Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race Results

Four drivers picked for Renault Sport Academy

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Four drivers have been selected as part of the new Renault Sport Academy designed to find future champions.

As part of the launch of Renault's "comprehensive motorsport programme", the French company announced it would be developing four young drivers, all of which took part in Renault-backed championships last season.

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Reigning Formula Renault 3.5 series champion Oliver Rowland headlines the quartet, while he will be joined in the academy by 2015 Eurocup FR2.0 and FR 2.0 Alps winner Jack Aitken, as well as FR 2.0 NEC winner Louis Deletraz and second-placed Kevin Joerg.

With Renault Sport Racing overseeing the drivers' development, Rowland will compete in GP2 for MP Motorsport in 2016 while Aitken and Joerg will both move in to GP3. Deletraz will race in the newly-named Formula V8 3.5 Series.

New Renault racing director Frederic Vasseur says it is important the company provides young drivers with the opportunity to reach F1.

"The Renault Sport Academy underlines the commitment of Renault Sport Racing to nurture young talent to develop the Formula 1 stars of the future," Vasseur said. "The motivation is not just altruistic; we want these drivers to become future Formula One World Champions and we are putting every tool at their disposal to achieve this aim."

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.