FIA Formula 3 podium winner Christian Mansell will race the opening two rounds of the New Zealand’s prestigious Castrol Toyota Formula Oceania Championship.
Mansell carried Castrol support through his FIA Formula 3 Championship campaign this year, which will extend to the first two rounds of the Castrol Toyota Formula Oceania Championship at Taupo International Motorsport Park and Manfeild: Circuit Chris Amon.
“I’m super excited to be competing in the Castrol Toyota Formula Oceania Regional Championship next year, and it’s great to partner up with Castrol,” said Mansell. “I’m thankful for the opportunity to race in this highly competitive series and I’m eager to take some trophies back with me.”
A Rookie Cup winner in the F4 British Championship in his first European season, Mansell has been a race winner in GB3 and Euroformula Open before making the step up to FIA Formula 3 halfway through 2022 for two rounds.
Following his cameo appearance in Formula 1’s second-tier feeder category, Mansell made the step up to full-time competition with the support of Castrol in 2023 driving for Campos Racing. Scoring his first points in Melbourne and finishing 12th overall in the standings, Mansell took a breakthrough third at Silverstone before improving on this to be second at Spa-Francorchamps.
Mansell is set to continue in FIA Formula 3 with front-running team ART Grand Prix for 2024 after recently contesting the prestigious Macau Grand Prix to round out a busy 2023 racing calendar.
Widely acknowledged as one of Australia’s rising stars in Europe, Mansell is set to contest the two opening rounds of Castrol Toyota Formula Regional Oceanic Championship with Giles Motorsport.
Castrol has supported New Zealand’s leading open-wheel formula since 2017 as a naming rights partner, which continues to this day. This was the same year current Castrol-supported Supercars driver Thomas Randle won the series from such illustrious drivers including Marcus Armstrong, Jehan Daruvala, Richard Verschoor and Pedro Piquet.
Castrol expanded its support in last season’s Toyota FR championship to sponsor Kiwi driver James Penrose won twice with Kiwi Motorsport.
Mansell’s New Zealand cameos in the Toyota FT-60 will begin at Taupo on January 19-21 before moving to Manfeild a week later before starting his European season.
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