident team manager Giacomo Ricci said they were “very proud” to promote Maloney after an F3 campaign in which he “has proven to be second to no one in terms of competitiveness.”
“We are confident that Trident will be able to provide him with the maximum support and dedication for the challenging Yas Marina circuit,” Ricci added.
If Maloney moves up into F2 full-time next year it will continue his run of changing categories every year since he graduated from karting. He was the British Formula 4 champion in 2019 before spending a year in Euroformula Open. A season in Formula Regional European in 2021 yielded a single win, following which he joined Trident for his first year on F1’s regular support race bill.
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Formula 2
- Bortoleto clinches F2 title as Hadjar stalls and Duerksen wins finale
- Aron hit with double penalty for team’s illegal DRS modification, Hadjar gains a point
- Marti wins sprint race as Bortoleto extends points lead ahead of finale
- Martins beats title rivals Bortoleto, Aron and Hadjar to Yas Marina pole
- Bortoleto’s lead down to half a point as penalty hands win to Aron in Losail
Qeki (@qeki)
7th November 2022, 19:59
Interesting to see how he drives in Abu Dhabi
Shimks (@shimks)
7th November 2022, 23:13
Hopefully he will be in F2 in 2023. That really was a very impressive second half of the season this year.