Martinius Stenshorne has made the move up to Formula 2 for the remainder of the 2025 season with Trident. This weekend in Baku not only represents his first F2 round, but also his first trip to Baku. With the Azerbaijan street circuit being notoriously cut throat, it will be a challenging weekend for many.
Stenshorne will also line up alongside his new teammate Laurens Van Hoepen, who also made the move to F2 this weekend. During a media day session attended by Pit Debrief, Stenshorne shared his thoughts on each of these topics and more.
A move to Trident
The move up to F2 with Trident was quite a recent decision. Stenshorne recalled that the decision began to form in the final rounds of the F3 season. Following the final Formula 3 round in Monza, Stenshorne made the trip to the Trident headquarters. This trip saw him learning the track and attempting to learn the car within their simulator.
“Yeah, came during the last few rounds of on the F3 season. We thought it would be good to have some experience in the car and also experience this track of course. So yeah, I went to Trident Monday, Tuesday after Monza on the race weekend and then did a couple days in the sim. So yeah, that’s about it.”
Along with this promotion comes a new teammate. His new teammate Laurens Van Hoepen is also making the leap up to F2 this weekend. Despite this, Stenshorne notes that Van Hoepen and himself have raced against each other in F3, as well as racing together in 2017. This has given them a chance to understand each other’s racing styles.
The question was followed up with a question of how much time the two have spent together. Stenshorne acknowledged that it hasn’t been a great deal of time so far, although he will see how that changes this weekend.
“Yeah, we have. I know Laurens quite well. We already raced together back in 2017, so it’s been quite a while. Yeah, it’s been good so far. We’ve been together on the simulator. More than that, not too much, to be honest. So we will see a bit during the weekend, but I’m sure it will be great.”
Trident have provided Stenshorne with a great deal of assistance thus far. Prior to this step up, Stenshorne didn’t know much about F2 cars. The team has promptly helped his get up to speed with procedures and simulator work.
“Yeah, they have done a lot, of course. I didn’t know much about F2 car before I came to them. So, yeah, they have helped me with all the procedures and a couple of days on the sim to get used to everything. So, yeah, they’ve been great so far. They’ve let me learn everything well. So, hopefully, everything goes well as well on the rest of the weekend.”
Preparing for a Baku debut
Preparing for Baku was quite simple and straightforward for Stenshorne. Due to this being his first outing with Trident, they took a few days to get on the simulator and learn all procedures. Apart from all the new learnings and information, preparation remained the same as it would for any other round.
“Yeah, for me it was the first time with Trident of course. We did a couple of days in the sim to learn the track and the car and all the procedures of the F2 car and quite a lot of different stuff. But apart from that, the usual sim work together with the team.”
Predicted challenges for his maiden F2 weekend
When it comes to predicting the challenges of his first F2 weekend, many of them relate to his ability to adapt to the new car. With many mechanical aspects of the F2 cars differentiating from the F3 cars, Stenshorne will need to learn how to keep track of these aspects.
“I think learning the car is going to be the most difficult thing with the carbon brakes and the turbo engine and all this kind of stuff. On top of the track evolution, so we’re going to get more and more grip every lap so it’s a bit one extra element to keep track of. So yeah, I think those two things are going to be the most difficult.”
While Baku is a notoriously difficult track, that tends to see many Safety Cars, Stenshorne emphasises that you can’t predict how a race will run. You can’t plan your race around the prospect of a Safety Car, when a Safety Car isn’t promised. His race will take an added tricky turn when it comes to the mandatory pit stop. This isn’t an aspect in F3, so this will take learning and adaption.
“I mean, it’s difficult to plan if there’s going to be a safe car or not. So you just kind of have to take it as it comes. And yeah, we will see. It’s going to be a new experience for me as well with the pit stop. So yeah, there’s a lot of things to learn. But for the moment, you can’t really plan whether or not there’s going to be an incident or not.”
Adapting to a new car
The trickiest part of the whole weekend will be adapting as quickly as possible. Despite this, Trident and Stenshorne haven’t set any result targets. Although, Stenshorne would ideally like to bring the team points. We have seen drivers step up to F2 in Baku in the past, and seen many of them secure strong results. This only boosts the chances that Stenshorne can perform strongly.
“Yeah, that’s going to be the difficult part, adapting as quickly as possible. I think result-wise, we haven’t really set ourselves a target. It’s mainly about getting as much experience and as many laps as we can. And then the result is up for just a bonus. But of course, it would be good to have some points also for the team. We haven’t had so many this year. So really going to try to give them some points.”
