Renault F1 launches 2018 academy

Renault Sport Racing has announced its 2018 driver line-up for its academy as Jack Aitken is retained ahead of his graduation to the FIA Formula 2 championship.

After buying out the Lotus F1 team at the start of 2016, Renault relaunched its driver academy with the long term goal of finding a future F1 world champion.

Renault’s 2018 academy roster sees the French manufacturer retain Jack Aitken, Max Fewtrell, Christian Lundgaard and Sun Yue Yang while welcoming on board Sacha Fenestraz, Arthur Rougier and Victor Martins.

The seven academy members will gain support and mentoring from Renault on racing, mental and physical training, media duties and engineering.

Fewtrell, Lundgaard, Rougier and Martins will all go head-to-head in the Formula Renault Europecup series, Fenestraz takes on the FIA European Formula 3 championship, Yue Yang will compete in the British Formula 3 series with star driver Aitken set for a rookie FIA Formula 2 campaign.

“This is the third year of the Renault Sport Academy and our most exciting driver line-up yet,” Mia Sharizman, director of Renault’s academy, said. “Jack, Max and Christian enjoyed very successful 2017 seasons as part of the Academy whilst Sun has shown his potential. Sacha, Arthur and Victor join us for their first year in the Academy and we are very much looking forward to watching their progress.

“Each driver has a very exacting set of targets so they know precisely what they have to achieve. We hope to be able to celebrate many successes from Academy members over the course of the year ahead.”

Renault Sport Racing Managing Director hails the roster as “our strongest line-up yet” and is relishing the role of overseeing the progress of the seven drivers in 2018.

“The Renault Sport Academy continues Renault’s rich heritage of developing young driver talent and is tasked with finding future Renault Sport Formula One drivers,” Abiteboul said. “Our 2018 intake represents our strongest line-up yet and we will encourage and nurture every driver.

“Alongside Renault Sport Racing and Renault Sport Formula One Team, the Renault Sport Academy has grown and developed tremendously over the past two years. We will be keeping a close eye on everyone in the Academy as we seek to identify those who can develop to become the next Renault Sport Formula One drivers.”