Richard Verschoor is in his fifth Formula 2 season, and he’s finally in contention for the title. After 10 rounds, F2’s longest-serving driver is just 19 points behind championship leader Leonardo Fornaroli. Feeder Series caught up with Verschoor earlier this year to talk about his 2025 season and how he views comments about his long tenure in the series.

By Martin Lloyd 

The journey to the front has not been easy for Verschoor.

He first joined F2 in 2021 and finished 11th in the standings. He started with MP – with whom he raced for the previous five years in series including F3 and Formula Renault Eurocup – before leaving the team with two rounds left in the season. Verschoor returned for the final round in Abu Dhabi with Charouz in place of the injured Enzo Fittipaldi before moving full-time to Trident in 2022. 

That year, Verschoor took a win at the season opener in Bahrain but finished one place lower in the standings in 12th. The Dutchman finished ninth with Van Amersfoort Racing in 2023 before moving back to Trident and racing with them for most of 2024. He made his return to MP in the final two rounds of 2024, taking podiums in both Lusail and Abu Dhabi, ahead of his full season with the Westmaas-based team this year.

“[I’m] very happy to have made the decision to join them. It felt like coming home from the beginning,” Verschoor told Feeder Series. “At the start, when you make that decision, you are hoping that it’s a big improvement, and to be honest, it has been. 

“[I’m] really happy with the work. I think we fit really well together. My experience together with theirs has so far given us a lot of points and good results, so I’m really happy with how things are going at the moment. Still, there are many things that we can still improve.”

Our interview took place on the eve of the Silverstone weekend, and it was followed by three disappointing rounds at in which he scored a combined total of 21 points.“The last few weekends didn’t meet my goals or expectations,” Verschoor recently wrote on LinkedIn. “We weren’t always where we needed to be and we know that.”

Verschoor’s impressive first half of 2025 has placed him firmly in the title battle in spite of his disappointing record since Spielberg. After the Austrian round, which marked the season’s halfway point, he had an advantage of 24 points at the top of the drivers’ standings. While he has now fallen behind Fornaroli and Jak Crawford, Verschoor is in a strong position of third place as the series heads for its summer break. 

His current championship contention contrasts with his spells at Trident in 2022 and 2024. While Verschoor triumphed in the Baku feature race last season, he lost three likely victories – the Jeddah and Budapest sprints to post-race disqualifications and the Monaco feature to a mechanical failure – and fell short of fighting for the championship. 

“To be honest, I really enjoyed working with Trident for both years,” he said. “In 2022 we were a bit more successful than last year.… I don’t want to say that last season it was all very bad, just it was not enough to fight for the championship, which I am doing now. 

“I definitely enjoyed and I really liked Trident, but this year, with the experience we both have, myself and MP, I think it’s a very good combination.”

Verschoor’s on-track campaign has proved successful to date, but he has faced mounting questions about the length of time he has spent in the category. Now in his fifth season and with 121 starts under his belt, Verschoor eclipsed Ralph Boschung for the record for most career F2 starts last weekend at the Hungaroring. Given his vast experience in a stepping-stone category, some have questioned whether the 24-year-old should leave the championship to pursue other racing opportunities. 

“People are allowed to have their own opinions,” Verschoor responded when asked for his thoughts on those who question his place in the category. “I also have my own opinions about certain things, and some people are happy to speak about it [in] every single Instagram, Facebook or Twitter post that they see. I cannot blame them. If they want to do that, it’s fine for me. In the end, I’m 24 – they’re acting like I’m 58. 

“Even looking two or three years ago, it was very normal to be in F2 at 22, 23, 24. If I just compare it to my karting days, the category that I was in when I was 15, I was by far the youngest. I was racing against people that were 18 to 25, 26, and nowadays this same category is run by 13-, 14-year-olds. 

“Everything has just been shifting younger, which is fine, but it doesn’t mean that when I’m a bit older, it’s only because of the experience that I’m doing well. My experience helps me, I’m not denying that at all, but in the end you still have to do the job.

“I understand that they [critics] are saying, ‘It’s a junior series, and you’re doing it to get to Formula 1’, but I’m trying to be active at the highest level that’s there. I never had the feeling in the last two years mainly that I could show what I can do. 

“As a guy without so much budget, it’s quite hard to then progress in your career as a professional driver because I couldn’t buy myself into any other seat. That’s why I’m super grateful for the opportunity with MP that they have given me. That’s why I’ve taken it with both hands.” 

In recent years, F2 drivers have transitioned successfully to other professional series. Marcus Armstrong and Christian Lundgaard have both achieved multiple podium finishes in IndyCar, while Dan Ticktum, Zane Maloney, Taylor Barnard and others have raced in Formula E. Yet more have pivoted to sports car series such as the World Endurance Championship.While all of these could be options, Verschoor’s key goal for 2025 is victory in F2. 

“That’s my main focus for now,” Verschoor said. “Of course I’m looking at what the opportunities are. In the end, I want to make a professional career as a driver. 

“I would be crazy to say that F1 is not my dream. Of course it is. That’s why I got into F2. I also know, as a realistic Dutch person, that the chances are not super high, but that doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t love to get the chance.”

Header photo credit: Dutch Photo Agency