Photo: Winfield Racing School
The Winfield Racing School will return to competition next year, after many years focusing solely on training drivers.
Founded in the 1960s, famed alumni of the French school include Alain Prost, Damon Hill, Jean Alesi and Olivier Panis, and it entered many students into races. It achieved most of its success in Formula Renault and Formula 3 on home soil.
After a period of inactivity, the school was revived in 2016 with a base at Paul Ricard after originally using the Magny-Cours circuit as its home.
Two years later it relaunched its Volant Winfield scholarship, first won by Patrick Tambay in 1972, and it then got involved with the FIA Women in Motorsport Commission’s Ferrari Driver Academy-affiliated Girls on Track Rising Stars programme.
It has since expanded its school activities to Bahrain, and the Winfield Middle East branch will enter the Formula 4 Middle East championship at the start of 2025. Graduates of the school programme in Bahrain will be offered a job in the F4 Middle East squad, with a variety of roles outside of the cockpit – including engineers and mechanics – that need to be filled.
Back in Europe, it will contest the Ultimate Cup Series’ Hoosier Formula Cup for Tatuus T-318 cars. These are the chassis that are also used in Formula Regional’s European and Middle East championships.
“We’re extremely excited with this latest chapter in the Winfield Racing School adventure,” said Winfield Group’s managing director Frederic Garcia.
“Today, we train drivers, but from next year, we will also support them in their first season of competition, to open pathways for their future careers. We’re very proud to be helping talented racers in both single-seaters and endurance racing. F4 Middle East, Ultimate Cup Series and Ligier Junior Cup share our ambitions and are fully in line with our mission to detect, train and prepare young drivers and technicians for the years to come.”