British motorsport rising star John Bennett enters a new FIA Formula 2 Championship season full of optimism, with front-running speed throughout official testing pointing towards an exciting 2026 ahead for the Trident Motorsport driver.
The Salisbury-based racer has a new team behind him for the upcoming campaign, moving to Trident Motorsport for 2026. The Italian squad has been highly successful in the Formula 1 support paddock for many years and has fielded championship-winning cars in FIA Formula 3 during recent seasons.
Bennett, backed by Lonetree Limited, will partake in his second full season of FIA F2 competition - the feeder series directly below Formula 1, which so many young drivers set their sights on.
A hugely encouraging end to his first campaign resulted in him charging through the field at Monza for a points finish, and adding a superb first pole position to his F2 tally during a front-running weekend in the Austrian round, held at the Red Bull Ring.
The former GB3 vice-champion recently returned to the circuits for three intense days of official testing at Barcelona's Circuit de Catalunya. The results afterwards were hugely encouraging for the Brit on paper, going third quickest on the second day and ending the week fifth fastest overall.
The 2026 season will consist of 14 events at many of the world's most iconic circuits, beginning in Melbourne, Australia, for the opening two races across the weekend of 6th to 8th March. Bennett will again represent his country at the British Grand Prix in the summer (3rd-5th July), held at the famous Silverstone circuit.
John Bennett: "I'm really looking forward to our second season in FIA Formula 2 this year. We're starting fresh with a brand new team behind us, and from what we've shown in testing, there's plenty of reason to be optimistic about the year ahead.
"Over three days of testing we were right up there when the fastest times came in across the second morning. We could have gone quicker than we did on the final day as well, so there was a little bit more time on the table. It's been a key time just to gather data and learn a lot about the new team around me, and so far I think we're in good shape.
"I'm ready to get back to racing again, and it should be a very competitive season throughout the grid. Australia is such a great place to visit and it will be a lot of fun racing at Albert Park - a really fast and flowing circuit - so let's go there and try to kick off the year in strong fashion."
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