What are F1 driver development programs? How teams spot and nurture future champions

Only 20 drivers compete in the series right now, and it is not every year that as many places are up for grabs as we saw during the 2024 silly season. When the driver market was over, only half of the grid remained with their teams, and six drivers will join it for their first full season (with four coming from Formula Two).

Not all are considered traditional rookies by the regulations’ definition. Oliver Bearman has competed in three grands prix, which is one more race than the threshold F1 uses to define a rookie, and Liam Lawson has 11 starts to his name. Some are less experienced than those two but have made their F1 debuts, such as Jack Doohan, when he replaced Esteban Ocon in Abu Dhabi.

But all of the 2025 season’s new drivers have one thing in common — they were part of an F1 team’s driver development program or academy. These systems involve identifying and nurturing promising drivers during their junior careers, creating a pipeline of sorts, from karting to the tops of different categories.

The investment is more than simply bankrolling a career.

There is a slight difference between an academy and a driver development program, though there are many similarities in how the systems are carried out. McLaren, which has a driver development program, pointed out academies traditionally focus on junior drivers (like those in F2 or F3), while its program encompasses both juniors and established drivers in other series, like IndyCar’s Pato O’Ward.

Stephanie Carlin, who is the F1 business operations director at McLaren Racing, described the system as “a training program to take drivers who are at various points of their career — but hopefully at the early, formative parts — and help them to achieve all their potential and instil in them the standards that we would expect from somebody that would then go on to succeed in professional level motorsport.”

McLaren uses its program for drivers across various series, such as O’Ward in IndyCar or Gabriel Bortoleto (who won the F2 championship last year while part of the program and now will compete for Sauber in F1 2025). “We don’t have ‘junior’ in our title,” she said. “It is about developing, so the ability to listen to feedback, to take on board the resources and experience that we can give and develop, that is really key.” Other teams have seen their academies evolve and mature, such as how Williams includes “a full sports science program now in place for every driver,” said Sven Smeets, its sporting director.

These young driver programs date back a few decades. Red Bull established its junior team in 2001 and Renault created what is now known as Alpine Academy in 2002. The premise of these programs is to create a talent pipeline.

Pato O’Ward won three IndyCar races in 2024, but he’s still part of McLaren’s driver development program. (Clive Rose/Getty Images)

The teams’ investment includes training and development, such as physical fitness, simulator sessions, testing and access to different departments within the team. Carlin said being tied to an F1 team “is a great benefit” because of the expertise and resources available, although “it’s not essential.”

“We know what a good Formula One driver looks like, and we know what a really good junior driver looks like. And piecing that together means that we can offer tailored advice, resources, expertise, where it’s needed to help our drivers,” she explained.

“Having said that, as to the drivers that are going to make it to Formula One, there’s so few that actually get the opportunity. The stars need to align. There needs to be a gap in the market that they need to come to a kind of readiness at the right time. So there are many factors that contribute to it. So, on the flip side, sometimes the drivers with a huge amount of talent that aren’t connected to a Formula One team might also find their chance.”

Teams don’t just look within the junior categories at drivers already racing in single-seaters. Searching far down the motorsport ladder, to karting, is an important part of bolstering these programs.

Identifying who would be a good fit with the program, regardless of experience level, “is a really difficult question, and it’s one that’s hard to answer because it’s not linear,” Carlin said. “There’s not just one way of doing it. There’s not one kind of driver that we want. There’s not a tick box of things to look at.”

Every driver is different, and the approaches vary, even if the outcomes are similar. Carlin explained the myriad of drivers you may encounter: some have natural talent, while others have a strong work ethic or are fairly technical.

“Spotting the drivers who are going to be the best candidates and are the stars of tomorrow can be quite tricky,” Carlin said, “and it’s often experience that leads you to know and identify which drivers that might be. But generally speaking, what we’re looking for is a level of proven talent on track.”

However, this doesn’t necessarily mean they look only for drivers who have won championships. Carlin shared how different aspects out of a driver’s control can have an impact on their chances of winning, and some factors may be opportunity or financial barriers. She added, “They might not have had the opportunity to do many championships or be with the best teams, but a track record, an ability to listen and learn, is key.”

Oliver Bearman, Isack Hadjar and Jak Crawford chat before the U.S. Grand Prix in 2024. (Kym Illman/Getty Images)

Another aspect is how a driver works within a team environment. Motor racing is a team sport, Carlin said, and young drivers need to understand the responsibility that comes with competing in that environment.

When it comes to monitoring the karting ranks, Carlin said that around 13 years old is the age range to monitor because it’s traditionally youngsters’ final year of karting before making the jump to single-seaters. Just because a driver thrives during their karting career doesn’t mean their talent will automatically transfer that to cars.

“It’s actually really beneficial and important for the driver because it’s not just about how their race-craft develops but actually how they physically develop as well,” Carlin added. “The forces that are required to bring a single-seater car to a stop are much greater than they are for a go-kart.”

The karting world is quite complicated, given how diverse the system is. There are national and international championships and varying levels, such as junior and senior. It raises the question of how you compare potential talent across different series. The FIA did launch the International Karting Ranking in 2023, and “the system is based on a model similar to the ATP rankings in tennis and other sporting global ranking systems”, per British Kart Championships.

“It is still quite a tricky area to navigate and really, the first time you can properly see how good a driver is is probably in F4 testing,” Carlin said. “That’s when you can see how they translate.”

Feedback from teams also determines how Formula One personnel identify star potential.

“We get quite a lot of feedback from the teams where they do karting because they have a wealth of experience and have seen the (Max) Verstappens, the (Charles) Leclercs, the (Alex Albons) coming through their ranks,” Smeets said. “So it’s very easy for them to compare where they sit at 10, 11, 12, 13 (years of age).”

From there, Williams traditionally will invite the driver and one of their parents to its facilities in Grove, near Oxford in the south of England, for an interview. Parents are included “because it’s good to meet the bigger picture.” And when the driver is not of European nationality and will be coming from, for example, the United States or Australia, Smeets said Williams normally asks them to “move to Europe, or to the UK, and come and do a full karting program. It’s very good to understand how the whole family situation sits.”

From a broad, 10,000-foot view, driver development programs largely offer funding (on some scale), training, meetings with different departments within F1 teams, time in the simulator and testing of previous cars (TPC). The driver’s involvement in each aspect of the program, particularly the final three, varies.

It’s about optimizing the athlete rather than fixating solely on track improvement, Carlin said. As she described it, “the engineering of the person is really important.”

“It seems a little ironic that in Formula One, it’s the pinnacle of motorsport from a technology point of view,” Carlin added. “But even in a Formula One team such as McLaren, that’s as advanced as we are, and certainly when in the junior championships that I come from, there’s much more time to be found in a driver than there is in a race car.”

It’s not just about the ability, Carlin added. It’s “in terms of mindset, confidence, calmness under pressure, all of these things we can find tenths of a second in a race driver’s reactions much easier than we can in a race car.”

Physical training traditionally involves tailored programs for the drivers, encompassing fitness and nutrition. Each driver varies from the next, so a one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t benefit the individual. Some teams, such as Alpine, do training camps. Mental preparation, something Ferrari’s academy focuses on, is also key. The Italian team’s academy provides biofeedback, neurofeedback and cognitive training, as well as mental coaching and a multidimensional assessment.

Simulator time is important too, not just for the team as it learns more about the car’s habits but also for the driver’s development. Simulators provide a mostly accurate virtual run, though some real-race aspects, such as G-forces and acceleration, can’t be replicated.

Jak Crawford, who competes in F2 and is part of Aston Martin’s young driver development program, said he spent “quite a lot” of time on the simulator last year “so I’m also learning how to drive a Formula One car there and supporting the team as much as possible from there.”

Aston Martin’s development program prepared Jak Crawford for his F1 test in Abu Dhabi in December. (Clive Mason/Getty Images)

Crawford added that by being part of the program, he can listen to the engineering meetings and learn from those discussions with the F1 drivers. “It’s cool to see what they’re saying about the car, what terminologies they’re using,” he said in Montreal last June. “I get to watch the sessions and watch the videos and the data, and I can see how what they’re saying compared to that as well.”

It’s all about gaining a deeper knowledge and understanding of the sport and how teams operate. Crawford has taken lessons from those meetings and interactions and applied them to his F2 career.

“In Formula Two, we don’t have as many tools as Formula One does. We’re very limited on what we can change. … F1 is more open on that side,” Crawford explained. “The driver can change a lot of things on the wheel during a lap, and it’s a bit more complicated, and we don’t have that luxury (in F2). I found that I’ve been trying to learn as much as possible here and apply it to my F2 stuff, even though we don’t have that sort of luxury. But in any way possible, trying to find small gains and stuff like that, I’ve been thinking about a lot recently.”

And when the time is right, TPC programs are used. For example, Crawford tested in Aston Martin’s 2022 F1 car at Red Bull Ring last year, tallying more than 400 kilometers (nearly 300 miles). Kimi Antonelli and Doohan carried out testing programs last year for Mercedes and Alpine, and both are on the grid for next season.

“The more kilometers you do, especially in a car that is not great — the TPC car was not our best car,” Mercedes F1 chief executive Toto Wolff said in Monza, “it’s going to get (Antonelli) between 15 and 20 days under his belt, and that’s important.”

Not every team has always gone this route, though. Williams plans to have an academy test team and carry out TPC programs this year, Smeets said. He called it “the only little piece of the puzzle that was missing.”

Allowing drivers to participate in these programs is bigger than just learning how to drive an F1 car. It’s learning how to work with the team and in this environment. “There is more to it than just driving,” Smeets said, later adding, “It’s a good learning to come into a garage. The garage will not be so big than what it is.”

Teams track a driver’s progress over time. If McLaren can’t be onsite, as it can be when support categories are at F1 weekends, the team relies on reports from the drivers themselves and their engineers after the events, Carlin said. With these reports in hand, they can see if patterns emerge, such as if drivers are better in qualifying or races or where they may be struggling with the car. McLaren gains a detailed picture from these reports over time and can then discuss it with the driver or their team. It boils down to what a driver needs at this stage in their career.

“We also offer coaches for certain drivers, nutrition, fitness advice and programs as well as media training. So everything that a modern driver needs to be successful, and they all need different elements of that at different times,” Carlin explained.

“And the analogy that I use is if we see like a complete Formula One driver is a glass of water that’s full to the top. All of our drivers come to us with different levels of water, and the waters come from different places, and our job is to identify which bits they’re missing and bring it up to the top.”