Alpine F1 Team announced at the beginning of the week the 4 drivers of its young driver program for 2022. Mercedes, in turn, announces theirs. They will be Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Paul Aron, Yuanpu Cui, Luna Fluxa, Daniel Guinchard, Frederik Vesti, and Alex Powell.
Since 2016, Mercedes has implemented a young driver program. The first ones to benefit from it were Ocon, Russell, and Wehrlein. In 2022, Ocon is still with Alpine and Russell has been promoted to Mercedes. Needless to say, being part of this program for a young driver is a real chance to eventually be part of a Formula 1 team.
“This season is very promising and we are delighted to welcome our young recruits for the launch of the F1 W13 on Friday,” commented Wolff, the director of the Mercedes team in a statement.”
There are faces that are already familiar to us, and they will continue to progress this season. Other new members are joining us this year. It will be interesting to follow their development.
Gwen Lagrue, who advises the Mercedes team in the development of young drivers, hopes that Hamilton will be a source of inspiration for them: « This is a special season for us with George Russell, who was our first driver in this program, joining the F1 team. Lewis Hamilton is one of the greatest athletes currently active and is therefore logically a source of inspiration and learning for our young drivers. In addition to that, this season we welcome our first female driver to the team. »
Andrea Kimi Antonelli has already been part of the Mercedes young driver program since 2019. At only 15 years old, he is racing in the Italian F4 this year with Prema. He is Italian.
Paul Aron, from Estonia, is 17 years old. He is also with Prema but in the Alpine Regional Formula for his second season, after finishing 3rd last year.
Yuanpu Cui is Chinese, aged only 13, and currently involved in kart racing.
Luna Fluxa is Spanish. At only 11 years old, she is also competing in karting in the OK Junior category.
Daniel Guinchard, a 15-year-old English boy, joins the Mercedes program after several seasons in Karting. This season, he is joining Argenti in F4 UK.
Alex Powell is American and is 14 years old. He is going to have his first full season of Karting in the OK Junior category.
Frederik Vesti was already in the Mercedes program last year. The Danish driver is now with ART Grand Prix in F2.
Mercedes will unveil its new race car this Friday, February 18th.
