The Winfield Racing School will be returning to racing in 2025 and in this week’s Driver Development Roundup you will understand why. I also have advice on how to use test days to build up your racecraft, what PR & media can do for your career as a racing driver and an opportunity to be part of a GT racing development academy.
Becoming a Professional Race Driver
In the video above, Enzo Mucci explains how to use test days to build up your racecraft. “This video is giving you advice on how to design your test days so they virtually force you to grow. I’m just about to do a test day with a difference at Silverstone formula 4 and I wanted to share it with you.”
The video above is a great conversation between PR and media professionals Alexandra Schieren and Maren Braun where they discuss what PR & media can do for your career as a racing driver.
“Together we spent more than 50 years in the most important motorsports categories and have a lot of expertise in all fields of PR & media work – that’s why we are the TWO 4 MEDIA! Our common mission: to help young racing drivers becoming charismatic pros on camera and whenever they have the chance to connect to media, potential sponsors & fans.”
The Winfield Racing School will return to competition next year, after many years focusing solely on training drivers. “We’re extremely excited with this latest chapter in the Winfield Racing School adventure,” said Winfield Group’s managing director Frederic Garcia.
“Today, we train drivers, but from next year, we will also support them in their first season of competition, to open pathways for their future careers. We’re very proud to be helping talented racers in both single-seaters and endurance racing. F4 Middle East, Ultimate Cup Series and Ligier Junior Cup share our ambitions and are fully in line with our mission to detect, train and prepare young drivers and technicians for the years to come.”
Read more at Formula Scout.
“On episode 202 of Inside the SCCA presented by RaceSchool.com, we go to school with Larry Mason. Larry is one of the instructors at the Fast Lane Racing School. He has a vast knowledge of what it takes to go fast and how to teach that to drivers at every level. He’s worked with the young, the fast and the famous! I learned a lot and I think you will too!”
Robert Wickens has explained the “chicken-or-the-egg” hurdles he has faced before securing a drive in the IMSA SportsCar Championship for 2025 that marks the next phase of his racing return. The 35-year-old revealed that “it was always a difficult communication trying to convince the OEMs or the team owners” to put him in an IMSA seat and to facilitate the design of a bespoke braking system. Read more at Autosport.
With Cadillac now being approved to join F1 in 2026, Board of Director member Mario Andretti is excited by the impact that the team’s participation in F2 and F3 will have on young American drivers.
“Like Michael always said, he was always big to have the ladder system,” added Andretti. “He used the ladder system to bring drivers to the top. He’s done that in IndyCar, with the Indy NXT. Their intention is to field teams in F3 and F2, eventually. It will be an opportunity for some young talents here from the States to enroll in that side.”
Feeder Series looks at what Cadillac’s F1 entry means for the junior single-seater pipeline. “Formula 1’s announcement Monday that the Cadillac team’s entry had been accepted for the 2026 season means the F1 grid is set to expand from 20 to 22 drivers. The move opens up more F1 places for drivers on the junior single-seater ladder and strengthens the sport’s growing American footprint, as Feeder Series explains.”
Driver Development Program News & Resources
F1 engineer Rob Smedley and founder of F.A.T. International Ferdi Porsche have joined forces to launch the FAT Karting League, a karting championship that focuses on talent. It will feature:
- Fair racing for all: Identical electric karts designed by F1 engineers.
- Accessible and affordable: A season starts at just £3,800, opening the track to everyone.
- Global ambitions: Launching in the UK in January 2025, with two US hubs following mid-year.
- This is racing for everyone, from grassroots to greatness. The ultimate prize? A fully-funded seat in British Formula 4, propelling future champions from karting to F1.
Find out more and stay up to date here.
Applications for the 2025 FF Corse GT Driver Academy are now open which is free to enter, and has no ongoing costs for those selected to be a part of the program.
2024 members received benefits such as simulator time and mentoring from iZone Performance, media training from Louise Goodman, fitness assessments from Gridshark Athletic Performance, special discounts from Grand Prix Racewear, GT Driver Academy team kit, continual support and advice from the FF Corse management team and finally, an end of season ride or drive (for those old enough) in one of our Ferrari race cars at Silverstone. The selection process will be conducted by a panel of judges from the FF Corse management team and industry experts.
This is very much about discovering and nurturing the GT racing stars of tomorrow, and GT3 racing in particular has become a very interesting category, both commercially and from an engineering/sporting point of view. We want to help drivers gain a foothold by becoming involved early and shaping their careers.
Get more details here.
The Skip Barber Racing School has unveiled a new partnership with Tillotson Racing, an Irish-based karting firm with connections to the global karting community. The new partnership will provide those associated with Tillotson Racing’s wide offering of karting-related products the opportunity to train at the Skip Barber Racing School.
“This partnership will allow us at Skip Barber to do what we do best: turn drivers into champions,” Skip Barber Racing School Chief Marketing Officer Dan DeMonte said. “Each day we work to identify prospective talent, train the next generation, and prepare them for a career in racing. With Tillotson, we’ll be able to do that on a global scale. I’m eagerly awaiting the deserving talent that will get to train with us as a result of this new partnership.”
Find out more about the partnership here.
Liam Redford of Behind the Helmet offers an opinion on the progress of the F1 Academy.
“The key strength of F1 Academy is the reduced entry cost compared to regional F4 championships, with drivers required to contribute a budget of €100,000, down from €150,000 in 2023. In comparison to a regular financial outlay that can almost reach €1 million per season for frontrunning F4 drivers in other categories, the difference is stark.”
Read the article here.
Driver Development Pathways
The Team USA Scholarship profiles scholarship recipient Aaron Jeansonne as he works to make his motorsport dreams a reality.
“Aaron Jeansonne is one of the most passionate and hardest working young drivers we have come across in 35 years of running this program. He provides living proof that you don’t HAVE to have deep pockets to be successful and move up the ladder. Here is his story of the year.”
You can read the profile here.
The Sports Rush explains how Brad Keselowski started his career. “But he was too young and too little then to get into a proper race car. So, much like many of the young aspiring drivers out there, he turned his attention to SIM Racing.”
Read the full article here.
Williams Formula 1 junior Sasha Bondarev’s switch to single-seaters has taken a challenge he faced in karting into a new setting. The 15-year-old Ukrainian has grown a lot in 2024, and was already 182cm tall when he debuted in Formula 4. Read how he navigated his height disadvantage as he transitioned from karts to cars at Formula Scout here.
Author: Mark Boudreau
Mark is the publisher of Motorsport Prospects. As a former lawyer, he applies his legal background and research skills to assist race drivers by showcasing the resources they need to make their motorsport careers happen.
