Arden Motorsport will play a starring role on the world-famous Monaco Grand Prix support bill this weekend (22-23 May) as the Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine heads to its blue-riband event.
The Banbury team arrive in the principality on the back of a solid run of form, having scored podium finishes in each of the last two events in Europe’s premier single seater series.
Both came from Britain’s Alex Quinn, the Cornish racer battling to second spot once apiece in Imola and Barcelona to put himself in the thick of the title chase.
Quinn’s form, coupled with an equally impressive run of four consecutive points finishes for Finland’s William Alatalo, have also put Arden into the top three in the Teams’ stakes, and applying pressure on the competition above.
Misfortune has hampered Nicola Marinangeli’s progress thus far, but the Italian rising star has shown good pace in the opening rounds and heads to Monaco with renewed optimism in pursuit of his first points of the campaign.
Widely regarded as one of the most difficult circuits worldwide, the 2.0-mile Circuit de Monaco is laid out around the historic streets of the principality, with drivers racing flat out mere inches from the barriers, leaving no margin for error.
Formula Regional will also once again feature on the support package at the Formula 1 ® Monaco Grand Prix as the sport marks its first return to Monte Carlo since the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
Practice on Thursday (07:30 CET) kicks off a bumper weekend of action before qualifying takes place on Friday morning at 06:55.
The Red Arrows will then face one race apiece on Saturday (09:15) and Sunday (10:50), with live coverage available on the championship’s YouTube channel.
Ben Salter, Arden Formula Regional Team Manager said:
“The entire team heads to Monaco this weekend in a confident mood after some strong results in the opening two rounds of the season.
“None of our drivers have raced in Monte-Carlo before, so everyone has been working flat out to put the extra yards in during our pre-weekend preparation.
“Overtaking is incredibly difficult around Monaco, it’s a street circuit and the walls are there ready to bite for anybody who takes any liberties, so we’ve been working to maximise our performance in qualifying.
“I’m really pleased with the progress everyone has made, and here’s hoping we can keep our recent run of podium finishes going this time out.”
William Alatalo (#8) said:
“I’m really excited to drive in Monaco for the first time. It’s going to be such a unique experience, and there won’t be any margin for error, which makes the circuit really difficult.
“We won’t have much time to practice the track before qualifying either, so it’ll be tough. We’ll just have to do our best and see where that puts us.”
Nicola Marinangeli (#14) said:
“I can’t wait to hit the streets of Monaco this weekend. It’s going to be a very challenging event, it’s the first time for me there, but I’m really looking forward to this new experience.”
Alex Quinn (#21) said:
“I’ve been really looking forward to this race, it’s fantastic to say I’ll be racing at Monaco.
“Alongside the team, I’ve been doing a lot of work on the simulator to try and prepare as best I can, and I think we’ve made some really good progress.
“Obviously with it being a street circuit, you can’t test there, and practice before the weekend is going to be very limited, so we have to do what we can.
“Now it’s up to me to take that work forward and try and translate that into some more positive results.”