India’s 20-year-old racecar driver Arjun Maini will drive for Trident in the upcoming 2018 season of the FIA Formula 2 Championship, it was announced on Wednesday.

The youngster, considered among the country’s brightest Formula 1 prospects, will move to F2 after competing in the GP3 Series where he became the first Indian to win a race in the championship. He had made his GP3 debut with Jenzer Motorsport at Silverstone in 2016.

After a successful stint in GP3, Maini showed good speed in the post-season FIA F2 testing, topping two out of the six sessions.

Along with racing for Trident, the 20-year-old is also with Haas F1 Team as a development driver, where he travels with the team through the year and participates in the team’s simulator program.

“I’m very excited to be competing in the FIA Formula 2 championship with Trident Motorsport. I felt we were quite competitive during the post-season test and given that the series is using all new cars for the coming season, I’m quite excited for the year ahead. Trident is a very strong team and I’m sure if we work hard we’ll be in for some strong results during the course of the season,” Maini said.

Trident is based in Italy and have been competing in the GP2 Series (now FIA Formula 2) since 2006 Some of the names who have raced with them include Pastor Maldonado and ex-Ferrari Driver Academy star Raffaele Marciello.

Team owner Maurizio Salvadori was all praise for the Indian, “Arjun is an undoubtedly valuable prospect who has all that it takes to be among the future stars of motorsports for the years to come. It is certainly not by chance that Haas F1 Team selected him to join their development driver program. Team Trident will provide Arjun with the experience and energy needed for him to continue growing up and reach his ultimate professional goals.

The FIA Formula 2 Championship will start from April 6th at the Sakhir International Circuit in Bahrain.