After a less-than-impressing 10th-place finish in the 2023 Formula Regional European Championship (FRECA) with ART Grand Prix, Laurens van Hoepen stepped up to Formula 3 for the 2024 season. The Dutch driver had a strong start to the 2024 F3 season, earning a podium on his debut race.
Van Hoepen takes first podium in Bahrain
Laurens van Hoepen enjoyed a good start to the season, qualifying 12th in the 2024 Sakhir F3 round. This earned him a start from pole position for the sprint race. After engaging in a fierce battle with Prema Racing’s Arvid Lindblad and teammate Nikola Tsolov, van Hoepen finished the race P2, losing out to Lindblad but overcoming Tsolov and Trident’s Leonardo Fornaroli to claim his first podium finish.
Unfortunately, van Hoepen would not enjoy similar success in the next day’s feature race. He was unable to keep pace with his competitors and dropped to 15th. This was a disappointing end to what had been an otherwise exceptional weekend.
P3 finishes in Melbourne and Monaco
The 2024 Melbourne F3 round would be a similar story. After qualifying P12, van Hoepen again started the sprint race from pole position. However, after engaging in battles with Lindblad and with the eventual race winner, Hitech Pulse-Eight’s Martinius Stenshorne, van Hoepen finished the race third, taking his second podium of the season. He then suffered a disappointing feature race, finishing P13.
After finishing P7 and P13 in the 2024 Imola F3 round sprint and feature races respectively, van Hoepen returned to the podium in Monaco. After starting the race from P2, he was passed by MP Motorsport’s Tim Tramnitz at the start and went on to finish the race P3. He would again suffer a disappointing feature race. He crashed out on Lap 22 at Tabac while trying to overtake Rodin Motorsport’s Joseph Loake.
An unimpressive second half of the season
Van Hoepen’s P3 finish in the Monte Carlo round was the Dutch driver’s last podium finish of the 2024 season. Though he would score points in all but five of the season’s remaining races, he would fail to make it back into the top 3.
In Barcelona, van Hoepen finished P5 in the sprint race before retiring on the penultimate lap of the feature race. He would take double points in Austria with P5 and P8 finishes in the sprint and feature races, before finishing P9 in Silverstone. The ART Grand Prix driver would also score points in the sprint races in Hungary and Spa-Francorchamps and in the feature race in Monza.
Van Hoepen to continue with ART Grand Prix in 2025
Van Hoepen ended the 2024 F3 season 13th in the standings with 58 points. This was a less-than-ideal end to what had started as a promising season for the rookie driver. However, van Hoepen did show his strong potential behind the wheel, proving him an intelligent, steady driver.
Van Hoepen will have another chance to prove his worth in F3. In October 2024, ART Grand Prix confirmed that the Dutch driver will continue as part of the F3 lineup.
When speaking on the team’s decision to continue with van Hoepen for a fourth year, Team Principal Sébastien Philippe described van Hoepen as a promising and dedicated driver. He added that he believed that the team and driver could achieve greater success in 2025.
“We are thrilled to continue our collaboration with Laurens Van Hoepen as we enter the exciting new era of Formula 3 in 2025. Laurens has shown great promise and dedication in his debut season with ART, and we believe that together we can achieve even greater success in the coming year.”
