Photo: Champions of the Future
RGMMC, organiser of the Champions of the Future karting series, has launched its own Formula 4 development programme.
The ‘CotF Racing Academy’ will be a year-long test programme for eight drivers who are in their final year of racing karts since they plan to switch to single-seater racing.
Augusto Farfus, the 2003 Euro Formula 3000 champion who went to win 15 World Touring Car Championship races, was 2013 DTM runner-up and currently races in the World Endurance Championship’s GT3 class, will lead the programme.
“Our vision is to create a unique platform where young drivers can experience exactly what their first year in formula racing will be like,” he said.
“Too often, drivers enter their debut season after fragmented testing with multiple teams, which results in inconsistent preparation and a lack of confidence. At our academy, each driver trains throughout the year with the same engineer and driver coach, building consistency, trust, and measurable progress.”
CotF claims a driver on the programme would get more mileage than competing in Italian F4, and its sessions will be scheduled on dates to not clash with international karting calendars. There will also be “a prize award for the driver of the season” and applications to enter the programme are already open.
The Mercedes-AMG Formula 1 team meanwhile has announced a collaboration with Motorsport Team Germany to develop new single-seater talent. Motorsport Team Germany is a driver development project created in 2022 by the German Motor Sport Federation and ADAC Sports Foundation.
A “joint selection process for particularly talented German kart drivers aged 10 or 11” will be the starting point of Mercedes’ involvement, and the drivers who are picked will then have their talents “be promoted” by it and Motorsport Team Germany. Drivers they sponsor will bear the federal eagle on their overalls.
“We are pleased to now take a structured step with the ADAC Sports Foundation to detect and developing German karting talent,” said Mercedes’ team principal Toto Wolff.
Wolfgang Dürheimer, the ADAC Sports Foundation chairman, said: “Through this project, we are continuing the tradition of nurturing young talent established by the former German motorsport governing body, the ONS, with Michael Schumacher.
“Financed by Mercedes and other leading partners from the automotive and supplier industries in the 1990s, the project ultimately led to Schumacher joining the Mercedes Junior Team and enjoying an extremely successful F1 career.”
There has recently been a controversy in the karting world surrounding comments by Alexander Wurz, who like Schumacher raced for Mercedes in sportscars as a rising talent in the 1990s.
In an interview with GPblog speaking on behalf of the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association he chairs, he berated aerodynamic appendages and “downforce settings” on karts as being “absolutely insane” and making “it more expensive and perhaps more dangerous” due to creating rooster tails in wet conditions.
The FIA put out a statement claiming Wurz’s comments misrepresented technical regulations that “explicitly prohibit modifications to the aerodynamics, wings, or floors of karts” and only safety-tested parts can be FIA-approved.