Lance Stroll, Aston Martin, Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, 2025

Round-up: Aston Martin starts driver academy, Verstappen reveals special helmet and more

RaceFans Round-up

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Welcome to Wednesday’s edition of the RaceFans round-up.

Comment of the day

Mercedes’ team principal Toto Wolff isn’t impressed with WEC’s Balance of Performance regulations – but is car development in Formula 1 really that much fairer or freer?

The F1 technical regulations are 179 pages long. The additional operational regulations are a further 30 pages long. That’s 200-plus pages on how teams can “do what you want”.

F1 doesn’t get a 1.5 second field spread by being a free-for-all. F1 has a BoP, but it’s pre-emptive.
MichaelN

Social media and links

Aston Martin launches Driver Academy, signing Spaniard Mari Boya (Aston Martin)

'The Aston Martin Driver Academy is also proud to announce a strategic partnership with DPK Racing, official team of FA Alonso Kart chassis, unlocking access to the combined karting expertise and global network of both DPK and Fernando Alonso.'

Ferrari in Osterreich: Leclerc pausiert fur Beganovic (Speed Week - German)

'Just like on the Bahrain GP weekend, Ferrari ace Charles Leclerc is giving up his seat: Swede Dino Beganovic will be in the red race car in the first free practice session for the Austrian Grand Prix.'

Behind the scenes with Brad Pitt (F1)

'All these guys have helped us and everyone has had a hand honing this thing. And then of course Lewis coming in for the ultimate smell test and I think we got something. It's really fun, it's exciting and adventurous and it's like, you feel it. I do. I hope others do, too.'

RaceFans’ review of F1: The Movie is coming up later today

Which drivers are in danger of losing their seat for 2026? (BBC)

'Yuki Tsunoda looks certain to be dropped by Red Bull unless he can find a major uplift in performance.'

Buemi set to skip Sao Paulo amid Formula E clash (Sportscar 365)

'Buemi is poised to join Peugeot duo Stoffel Vandoorne and Jean-Eric Vergne, as well as BMW’s Robin Frijns, in skipping the WEC’s visit to Brazil on July 11-13 in favour of the clashing Berlin Formula E round.'

Single player reveal (Project Motor Racing)

Never knew until today that after the Bradford City fire disaster 40 years ago, in which 56 people were killed, Formula 1 drivers donated a signed helmet to help raise funds for the survivors and families of the victims.#F1

Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine.bsky.social) 2025-06-24T09:50:05.763Z

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Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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11 comments on “Round-up: Aston Martin starts driver academy, Verstappen reveals special helmet and more”

  1. Will Lance be joining this academy?

    1. Came here to find a comment like this, left happy :)

    2. …a programme designed to identify, support, and develop exceptional driving talent

      Unfortunately he doesn’t fit the criteria!

    3. Nah, I suppose he will be training these drivers to become as good as him!

    4. @jazz
      I’m just here to confirm it is indeed the first comment.
      Carry on

  2. I thought Aston Martin had already launched a Driver Academy when they hired Drugovich.
    They also chose a driver whose racing record in lower single-seaters is far from impressive, not to mention he hasn’t even competed in F2 but still competes in F3 as a 21-year-old.

    Tsunoda is indeed likely to end up dropped after the season, mainly due to his Honda affiliation (even if it’s only sponsorship level these days), & since Hadjar would be his most likely successor combined with Lindblad almost certainly starting to compete in F1 full-time from next season, Lawson would likely get to keep his drive at VCARB thanks to the upcoming technical regulation changes, which make having at least some driver continuity desirable for any team.
    Further notes regarding the driver market matter from that BBC article are that while most teams are unlikely to feature changes unless something drastic happens, Colapinto won’t get sacked easily thanks to his strong sponsor backing & marketability, so that’d also require something relatively drastic in the end.
    If he were to be sacked, his realistic successor options are/would be Perez, Bottas, & Zhou, depending on what happens with Cadillac’s first lineup.

    I was totally unaware of a fire in Bradford City (or rather the entire city’s existence, for that matter) until today, but drivers of that time donating a helmet shortly afterwards was a good move.

    1. I was totally unaware of a fire in Bradford City (or rather the entire city’s existence, for that matter)

      It was a fire at the Bradford City Football ground, not in the actual City.

    2. Bradford City (or rather the entire city’s existence

      One of the more interesting local airports (Leeds Bradford) to fly into on a windy day.

  3. Yay more F1 teams in karting pushing the prices up and basically absolutely devastating it.

  4. RE COTD i thought it was a reasonable point and said so but actually it isn’t, F1 has always been a rule book on what is or isn’t allowed, that’s got bigger, it got bigger or people die and the money in F1 accelerated development to unimaginable levels and it would be impossible to watch or take part in cars that would’ve developed since, lets say, the FW14…. 30 years ago. Yes its pre-emptive, that’s what a formula is.

    1. A Formula (tight regulations) is almost the opposite of BoP.
      With a tight rulebook you get rewarded when inventive and finding performance improvements in the few remaining open areas for development.
      In a BoP scheme you get penalised when you find those improvements. You only truely win when you are inventive and know how to play the BoP rules, or can influence those who set the BoP adjustments.

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