Nurturing talent – the importance of Junior Academies in motorsport
- Anna-Lena Pertl
- May 20, 2024
- 7 min read
Ferrari, Red Bull Racing, Aston Martin and Alpine. While the list can of course carry on, these major racing brands have something in common. Apart from being competitors on track, they all established their own junior programs that help young talents find their way into the higher classes of competitive car racing.
To understand why these programs are so beneficial it is advisable to break down the average racing career. Starting at an early age in national Karting championships is the first big step to take. This is already a huge investment for family and associates of the young drivers as they must finance travels and equipment, but it gets even more expensive when the step to international Karting championships is made. After having had a successful karting career, young talents move up to single-seater categories, starting with Formula 4, a championship where the costs go from 350.000€ up, depending on the team you race for.
The closer a championship gets to F1 and the better the team, the higher the costs for a season. Therefore, even for wealthy people, it is important to find sponsors in the higher racing categories, and if you don’t come from a wealthy background, it is even harder to establish a career. This is where the Junior academies step in as well. Although the associated costs to motorsport are no secret, in order to achieve the dream of competing at the highest level possible it not only takes money and connections to teams, but also talent, which is what academies are looking for.
Engagement and activities at the academies
To be part of such a supporting program, one has to deliver results consistently to attract the attention of the academy scouts who are always on the lookout for newbies. But this isn´t everything. A great majority of these establishments, such as the Ferrari Driver Academy, organize so-called Scouting Camps, where they filter through an already small selection of young drivers who performed well in their categories/championships. After the engineers and the team staff have reviewed the collected data on the candidates' performance and their learning capability, they finalize their decision and “hire” new academy drivers.
Once part of an academy, drivers receive a lot of support to maximize their talent and opportunities. On the one hand, the programs offer lots of physical training by providing coaches that train with the drivers or by organizing training camps. Connected to a strict training plan are medical assessments to secure fitness and mental coaching to gain the right mindset for competing.
The academies also focus on raising the team spirit between their drivers even though they might not compete in the same categories. This is done by organizing training camps or different outside activities, e.g. done by the FDA that sent its drivers climbing and hiking together with their coaches. These kinds of activities not only contribute to the fitness but also to the mental health of the drivers which can lead to a more positive approach to races.
“It’s not all about the racing”
Drivers not only train, they also take part in lessons that are about the legal side of racing. They dive deeper into the regulations and into race strategy, to ensure a better understanding of not only the car they drive but also other factors that are important if you want to be successful. So alongside trying to optimize their driving style by learning to execute different manoeuvres, they learn about the mechanical side of racing: how the car is composed, how the stewards work and apply their regulations and so on.
Furthermore, an aspect that is becoming more important in the peak time of the digital age is the media training that academy members undergo. This is because a good presentation on platforms like Instagram can provide more following, therefore more success and recognition which leads to more sponsors being interested which in turn will help to better finance the racing. Moreover, one must recall that being part of an academy is a big responsibility as well, as drivers represent a huge legacy. By being media trained and by learning about the history of their car brand and its values, the teams ensure that through public appearances of their academy drivers, they are being received as open-minded, supportive and optimistic about the future as they already look ahead and invest in young talents.
How academies can get you to F1 – the case of FDA
While every current team on the F1 grid in 2024 is somehow connected to a junior academy, the most promising talents, such as Max Verstappen, Sebastian Vettel or Charles Leclerc, have come from the Red Bull Junior team and the Ferrari Driver Academy, both founded in the 2000s and therefore being the first academies in Formula One. As the FDA is one of the best-represented academies, it is the perfect example to explain the general idea of the Junior Programs:
“I love to think that Ferrari can create drivers as much as cars”. – Enzo Ferrari
The FDA, founded in 2009, was inspired by the team’s founder Enzo Ferrari, who had the initial idea that there is much more to a racing team than just the cars. He was one of the first people who wanted to take a step further away from racing and focus on driver development to maximize the winning chances. Initially, the idea was to give drivers training before offering them a permanent seat in Formula One, to avoid overtaxing and mistakes.
One of the first drivers at Ferrari to take that step was Felipe Massa, who gained experience at Sauber before moving up to the Italian team alongside Michael Schumacher. Seeing how well this worked, the Maranello-bound team decided to launch its Academy and in 2009, youngster Jules Bianchi became its first contestant. Over the years, many well-known names became graduates of the program, such as Mirko Bortolotti, Sergio Perez, Lance Stroll and Charles Leclerc. To this day, Ferrari tries to detect potential talents in the junior categories and offers them a place in the academy.
A closer look at the Ferrari Driver Academy
As explained earlier, drivers are signed up at an academy after participating in a scouting camp, competing against other applicants. At the Scuderia, the junior line-up was assessed by Marco Matassa, who used to be the head of the Ferrari Driver Academy, and therefore every participant´s performance had to meet his standards. Together with his team, Matassa put together the current Junior program, which in 2024 consists of six ambitious young drivers. Frederic Vasseur is now managing, together with Jock Clear, the Ferrari Driver Academy after Matassa’s goodbye. The focus is currently on the formula categories, with Academy drivers being represented in FRECA, F1 Academy, Formula 2 and Formula 3.
In FRECA, the Juniors are Finnish driver Tuukka Taponen and Brazilian driver Rafael Camara. The latter joined the program after dominating the scouting camp, while Taponen was not immediately included after his participation in the scouting project. Instead, the team decided to observe his career for a period, and due to his dependable results, he eventually earned himself a place in the program.
In the newest championship, F1 Academy, the FDA is supporting two young drivers Aurelia Nobels and Maya Weug. The two of them joined the program after succeeding in the scouting project “Girls on track” and have been a part of Ferrari for a couple of years now. Notably, Weug became the first ever female driver to join the Scuderia in 2021, and has competed in F4 and FRECA as well, before joining the F1 Academy grid for this season.
The only Ferrari Academy driver in Formula 3 is the Swede Dino Beganovic. After demonstrating talent in his karting career and winning several titles, he joined the program when he transitioned to single-seaters racing. In his four years with the academy, he has shown consistent and promising results, securing a FRECA title for the Scuderia in 2022.
In Formula 2 Oliver Bearman is the driver to watch. Having been part of the program for a few years now, he is showing how many benefits drivers can receive when being part of an academy. With the direct affiliation to the Scuderia Ferrari F1 team, he is getting opportunities others can't get their hands on that easily. From track test days in F1 cars to appearances in Free practice sessions to a role as the reserve driver for their F1 team, the young Brit gets the perfect preparation to be completely ready and experienced when the opportunity arises for him to get an F1 seat. This of course makes it less challenging for Ferrari as well, as they already worked with the driver and find it easier to communicate about issues or improvements.
To ensure the consistency of good results, all six drivers have additional duties alongside their racing schedules. Before the beginning of the season, they meet at the Ferrari Headquarter in Italy for fitness tests and additional mental and physical training to be well prepared for the upcoming season. During the course of the year, they get to look “behind the scenes” at Formula One Grand Prix´s, observing from the garage and receiving technical insights on the cars and race from mechanics, drivers and strategists. Another duty they have to fulfil is the media-representation of the Ferrari brand. The juniors engage with fans at the racetrack as well as on the academy´s own social media account. They also participate in public appearances for sponsorship reasons, such as visiting the Puma clothing store, one of Ferrari´s main sponsors.
Overall, the establishment of Junior Driver Academies and their growing importance is on the right track, as it is getting more and more difficult for actual talents to find their way to the top of the sport due to financial and funding reasons. Through the support of Academies, drivers not only benefit from the direct affiliation to top teams but also from the democratization of the competition as not only privileged drivers from wealthy backgrounds have a chance to succeed. In conclusion, with academy scouters always looking for new talents in karting and in single seaters, it will be interesting and exciting to see who they will choose to represent their team and who will actually succeed with the help of the Junior programs.
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