2012 FIA Institute Academy Selection

[RasputinLives]

So after a 'shoot-out' held in Austria 18 drivers from all aspects of Motor Racing have been taken on the FIA Institute Academy.

Those drivers are:

Mohamed Al Mutawaa (18, UAE);
Klaus Bachler (20, Austria);
Andrea Bate (22, South Africa);
Craig Breen (21, Ireland);
Andrea Caldarelli (21, Italy);
Gabriel Chaves (18, Colombia);
Jonas Gelzinis (23, Lithuania);
Michael Klitgaard Christensen (21, Denmark);
Jack Le Brocq (19, Australia);
Michael Lewis (20, USA);
Alexander Lynn (18, UK);
Jose Andres Montalto (21, Costa Rica);
Ramon Pineiro (19, Spain);
Brendan Reeves (23, Australia);
Pontus Tidemand (20, Sweden);
Timo van der Marel (22, Holland);
Sepp Wiegand (20, Germany)
Lewis Williamson (21, UK).

You can see the selection process here http://www.fiainstitute.com/news/Pages/article-999999990.aspx

The 18 chosen drivers will now recieved varius coaching both in-car from former F1 driver Alex Wurz and out of car from former Rally World Champion Robert Reid. Over the next 18 months they'll attend various work shops both designed to develop in car skills, technical knowledge and tactical knowledge in the world of Motor Racing.

This process was only started last year so how effective it is can't be measured yet the most noteable driver in it last year was the American Alexander Rossi who was in the recent F1 drivers test.

Do you think these things are a good idea or just add extrea pressure on to a young driver? If you do should they be done by the individual nation?

 

[Galahad]

Any initiative to help young drivers is welcome, but what most of them need more than anything is cold, hard cash!

Neither the FIA nor the national motor clubs have got the money to pay upwards of £500,000 for a young driver to spend a season in Formula 3 - and even if they did, arguably there are a lot of better things they could spend it on.

It'd be nice for 0.5% of FOM's revenues or thereabouts to go into this scheme. Until that day (when hell will also freeze over), we're relying on Red Bull and Eric Boullier.