Few drivers make it to Formula 1, but their odds of doing so skyrocket by being affiliated with an F1 team’s junior driver programme. This series explores the performances of driver academy members in 2024. Today’s spotlight: the Alpine Academy.

By Martin Lloyd

This year has been a rollercoaster for the Alpine setup, with a multitude of changes to the main F1 team. At the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Jack Doohan became the first Enstone academy product to make his F1 debut with the race team since Romain Grosjean in 2009.

Doohan’s early debut at Abu Dhabi came after a series of structural changes in August. Most notably, Hitech founder Oliver Oakes replaced Bruno Famin as team principal, with Flavio Briatore having recently returned to the team in an advisory role. Oakes moved quickly to reunite with Paul Aron, his lead driver at Hitech in F2, by signing the Estonian as reserve driver for 2025, thus overlooking Alpine Academy members.

Check out the e-book below to read all eight of the 2024 F1 driver academy reviews!

Victor Martins (F2, 7th)

After finishing fifth in a solid debut season in F2 last year and with his F3 triumph from 2022 still in memory, Martins was expected to mount a title challenge in 2024. He remained with reigning champions ART Grand Prix as lead driver, but the season proved to be a struggle for both team and driver. ART had difficulty adapting to the new Dallara F2 car and only managed seventh in the teams’ championship.

When opportunities presented themselves, Martins scored five podiums, including a sprint race win at Barcelona. He also showed strong one-lap pace throughout the season, qualifying in the top five in seven of the season’s first 13 rounds before taking pole position at the final round in Abu Dhabi, but last-place results in three qualifying sessions held him back.

The 23-year-old finished a lowly seventh in the drivers’ standings with 107 points, down from 150 last year. He is expected to continue with ART for a third F2 campaign in 2025, but it is unclear if he will remain in the Alpine Academy programme after he appeared without the customary Alpine livery in post-season testing with the team.

Kush Maini (F2, 13th)

Maini became an Alpine junior in October 2023 during his rookie F2 season, earning an F1 driver academy’s support for the first time. The Indian driver had a mixed second F2 season and ended with a disappointing 13th-place finish in the championship.

While Maini contributed to Invicta Racing’s 288.5-point total that won them the teams’ championship, his points-scoring efforts were dwarfed by those of drivers’ champion Gabriel Bortoleto. 

Maini did take his first race win in the sprint race at Hungary, while he also scored four further podiums. But after Hungary, a torrid end-of-season run in which he scored no points in five rounds meant that the 24-year-old fell outside of the top ten in the drivers’ standings with 74 points.

For 2025, Maini will switch to DAMS for his third season in F2. 

Gabriele Minì (F2, 27th; F3, 2nd)

Competing for Prema Racing, Minì put together an impressive sophomore season in F3, with the highlight being his Monaco feature race win. His disqualification from the final race of the season at Monza inflated the gap to champion Leonardo Fornaroli from two after the race to 23, but Minì still finished second in the standings.

Two weeks after the F3 season finale, Minì substituted for Prema’s Ollie Bearman at the Azerbaijan F2 round. He finished on the podium in the sprint race in his first race in the car before crashing in the final stages of the feature race.

The Italian will continue with Prema in 2025, with whom he rekindled his alliance in 2024. He had previously won Italian F4 with the team in 2020. He joins the F2 team after they placed fifth in the teams’ standings, their worst finish since 2019. 

Nikola Tsolov (F3, 11th; Eurocup-3, 11th) 

Tsolov’s second season in F3 was a rollercoaster, and inconsistency plagued him. While he only scored in seven races, he won three of them, including a feature race triumph in Hungary, and finished in the top six in the other four. In the drivers’ standings, Tsolov finished 11th between teammates Laurens van Hoepen in 13th and Christian Mansell, also a second-year driver, in fifth.

Despite those promising results, Tsolov’s season was marred by an incident with Alex Dunne in Australia in which he appeared to swerve intentionally into the Irishman’s path in practice. Tsolov denied that the move and resulting collision were deliberate. 

Tsolov also participated in five rounds of the Eurocup-3 championship with GRS Team, finishing 11th with one podium. Notably, his participation in the rain-affected season opener at Spa in April without the authorisation of the F3 promoter led him to be barred from F3’s own round at the Belgian venue three months later.

For 2025, Tsolov will continue for a third season in F3 but will switch to Campos Racing and the Red Bull Junior Team, with a title charge surely the aim. In doing so, the 18-year-old Fernando Alonso protégé will leave the Alpine Academy, with which he was affiliated for three years.

Sophia Floersch (F3, 29th)

Floersch entered her third F3 season with a point to prove. The German driver moved to Van Amersfoort Racing after a season with PHM in which she became the first female points scorer in the current iteration of F3. But in 2024, she was unable to score points, with a best finish of 11th in the Spielberg feature race in a season that proved to be a struggle. 

The 24-year-old will move stateside in 2025 to compete in Indy NXT with HMD Motorsports. While nothing has yet been announced, she is not expected to continue with the Alpine Academy programme. 

Nicola Lacorte (FRegional Europe, 21st; FRegional Oceania, 10th) 

Italian F4 race winner Lacorte, who joined the Alpine Academy in December 2023, stepped up to FRegional competition after having finished ninth in both Italian F4 and Euro 4 in 2023. Racing with Trident, Lacorte could only finish 21st in the drivers’ standings with three points. Within the team, he was soundly beaten by both Roman Bilinski and Michael Belov, Bilinski’s replacement while he recovered from injury, and was level on points with Ruiqi Liu. 

Lacorte also finished 10th in a partial FR Oceania campaign, winning race two at Hampton Downs.

In 2025, Lacorte will join DAMS in F3 for their debut season in the championship as he looks to put his torrid FR Europe season behind him.

Abbi Pulling (F1 Academy, 1st; British F4, 7th) 

Pulling was undoubtedly the most successful Alpine junior of 2024, becoming the second F1 Academy champion. Racing for Rodin Motorsport, the British driver dominated the series, taking nine wins and 10 poles from 14 races and accumulating a margin of 121 points over Doriane Pin by the end of the season.

Pulling originally won the title with three races to spare in Qatar, but the cancellation of the second race and the addition of a new qualifying to the rescheduled race in Abu Dhabi meant that her title was technically not secured until after that weekend’s qualifying session. Still, her winning was a formality long before the end of the season considering her form, which saw her finish on the podium in every single race.

Pulling also participated in British F4 in 2024, winning a reverse-grid race at Brands Hatch and finishing seventh with Rodin despite missing two rounds. She also took part in the all-female Formula E test at Jarama, leading the way by three tenths over Jamie Chadwick.

As a prize for winning the F1 Academy title, she earned a fully funded seat with Rodin in GB3 for the 2025 season. 

Kean Nakamura-Berta (F4 UAE, 2nd; Euro 4, 3rd; Italian F4: 6th) 

Nakamura-Berta competed in his first full year of car racing in 2024. With Alpine support, he raced in three championships, finishing in the top six in each of them.

His best championship result was second in F4 UAE with the Prema-run Mumbai Falcons team. He took two wins and five further podiums to finish just four points away from champion and teammate Freddie Slater. 

Racing with Prema during the main part of the year, the 17-year-old finished sixth in Italian F4 and third in Euro 4, in which he claimed the rookie title. 

Nakamura-Berta will continue with Prema in both Italian F4 and the renamed E4 in 2025, though it is uncertain whether he will retain Alpine support. The press release accompanying the announcement of his 2025 programme on Friday made no reference to Alpine.

Kabir Anurag (Formula Winter Series, 14th; Italian F4, 20th; Euro 4, 18th; Formula Trophy UAE: 3rd)

Anurag joined the Alpine Academy in April 2024 and, like Nakamura-Berta, competed in both Italian F4 and Euro 4 for US Racing. The Singaporean driver finished 20th and 18th respectively in those series, with a best finish of sixth at Barcelona in Italian F4.

Anurag also competed in two series outside of the main European season. At the start of 2024, he raced in Formula Winter Series with US Racing, finishing 14th in the standings and recording a best finish of fifth in both race two at Aragon and the final race of the season at Barcelona.

Anurag took his best results of the year in Formula Trophy UAE, which took place in November and December. He finished third in the drivers’ standings with Xcel Motorsport, only behind Kai Daryanani and Rashid Al Dhaheri, and won two races. 

Anurag is expected to return to compete in multiple F4 championships again in 2025. He has continued to test F4 machinery with US Racing during the off-season.  

Header photo credit: Alpine Racing