When he takes to the Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours on Friday for the Feed Racing finals, 17-year-old Frenchman Elio Saintpaul has two goals: to earn himself a French F4 seat for 2025 and to honour the late F1 driver whose family has supported his journey.

By Perceval Wolff-Taffus

Feed Racing, the racing school founded by F1 champion Jacques Villeneuve and NASCAR Euro Series racer Patrick Lemarié, will crown its fifth shootout winner on Friday. At stake is a fully funded seat in French F4 for the 2025 season.

Saintpaul hopes that among the six finalists, he’ll come out on top.

“There will be a very high level this year,” he tells Feeder Series. “I will give my best and try to win it. I have nothing to lose.”

Saintpaul comes to Feed with the backing of the Association Jules Bianchi, launched by Philippe Bianchi in late 2015 following the death of his son from injuries sustained in an accident at the 2014 Japanese Grand Prix.

Last June, the Association Jules Bianchi announced a collaboration with Feed Racing, with the goal of helping one young karter per year participate in the Volant Feed Racing.

The chosen one was Elio Saintpaul, born in Nice just as Jules Bianchi was. Over the past few years, Saintpaul has competed against bigger, better-funded French teams with a kart from the JB17 karting brand and a livery inspired by Bianchi’s Marussia F1 car.

“With my dad [Emmanuel Saintpaul], we have always fought against the biggest teams,” Saintpaul says. “We could see we could drive as fast as them, sometimes even faster, and it fueled our motivation to continue.”

Saintpaul never had the resources to join the top karting teams in the French scene, never mind move further up the ranks into the international scene.

Until he and his father met Philippe Bianchi.

“Elio, I met him in karting with his dad, a man who is prepared to give everything for his boy,” Bianchi tells Feeder Series. “There is true familial passion, and he sacrifices a lot to show that Elio is capable, that he has talent. It really touched me.”

“He couldn’t drive at the international level,” he continues. “He never had the best material, far from it, so his karting record doesn’t look impressive.

“But talent is not just about that. That’s why I decided to support him.”

Saintpaul was born in February 2007, two months before Jules made his single-seater debut in French Formula Renault 2.0 at 17 – the same age as Saintpaul is now.

The two racers never crossed paths, but the Bianchi family became the driving force behind Saintpaul’s career.

“Because I drove on a JB17 kart and I was from Nice, Philippe Bianchi noticed me and gave us a brand-new chassis and encouraged me to continue,” Saintpaul says.

“Jules Bianchi is a role model for me. I was and I am still very proud to be able to show his name on my kart, on my car, on the track.”

In 2022, Saintpaul got his first taste of single-seaters in the Winfield Summer Camp with the Winfield Racing School. He faced several drivers who had already tested an F4 car, including Mercedes juniors Alex Powell and Yuanpu Cui as well as eventual F4 race winners Garrett Berry and Lucas Fluxá.

The Frenchman set the fastest time of all.

“It was my first time in F4,” Saintpaul recalls. “At the start, I was a little hesitant. We could see that some were more used to single-seaters. But at the end of the day, I progressed quite quickly and set the fastest time overall.

“Of course, it pushes me to continue. It was really so amazing. I would never have imagined having this chance one day.”

“He was remarkable at Winfield,” Bianchi adds. “I know Elio is an extremely talented driver. He has a calmness, a serenity that makes him able to compensate for his lack of mileage.”

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After finishing his karting career in April 2023, Saintpaul participated in the Feed Racing contest for the first time. In the quarterfinals, drivers are ordered by the average of their three fastest laps, and the top six in each group advance to the semifinals.

In group two of the quarterfinals, Saintpaul set the fastest outright lap, but his other two laps, he says, “were less consistent, with some mistakes”. He did not qualify for the rest of the competition.

Bianchi was absent for the event while he organised the first edition of the Jules Bianchi Karting Marathon, a 42-hour karting race held 8–10 September at the Circuit Paul Ricard.

“I wasn’t able to come to the track to support Elio that year, and I know he had a lot of pressure,” he says.

By not advancing to the semifinals, Saintpaul was eligible to return for the 2024 edition and try for the scholarship again.

“This year, I’m a bit more prepared, even though I learned a bit late I would redo Feed,” Saintpaul says. “I knew the car a little more. I was more at ease. I really managed to focus on consistency. That’s why this time, I qualified for the quarterfinals, semifinals… and then the final.”

The preliminary stages of the Feed competition took place on the 1.727-kilometre Club layout of the Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours. Saintpaul topped his group in the quarterfinals and finished in the top six in the semifinals.

The finals will take place on 4.411-kilometre Grand Prix Circuit used for 18 F1 grands prix, meaning all six finalists will discover the track and start from nearly zero.

As is often the case with drivers participating in the Feed Racing shootout, this scholarship is their best opportunity – if not their only opportunity – to launch their careers in single-seaters.

“It would be possible to go to F4 if we find sponsors, but that’s always hard to find,” Saintpaul says. “Feed is nearly the only chance I have to go to F4.”

“Whether he wins or not, he is definitely a driver who could tomorrow live off his passion, live his dream,” Bianchi adds.

The Feed Racing finals will take place Friday, 27 September, at Magny-Cours. Live timing can be followed online via its-live.net.

Header photo credit: Feed Racing