Ben Fleet
Ben Fleet is a British racing driver, currently driving in the AutoReject World Series for the Foxdale Auto Racing Team, for the 2014 season.
First ARWS Career (2013-2017)
Originally Fleet, a so called 'pay driver' who brought with him significant personal wealth from his family, was employed by the Foxdale Auto Racing Team team part-way through the 2013 season, due to the teams dire unreliability and a shortfall in their budget which meant they were unable to rectify the problems preventing them from finishing races. Fleet's money for his drive went towards curing the issue, and was credited with providing the team with Douglas Mann's race victory at the Macau GP. Ben's season though was entirely made up of race retirements, but he showed promise by taking a string of pole positions and fastest laps through the year, to the extent that he held the record for the total of number of pole positions for an F1RWRS driver (7) before being tied for it with Phillippe Nicolas during 2014.
For the 2014 season, Fleet was initially out of a drive, before being handed a one-off outing for GRM in place of Frank Zimmer at the Brazilian Grand Prix. There he retired, but was back driving again after missing only one further race, but this time for defending champions DGNgineering. Fleet replaced the outgoing Nathan Scott who had left the team following some poor performances, and with DGN looking for an additional funding source to try and overcome the leading MRT cars, Fleet and his wealth were hired for the remainder of the season. Having never actually crossed the finish line in any of his previous 12 races, Ben scored first time out for DGNgineering with a sixth place at the US GP, though this was bettered by a brilliant second place in Germany. There was still a high volume of retirements for Fleet in his second season though, but he enjoyed two consecutive finishes towards the end of the year, with one bringing more points as Ben finished in fourth at Macau.
Entering the 2015 season, Fleet was unable to continue his partnership with DGNgineering, as the team instead signed Belgian Ron Mignolet, prompting Fleet to move on to Alessandro Linari's Scuderia Alitalia. Fleet matched up well against his highly-rated teammate David Koczo, however, the car was largely uncompetitive and despite a strong driver lineup, Alitalia were never a real threat for points that season. Indeed, Fleet's only point that year came in a one-off at the German Grand Prix, as he replaced Martin McFry at Foxdale and finished a solid 6th.
This prompted a full-time move back to Foxdale for the 2016 season - however, the team struggled with an ill-fated move to PURE-Hart power for the season. The engines were extremely rapid over a single lap, but had little in the way of reliability or pace over a race distance. This meant that while Fleet and teammate McFry combined for 7 poles that season (2 of them by Fleet), a single 5th place in Canada by Fleet were the only points Foxdale had to show for the season. As if that wasn't enough, following back-to-back poles in Mexico and Argentina, Fleet wound up banned for 2 races after causing a multi-car pileup at the Argentinean round.
Fleet remained with Foxdale for 2017, but financial woes had begun to truly set in for the now-beleaguered team, and Fleet's considerable personal sponsorship was not able to alleviate the situation. The car was even more uncompetitive than the previous year's Foxdale, and Fleet often found himself overdriving in compensation, causing a number of incidents through the season resulting in another ban following the Belgian Grand Prix, and the ire of many in the paddock.
Although Fleet did not retire from competition in the series following that season, no team expressed interest in his services, and so he, along with Foxdale, departed from F1RWRS after 2017.
Interim (2018-2023)
TBD
Return to ARWS (2024-present)
As Foxdale would move on from Benoît Voeckler, this opened up one of their two ARWS seats up for the 2024 season. Fleet, feeling he had unfinished business in the series, filled the seat, looking to aid the team in their bid for a championship. Foxdale had moved on from the Koenigsegg engines in favour of Mugen Honda motors - while these engines were much less powerful than the Koenigseggs, they were far more reliable to compensate.
Personal Life
Away from racing, Fleet is married to Foxdale team principal Pippa Mann.
Complete ARWS results
Year | Team | Chassis | Engine | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | DC | Pts |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2013 | Foxdale Auto Racing Team | Foxdale 001 | Hart 415T | TAS | AUS | MEX | USA | MON Ret |
FRA Ret |
GBR Ret |
GER Ret |
NED 11† |
BEL Ret |
POR Ret |
MED Ret |
MAC Ret |
CHN Ret |
JPN Ret |
BRA | =30th | 0 |
2014 | Garry Rogers Motorsport | GRM-002 | HSV L12-2 | TAS | AUS | BRA Ret |
MEX | 14th | 10 | ||||||||||||
DGNgineering | CD-02 | Zakspeed 1500 | USA 6 |
MON Ret |
FRA Ret |
GBR Ret |
GER 2 |
BEL Ret |
ITA Ret |
MED Ret |
NED 7 |
MAC 4 |
CHN Ret |
JPN | |||||||
2015 | Scuderia Alitalia | Alitalia SA-15 | Lancia 015/1 | TAS DNPQ |
AUS Ret |
MED DNPQ |
MON 15 |
MEX Ret |
USA 12 |
CAN 12 |
GBR 12 |
BEL Ret |
AUT DNQ |
ITA DNPQ |
NED 11 |
CHN 8 |
JPN 10 |
BRA 9 |
=23rd | 1 | |
Foxdale Auto Racing Team | Foxdale F1-4B | Renault RS1 | GER 6 |
||||||||||||||||||
2016 | Foxdale Auto Racing Team | Foxdale F1-5 | Pure-Hart PHRWRS-1 | AUS Ret |
NSW Ret |
GBR Ret |
ITA 12† |
AUT Ret |
CAN 5 |
SUS Ret |
NUS Ret |
GER 12 |
NSE Ret |
MON Ret |
BEL Ret |
MEX 12 |
ARG Ret |
CHN EX |
JPN EX |
23rd | 2 |
2017 | Foxdale Auto Racing Team | Foxdale F1-6 | Pure-Hart PHRWRS-1-17 | AUS 12 |
NSW Ret |
GBR Ret |
ITA Ret |
AUT Ret |
CAN 19 |
SUS Ret |
NUS 13 |
GER Ret |
NSE Ret |
BEL Ret |
MON EX |
MOR DNPQ |
ARG Ret |
JPN Ret |
CHN Ret |
37th | 0 |
2024 | Foxdale Auto Racing Team | Foxdale FART-Y | Mugen Honda MF-24A HA | MON |
MED |
LUX |
GER |
CRI |
GRS |
NUS |
ITA |
GBR |
CAN |
RNO |
SUS |
MAL |
KIN |
JPN |
AUS |
NC | 0 |
- * Season in progress
- † Driver did not finish the Grand Prix, but was classified as they completed over 90% of the race distance.