McLaren driver banned hours after signing for team

New McLaren-backed Formula 3 driver Martinius Stenshorne has been banned by the FIA from the upcoming Silverstone round. 

Stenshorne and Alex Dunne were unveiled as joining the McLaren junior programme on Thursday at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix as FIA F3 prepares to return action following a seven-week break after the Australian GP support round. 

However, the stewards have decided to ban the Hitech driver from the July 6-7th round at Silverstone after he took part in another championship at the Northamptonshire track. 

Stenshorne competed in the recent GB3 round without obtaining prior permission from the FIA, who deemed it as an "unfair advantage" for the Norwegian, who was summoned with the Hitech team representative, who claimed to be unaware of Stenshorne's participation, despite Hitech also running cars in the GB3 series. 

Stenshorne was handed four penalty points for the incident, with the stewards also finding that the FIA and promoter would have "denied the authorisation" for Stenshorne to compete in GB3 had it been received owing to the "similarities between the GB3 car and the F3 car and the sporting advantage gain for the driver."

Fellow FIA F3 racer Nikola Tsolov has also been banned from the Spa leg of the championship for a similar offence after competing in the Eurocup-3 round in Belgium, again with obtaining the required approval.

Another driver, Arvid Lindblad, took part in testing for the GB3 Silverstone round, and was handed a €20,000 fine, half of which is suspended, providing a repeat does not happen in the remainder of the year."