Christian Mansell has become the latest Australian driver to add his name to the history books after winning the 2024 Tasman Cup.
 
With the prestigious Australia-New Zealand award decided during the opening two rounds of the Formula Regional Oceania Championship, Mansell ended up scoring the most points out of the Aussie and Kiwi drivers entered in the season.
 
Picking up an outright victory and three podiums in the past fortnight, Mansell was a star performer during the six races, beating New Zealander Liam Sceats to the prize by eight points.
 
Despite some minor mechanical issues in the weekend’s final round in Manfeild, the New South Welshman did enough in the final two races to leapfrog Sceats and claim the Cup title.
 
Mansell now joins the likes of Sir Jackie Stewart, Bruce McLaren, Aaron Cameron and Chris Amon as winners of the Cup – an honour he was thrilled to achieve.
 
“It feels good to have won the Tasman Cup. It’s cool to set a goal and then accomplish it, as well as being a nice thing to go on the CV,” Mansell said.
 
“A big thanks to the guys and girls at Giles Motorsport – they were amazing, and I really enjoyed working with them, as well as my main sponsor Castrol for setting up the program.


“Due to my international commitments, I was only planning on doing the first two rounds of the Championship, which meant I wasn’t there long enough to win the outright title, so winning the Cup was the goal for both myself and Castrol, and I am very pleased to come away with the victory.
 
“To also be part of that list of names is mega. I watched a lot of those drivers growing up and now being on that same pedestal with them is very special. 
 
“Of course, it would have been nice to get more results, but I think it’s important that I came, got some good seat time, achieved what I wanted to achieve and now have had a massive confidence boost ahead of the Formula 3 Championship season.”
 
Other Aussies contesting the Formula Regional Oceania Championship were Tommy Smith and Elliot Cleary – both of which finished fourth and sixth in the Tasman Cup respectively.


As for Mansell, the 18-year-old will now make his way to Barcelona for the FIA Formula 3 Championship’s pre-season testing before the season begins at the Bahrain International Circuit on 1-2 March.
 
“The title win certainly gives me the confidence for the upcoming year,” Mansell added.
 
“A lot about racing at the top level is about how mentally fit you are. If you get a good result, you feel good and drive with confidence, which is always a bonus - you always feel like you can push the car a little bit harder and extract a couple more tenths out of it.
 
“Both the title and the amount of seat time I got in New Zealand will put me in good stead for the upcoming F3 Championship season.
 
“I am looking forward to this season, being my second year in the championship. We will do Bahrain and then draw a line in the sand about our expectations. After that, I am in F3 to get results for myself but if I am impressing in the eyes of ART, I don’t care what the result is.
 
“As long as I am putting my foot forward moving forward, that’s the goal.”
 
The Formula Regional Oceania Championship resumes this weekend at Hampton Downs Motorsport Park.