Every junior single-seater driver wants to reach the top of the pyramid: Formula 1. Those who are part of driver academies have a much greater chance of doing so. This series explores the performances of driver academy members in 2025. Today, Feeder Series spotlights the Alpine Academy.

By George Sanderson

This year has been another rollercoaster year for the Alpine setup, as former team principal and Hitech founder Oliver Oakes resigned in May 2025 – less than a year into his role. This led executive advisor Flavio Briatore to step up to cover team principal duties.

Julian Rouse still heads the Alpine Academy, but with his promotion to sporting director, there has not been a dedicated head of the programme for some time. Former Renault F1 development driver Carmen Jordá was announced in late November to be the new head of Alpine’s F1 Academy programme, but she is believed to be working only with the team’s F1 Academy driver, whose identity for 2026 has yet to be confirmed. 

There was an early-season driver change too, as Enstone academy product Jack Doohan was dropped after six races in favour of Franco Colapinto. Doohan stepped back into a reserve driver role alongside F2 race winners Paul Aron and Kush Maini. 

With the exception of Ilie Tristan Crisan, no drivers are confirmed on the Alpine Academy roster for 2026.

• Gabriele Minì (F2, P13)
• Kush Maini (F2, P16)
• Nicola Lacorte (F3, P33)
• Keanu Al Azhari (GB3, P6)
• Kabir Anurag (Italian F4, P16; E4, P6; Formula Winter Series, P4; GB3, P27*)
• Nina Gademan (F1 Academy, P6; Formula Winter Series, P15; British F4, P32*; F4 Saudi Arabia, P9*; Formula Trophy, P14*)
• Ilie Tristan Crisan (Karting, various)
• Sukhmani Khera (karting, various)

Gabriele Minì (F2, P13)

Minì secured third place on his F2 debut in 2024 at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, when he stood in at Prema Racing while Oliver Bearman substituted for the suspended Kevin Magnussen at Haas in F1. In light of his podium finish, expectations were high for the Italian driver’s first full season in the category.

The 20-year-old started the 2025 season solidly with five consecutive top-10 finishes, but his mid-season inconsistency proved to be his downfall.

After taking second place in the Monaco sprint, Minì started a tough run of seven races during which he suffered five retirements and scored just one point. His form then improved in the latter part of the season, as he finished ahead of teammate Sebastián Montoya for seven of the eight races from his Spa sprint race podium to Qatar, scoring points on six occasions. Regardless, the Italian driver was still unable to string together regular top-five results.

Third place in the Abu Dhabi feature race meant Minì finished the year on a relative high. But with 13th in the championship with 72 points – 19 behind Montoya in 12th – he ended 2025 with his worst championship placement after a full single-seater season.

Minì will depart Prema for the 2026 season, having spent the last two seasons as well as his title-winning 2020 Italian F4 campaign with the team. He will move to MP Motorsport, who finished fifth in the teams’ championship last season, 44 points ahead of Prema and level with DAMS in fourth.

Kush Maini (F2, P16)

Maini embarked on his third consecutive season in F2 this year, racing for DAMS alongside his Alpine F1 test and reserve driver duties. The 2025 season was Maini’s toughest in F2, however, as he took his lowest placement yet in the F2 drivers’ standings with 16th.

The Indian finished just six of his 27 races inside the points, with his obvious highlight being the sprint race victory in Monaco – his only visit to the podium all season. His other points finishes were 10th place in the Jeddah feature, sixth in the Monaco feature, two sevenths in the Spain and Abu Dhabi feature races, and fourth in the Silverstone sprint.

Those results gave Maini 32 points in 2025, putting him 143 points behind teammate and fellow third-year Jak Crawford, the championship runner-up. The 25-year-old also represented Alpine in the post-season young driver test at Yas Marina. 

For 2026, Maini will compete in his fourth F2 season in a row with a fourth different team, ART Grand Prix, alongside Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak. He will also continue his reserve driver role with Mahindra in Formula E, which he has held since the 2023–24 season. 

Nicola Lacorte (F3, P33)

Lacorte endured a debut F3 season to forget with DAMS. The 18-year-old made headlines this season for all the wrong reasons after he picked up a race ban mid-season for accumulating too many penalty points on his licence.

Lacorte entered the feature race in Barcelona, which marked the halfway point of the season, with 11 points on his licence. He received further penalties in the race for causing a collision and failing to meet the required delta time on two different occasions during a safety car period. Those infringements earned him an additional seven penalty points, putting him above the threshold of 12 and earning him a race ban for the sixth round of the season in Spielberg.

The Italian driver’s results didn’t paint a much brighter picture. He finished the season 33rd in the standings with no points and a best finish of 15th, achieved in both the Imola sprint and Silverstone feature. This meant he was above only one full-time driver in the drivers’ standings, Nicola Marinangeli.

Lacorte also featured in two rounds of the IMSA SportsCar Championship’s GTD class with his father’s team, Cetilar Racing. He raced alongside Antonio Fuoco and Lorenzo Patrese in two rounds, one of which was the 24 Hours of Daytona, in which his father and team owner Roberto Lacorte also competed with them. He also participated in the World Endurance Championship rookie test at Bahrain in November, driving an AF Corse Ferrari GT3 car.

In 2026, Lacorte will return to DAMS for a second F3 season. 

Keanu Al Azhari (GB3, P6)

Al Azhari battled to sixth in this season’s GB3 championship with Hitech. 

A number of poor qualifying results, often out of his control, put the 18-year-old on the back foot in several races. On one occasion, in the Monza season finale, he experienced a mechanical issue during the first qualifying session, meaning he started all three races from the back of the field.

Still, in the races, Al Azhari charged from the rear of the field to achieve 12th-, fourth- and 11th-place finishes in the three races respectively, gaining a total of 37 places from his grid positions across the weekend.

The Emirati-licenced driver claimed five podiums during the season, taking four of them – including his sole victory – at the Budapest and Silverstone rounds mid-season.

Al Azhari also raced for SSR Performance in one round of the GT Winter Series in the GT3 class, winning both of the races he contested. He also raced for Mühlner Motorsport in two rounds of the Prototype Cup Germany.

Kabir Anurag (Italian F4, P16; E4, P6; Formula Winter Series, P4; GB3, P27*)

It was a busy 2025 for Anurag, who featured in four separate championships over the course of the year with US Racing and Xcel Motorsport.

The Singaporean started his 2025 with a fourth-place finish in the Formula Winter Series, in which he claimed two wins and two further podiums to finish 66 points behind teammate and eventual champion Gabriel Gomez.

Anurag’s main campaign came in Italian F4. Whilst he did not take any podiums, the 18-year-old finished inside the top 10 on eight occasions, with a best finish of fifth in the third race at the Misano season opener. He ended the season 16th in the drivers’ standings with 35 points.

E4 proved more successful for Anurag. He claimed two podiums at the season finale in Monza, helping him achieve a sixth-place finish in the driver’s standings with 68 points. He took top-six finishes in six of his nine races in the championship, with his only retirement coming in the first race at Mugello.

Anurag also appeared in the GB3 Championship this season, racing in the final two rounds of the season at Donington Park and Monza with Xcel Motorsport. He achieved one top-10 finish at Monza.

* Driver entered no more than 50 per cent of season

Nina Gademan (F1 Academy, P6; Formula Winter Series, P15; British F4, P32*; F4 Saudi Arabia, P9*; Formula Trophy, P14*)

Gademan also featured in five championships this season as she embarked on her second season in single-seaters. The 22-year-old had made her F1 Academy debut with Prema Racing as a wild card at the 2024 Zandvoort round and returned with the team full-time for the 2025 season.

Before she started her main campaign, Gademan raced in the Formula Winter Series, in which she finished 15th overall as the best female driver despite missing the final three races of the season to participate in F1 Academy testing. 

In her main campaign with Prema in F1 Academy, she won the reverse-grid first race at Zandvoort and achieved three further podiums. Gademan took sixth in the drivers’ standings on 74 points, making her the third-highest-placed rookie driver in the championship.

Turning to British F4, Gademan competed in the non-championship Silverstone round and the Zandvoort round with Hitech. She finished 14th in the reverse-grid race, taking six points. 

To end her 2025 season, Gademan competed in the first and final rounds of F4 Saudi Arabia. Despite missing three of five rounds, she was again the highest-placed female driver and ninth overall, having achieved a double podium in the opening round at Bahrain. She also competed in the final round of Formula Trophy at Yas Marina, finishing fifth and 11th in the two races.

* Partial season

Ilie Tristan Crisan (Karting, various)

Canadian driver Crisan joined the Alpine Academy in January 2025 on a long-term deal, with the aim of developing him through karting and into cars in the future.

Crisan began 2025 by finishing third in the WSK Super Master Series’ OK-Junior class. The 13-year-old stayed in the class through the year, by competing in the OK-Junior class of the FIA Karting European Championship, taking one win and one further podium on his way to a fourth-place finish overall in the standings. He then competed in his second FIA Karting World Championships at Kristianstad, finishing fifth, six places higher than his 2024 finish of 11th.

In the Champions of the Future Euro Series, he finished third, missing out on a potential runner-up spot after being caught up in a crash in the final race at Kristianstad. He ended the year by finishing fourth in the WSK Final Cup.

Crisan is set to continue in karting in 2026, but whether he will step up to senior karting remains unknown. He turns 14 in April. 

Sukhmani Khera (karting, various)

Having been a member of the Alpine Rac(H)er programme since 2023, Khera graduated to the Alpine Academy in February 2025.

The 13-year-old’s first competition this year was the IAME Winter Cup at Valencia, where she finished seventh in the Junior X30 class.

The British-Indian racer also competed in the British Kart Championships’ Junior X30 class, finishing eighth of 36 competitors. She also became the first female driver to win the WM Plate across any class in late November.

Earlier that month, Khera competed in the IAME Warrior Final in Valencia, racing against 115 X30 Junior competitors. Starting from 31st in the final, Khera impressed by gaining 23 places to finish eighth.

Header photo credit: Dutch Photo Agency