Ben Fleet

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Flag of the United Kingdom svg.png Ben Fleet
Nationality British
Born 29th February 1984
Rochford, Essex, England
DEC Holder dr-baker
Current Team Flag of the Isle of Man svg.png Foxdale Auto Racing Team
Car Number 12
Former Teams Flag of Australia svg.png GRM
Flag of the United Kingdom svg.png DGNgineering
Flag of Italy svg.png Scuderia Alitalia
Races 68 (63 starts)
Championships 0
Victories 0
Podiums 1
Points 13
Pole Positions 9
Fastest Laps 2
First Race 2013 Monaco Grand Prix
First Victory N/A
Latest Victory N/A
Latest Race 2017 Chinese Grand Prix
Best Finish 14th (2014)


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.