Renault Sport Academy 2020 end of season review 18.12.2020: Renault DP World F1 Team presents a round-up of its Renault Sport Academy drivers and their activities on and off-track in 2020. Cyril Abiteboul, Managing Director, Renault Sport Racing

Renault DP World F1 Team presents a round-up of its Renault Sport Academy drivers and their activities on and off-track in 2020.




Cyril Abiteboul, Managing Director, Renault Sport Racing


The Renault Sport Academy was set-up with the purpose of developing young drivers through the single-seater ladder with the objective to place Academy drivers in Formula 1 race seats. While we’re closer to meeting that goal, 2020 was a difficult year for everyone with the Covid-19 pandemic, so for our young drivers to complete their racing season is a testament to not only the programme but to all the championships, organisers and promoters who have made it possible.



We signed Oscar Piastri and Hadrien David to the Academy for 2020 after they won the Formula Renault Eurocup and French Formula 4, respectively. We retained Guanyu Zhou and Christian Lundgaard in Formula 2 and Caio Collet in Formula Renault Eurocup.



There were some tremendous moments for all, not least for Oscar who won the FIA Formula 3 Championship as a rookie on the Formula 1 support card. Zhou and Christian claimed race wins in Formula 2 with Zhou becoming the first Chinese winner in the series, while Caio claimed a memorable win in Imola during the Formula 1 weekend.



In between the races we continued to conduct Formula 1 testing, which is a huge credit to our race support team who were able to deliver these valuable tests for our young drivers. We finished the season with tests for Zhou, Christian and Oscar with Zhou also taking part in the post-Abu Dhabi test in the R.S.20 to further underline our commitment to the project. We look forward to next year and further developing our young talent.





Mia Sharizman, Renault Sport Academy Director


2020 has been the biggest challenge the Academy has had to face since its inception in 2016. The Covid-19 situation made all of us change the way we prepare and manage our drivers. All our young drivers competed this year without the support of their family by their side at race events, which made our role at the Academy more crucial than ever to support them technically and emotionally.



I would like to thank all our partner teams UNI-Virtuosi Racing, ART GP, PREMA Racing, Hitech GP, MP Motorsport and R-ace GP for their support and dedication to jointly develop our drivers.



Oscar winning the FIA Formula 3 was an unbelievable achievement and we are very proud of that. Nevertheless, we hoped for more from Zhou and Christian in FIA Formula 2 and we are somewhat disappointed with the outcome of finishing sixth and seventh in the Championship despite some strong performances resulting in wins and podiums.


Caio and Hadrien fell short of their target of winning their respective titles, but as the season evolved, we can see Caio’s potential and development, which is in line with our projection. We know all the drivers can do better and they are aware that they will have to be better next year to progress further within the Academy. I know they will.



I was happy to see that we were able to execute the F1 Test Programme for our Academy Drivers perfectly, considering there were so many limitations and restrictions in staging them due to the pandemic. Zhou and Christian have benefitted this year immensely in their on-going F1 preparation.



This year they have been joined by Oscar who had his first experience with F1 machinery. It was a reward for winning the FIA F3 Championship and it was richly deserved. He performed well and I am confident there will be more opportunities for Oscar in the future.
 


 
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