ALPINE ACADEMY LAUNCHES 2021 LINE-UP

Alpine F1 Team is excited to reveal its 2021 Academy line-up as it enters its sixth year. Victor Martins is the newest addition to the programme alongside Christian Lundgaard, Guanyu Zhou, Oscar Piastri and Caio Collet who are all retained for another year.

This season sees Zhou enter his third year in the Academy and in Formula 2. The talented Chinese driver remains with UNI-Virtuosi Racing for 2021, after claiming his first win in the series last year in Russia. The win meant Zhou, now 21-years-old, entered the record books to become the first mainland Chinese driver to win an international single seater race.

Nineteen-year-old Christian is retained by the Academy for a fifth year, making him the longest serving driver on the programme. The Dane is set to embark on his second year in Formula 1’s primary support series with ART Grand Prix, after an impressive rookie campaign, which saw the teen claim two wins and four podium finishes.

The Academy’s third and final entrant in Formula 2 is Oscar – the reigning FIA Formula 3 champion – who embarks on his rookie campaign in the series with defending champions PREMA Racing. The Australian is eager to continue his momentum from last year, when the 19-year-old claimed two wins and four podiums en route to securing the Formula 3 title.

Rounding off the 2021 Academy roster is last year’s Formula Renault Eurocup champion Victor, and runner-up Caio. The Eurocup title rivals both make the step up into Formula 3 this year as team-mates at MP Motorsport. Victor returns to the programme by virtue of winning the Eurocup last year having first joined the Academy at the start of the 2018 season.

The 2021 Formula 2 season is set to start in Bahrain at the end of March alongside the opening round of the Formula 1 calendar. Victor and Caio will have to wait a little longer, as their Formula 3 season starts two months later when they visit the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya at the beginning of May.