Pressiteade
Australian Oscar, 18, signs with the Academy byvirtue of winning the 2019 Formula Renault Eurocup, while 15-year-old FrenchmanHadrien joins as part of the prize for winning last season’s French Formula 4Championship.
Oscar confirms his place with reigning championsPrema Racing in the FIA Formula 3 Championship and will be joined in the seriesby Briton Max Fewtrell, who will contest a second season with a switch from ARTGrand Prix to British outfit, Hitech.
Hadrien progresses his career to the FormulaRenault Eurocup with MP Motorsport where he will compete against Eurocup RookieChampion Caio Collet from Brazil, who remains with R-ace GP for a second year.
In the FIA Formula 2 Championship, the primaryFormula 1 support series, Chinese talent Guanyu Zhou is set for a second seasonwith UNI-Virtuosi, aiming to build on an impressive, podium-filled debutcampaign. Danish teen Christian Lundgaard steps up to Formula 2 this year andwill race for ART Grand Prix following a strong rookie outing with the Frenchsquad in Formula 3 last season.
Academy members will draw upon Renault’sexperience in motorsport to help them improve as drivers in their respectivechampionships. As well as working to a personalised training and developmentprogramme, drivers will continue to assist the Formula 1 team particularly withsimulator sessions at the headquarters in Enstone.
Renault Sport Academy Director, Mia Sharizman: “This year’s line-up is the strongest we’ve had in the last four yearsof the Renault Sport Academy. We’ve struck a balance between experienced androokie drivers and we believe we can compete for titles across all juniorchampionships in which we’ve entered our members. As the years progress, we aremoving closer to the point where we want to have an Academy driver incontention for the Formula 1 race seat. We remain hopeful that this year is abreakout year for this to happen. We already know whatMax and Christian can do, and they are entering their fourth year on theprogramme. We were also pleased with how both Zhou and Caio performed in theirfirst season with the Academy. All drivers have their own targets thisyear, which they know they have to meet. It’s great to welcome two verytalented individuals in Oscar and Hadrien and it’s exciting to see what theycan do this season. I’m sure all the drivers will push each other to perform totheir best ability.”
Renault Sport Racing Managing Director, CyrilAbiteboul: “Our Academy continues to grow in strength eachyear. We now want the programme to progress to the next level, and targetchampionship wins in 2020. The Academy was first set-up in 2016 with thelong-term objective of progressing a driver from the RSA to a seat with theFormula 1 team, and with the talent we have in the Academy we are stillconfident of achieving this in the relative short term. The ability within theAcademy is there for all to see. On a wider level I am also pleased to seeRenault global markets getting behind the programme and supporting their localdrivers. I am very proud of the programme and its activation and I look forwardto following the success on and off track.”
Renault Sport Academy
Launched in 2016, the Renault Sport Academy aimsto find and nurture young racing drivers through the junior racingchampionships with the overall objective to place an Academy driver in theFormula 1 race seat.
Coinciding with Renault F1 Team’s development,the Academy targets a driver becoming a future Formula 1 world champion withthe team.
2020 will see the continued strengthening betweenRenault’s group of young drivers and the Formula 1 team.
