McLaren ace edges closer to F1 dream with mid season promotion

Martinius Stenshorne, young talent hailing from McLaren's young driver program, has gotten the step-up to Formula 2.

Maurizio Salvadori, owner of the F2 Trident team has informed GPblog that Martinius Stenshorne will be manning the cockpit of one of his two F2 drives as of Azerbaijan.

The owner of the Italian team also stated that Max Esterson and Sami Meguetounif will be leaving effective immediately.

This decision was made for financial reasons, Salvadori explained. Trident was hoping to compete for wins, which brings prize money. As wins have been lacking, there needs to be another way of bringing in revenue - namely drivers that bring sponsorship money.

Stenshorne will drive alongside Dutch talent Laurens Van Hoepen, who finished out the current F3 season driving for ART.

Stenshorne gets Formula 2 shot

Salvadori confirmed that the driver changes are intended for the rest of the season, but GPblog has heard that this is not certain in Van Hoepen's case. The Dutch young talent is apparently confirmed for Baku and Qatar, but not for Abu Dhabi. If Van Hoepen does race, he will lose his rookie status - which is disadvantageous for his further career.

Martinius set for F2 future after solid F3 season

The Norwegian McLaren junior driver raced for Hitech in the 2025 F3 season in which he finished some 77 points behind the reigning F3 champion, Ferrari talent, Rafael Camara.

Sternshorne's F3 campaign saw him take 4 podiums and a win in both the sprint race format as well as in the feature race in Austria.