Charles Leclerc’s younger brother Arthur has been confirmed as one of two new members of Ferrari’s Driver Academy.
The 18-year-old has spent the last two years racing in Formula Four. He finished fifth in the French series in 2018 and took third in the German championship last year, scoring his only win of the season in a support race at the German Grand Prix.The younger Leclerc will move up to the Formula Regional Europe championship with Prema this year.
He has joined the FDA along with young Swedish karting star Dino Beganovic, who was picked up by Ferrari at the recommendation of the Tony Kart team. Beganovic, who will turn 16 on Sunday, is to make his single-seater debut in Formula Four, also driving for Prema.
“We have been scouting for more talented youngsters and we are happy today to announce that Arthur and Dino are joining us for what’s going to be a very exciting season,” said sporting director Laurent Mekies. “We have FDA drivers in all the categories of the FIA single-seater ladder and our focus will be on supporting them the best we can in their development as racing drivers and as young individuals.”
They join existing FDA drivers Mick Schumacher, Giuliano Alesi, Robert Shwarzman, Callum Ilott and Marcus Armstrong – all of which will race in Formula 2 this year – plus Enzo Fittipaldi and Gianluca Petecof.
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Krommenaas (@krommenaas)
17th January 2020, 11:15
A Schumacher, a Fittipaldi, an Alesi and now another Leclerc. Ferrari really going for name recognition over skill.
Adrian Hancox (@ahxshades)
17th January 2020, 12:44
Of course – only time will tell.
Chaitanya
17th January 2020, 15:47
Lets give them benifit of doubt. Also they are fielding these young drivers in lower formulas. Seems like this team has some driving talent to test in lower class compared to Red Bull who seem to have run out of driver pool.
Ivan (@wpinrui)
17th January 2020, 11:55
Isn’t Charles Pic’s brother Arthur Pic? I like the name symmetry there.
Bart
17th January 2020, 14:47
Yes.
Islander
17th January 2020, 13:30
He looks older…. faster, brighter, more action less verbatics. A good team mate for Max maybe.
Sonics (@sonicslv)
17th January 2020, 14:48
Will F1 finally get 2 good drivers from same family? It’s still too far to tell, but maybe only Rosbergs that achieve that, even though I believe most people still rated Nico far behind Keke. Ralf also decent but still way behind Michael. The others usually one person is really bad, usually the one that came later. Maybe part of being burdened by high expectation? Only Max reverts that trend and it’s easy to overcome his father shadow since Jos is never a top tier driver in his career.
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
17th January 2020, 15:18
..there have been plenty, an odd number if we were only to consider how few people participate in f1 compared to other sports. I guess you want 2 of the most highly rated drivers of all time to somehow be related.
Sonics (@sonicslv)
18th January 2020, 1:14
@peartree Not most highly drivers. just family names doesn’t mean anything in term of performance it seems. Nico Rosberg, Jacques Villeneuve, Damon Hill are good drivers but they also don’t seem to be in the same level as their predecessor. Obviously if you have the name of Schumacher, Senna, and maybe another Hamilton it would be really tough to be in that same level, but Bruno Senna is really bad and Ralf is mediocre at best.
Cristiano Ferreira
18th January 2020, 5:16
Dont forget Nelson Piquet and Nelsinho Piquet (the cheater)
Sonics (@sonicslv)
19th January 2020, 15:18
I think people is too hard on Nelson Piquet Jr. It’s Flavio that should mostly blamed for the cheating. Nelson is just a rookie (his 2nd year in F1 iirc?) and obviously it’s not in his interest to end his race, especially with endangering his own life (no matter how miniscule the risk is). I never think him as a cheater, I just feel sorry for him to be forced in that situation.
Ambrogio Isgro
18th January 2020, 8:58
Nico is on the same league of Keke. Jacques and Damon not far from fathers. There were the hermanos Rodriguez, but they disappeared top soon.
Ascari jr was like his father.
Nice to sede Sainz Jr. going well.
Ralf was good, he won some gps on merit and in his day was fast but I guess it was top hard for him with a brother like Michael.
Still we have the Schumacher cousins, another Piquet, two Fittipaldi…
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
19th January 2020, 8:09
@sonicslv it’s an interesting thing to look at, even if we do know it doesn’t matter. The Hill’s, Schumacher’s, Rosberg’s, Villeneuve’s and others are more than plenty. Nepotism helps. You can’t expect f1 to have their own Brownlee brothers, or the Williams sisters, no sport should, but it is rather natural that arthur is following charles footsteps, like any sibling would.
Gabriel (@naylamp)
17th January 2020, 17:23
Damon Hill wasn’t bad, but definitely Graham was better than his son.
KevinC (@kevinc)
17th January 2020, 21:55
Keke may have been far more spectacular, but I actually think most would see Nico as the superior driver.
Euro Brun (@eurobrun)
17th January 2020, 16:58
Its gonna be well awkward on the day they drop him from the Academy!