Yeah the academies definitely stopped the idea of “if you win a junior championship you’re on a way to F1”. Nowadays it’s “if you’re in an academy you’re on a way to F1”. And winning a championship might only be a part of enabling you to get into an academy.
And there are a few academies that are now moneymakers, taking drivers that are sons/daughters of rich people and/or have good sponsors, pretending to give them a path into something, and just collecting that money.
Race winner, challenging at the front with some consistency, but out of a seat.
Not sure what happened, but F1 academy drivers should not lose funding to finish an F2 season…
I imagine Williams wasn’t ready to pay as much for his seat as Art GP wanted. And some other sponsor that should have paid the difference fell through?
It might be a combination of factors, but it is weird for an academy backed driver to be bumped as the season is almost done.
And yes, I would guess that Williams was not paying 100% of the cost. Which again is weird, because the concept, as I understood, was support in exchange for exclusivity of driver’s services and less leeway for the driver to choose his path.
Each Academy works differently. For example, Alpine’s academy is said to be very good in providing training opportunities for their drivers, while Red Bull doesn’t offer any special training and just expects their drivers to be good but gets them way better spots in championships.
Yeah the academies definitely stopped the idea of “if you win a junior championship you’re on a way to F1”. Nowadays it’s “if you’re in an academy you’re on a way to F1”. And winning a championship might only be a part of enabling you to get into an academy.
And there are a few academies that are now moneymakers, taking drivers that are sons/daughters of rich people and/or have good sponsors, pretending to give them a path into something, and just collecting that money.
Just to cement the point we were discussing: https://x.com/ZakOSullivan/status/1833177788628476134
Race winner, challenging at the front with some consistency, but out of a seat. Not sure what happened, but F1 academy drivers should not lose funding to finish an F2 season…
I imagine Williams wasn’t ready to pay as much for his seat as Art GP wanted. And some other sponsor that should have paid the difference fell through?
It might be a combination of factors, but it is weird for an academy backed driver to be bumped as the season is almost done.
And yes, I would guess that Williams was not paying 100% of the cost. Which again is weird, because the concept, as I understood, was support in exchange for exclusivity of driver’s services and less leeway for the driver to choose his path.
Each Academy works differently. For example, Alpine’s academy is said to be very good in providing training opportunities for their drivers, while Red Bull doesn’t offer any special training and just expects their drivers to be good but gets them way better spots in championships.