How to be a Pro Race Diver is the focus of this week’s Driver Development Roundup. I have advice from John Doonan of IMSA on becoming a Pro Race Diver, advice on choosing a UK-based single-make series and tips on how to learn faster than your rivals. All this plus much more!
Becoming a Professional Race Driver
How To Learn Faster Than Your Rivals
Choosing Your First UK-Based Single-Make Racing Series
Stepping into competitive motorsport can be overwhelming, especially when you’re choosing your first single-make series. Whether you’re moving up from track days, karting, sim racing, or club-level motorsport, the UK offers several well-structured championships built to deliver equal machinery and close racing. The Racing PA looks into choosing your first single-make racing series. They look at the Ferrari Challenge vs Ginetta GT Academy vs Radical Cup UK vs Porsche Sprint Challenge GB. Read more here.
Win a Funded Ride: The Mazda Shootout Awards Hundreds of Thousands
“Racing doesn’t really have anything like the NFL combine,” says Mazda Motorsports head Jonathan Applegate. “This is maybe the closest the sport comes to ‘tryouts’ where new talent can show us what they have to offer.” Grassroots Motorsports goes behind the scenes of the Mazda Shootout.
The Hard Facts
“Forget Go-Karts”: What Verstappen Really Meant
Vroom Kart looks what Max Verstappen really meant with his recent “forget go-karts” comment. “Many focused on his considerations regarding Karting e SIM in a driver’s preparation, sometimes misunderstanding his words. Equally noteworthy is what the Champion revealed about his past and the advice – ignored by most – given to young drivers.”
F1 Academy Announces Four of 2026’s Drivers and Extends F1 Livery Deal
F1 Academy, the all-female Formula 4 championship that runs exclusively on Formula 1’s support bill, has named a group of drivers who will be on the grid next year. The pair will run with the liveries of F1 teams Red Bull Racing and Racing Bulls next season, as they have done this year.
All 10 of F1’s constructors lend their liveries to a driver and their car in F1 Academy, and next year Cadillac will become the 11th team in the pitlane at every grand prix.
They will join F1 Academy’s livery initiative in 2027, at which point the rest of the teams will be committed to doing so under a new multi-year agreement that has been reached.
The sporting regulations of F1 Academy were revised last year to cap drivers to two seasons, but now it has been decided that “from 2027, drivers who have competed in the two previous seasons may be granted an exemption to race in the series for a third season” in another regulation update.
Here are two more informative articles about F1 Academy:
How To Be A Pro Driver In 90 Seconds w/ IMSA’s John Doonan
In the video above, IMSA President John Doonan explains how you can become a professional driver in 90 seconds.
F3 Winner Voisin Chosen as New Porsche Carrera Cup GB Junior
FIA Formula 3 race winner Callum Voisin has been chosen as the new Porsche Carrera Cup GB Junior for the next two seasons.
The 2023 GB3 champion impressed during a shootout at Silverstone earlier this month when he battled British Touring Car Championship victor Daryl DeLeon, Porsche Sprint Challenge GB frontrunner Samuel Harvey and Dutch Porsche Cayman racer Joep Breedveld across a series of driving, fitness and media assessments to land the prize drive.
The 19-year-old will receive a wealth of opportunities and support from the German manufacturer, including £85,000 towards his Carrera Cup budget for each of the next two seasons.
Porsche Motorsport Asia Pacific Announces Enzo Trulli as New Selected Driver as Dorian Boccolacci Steps Up to Porsche Driver Status
Enzo Trulli will be the 2026 Porsche Motorsport Asia Pacific Selected Driver with the young Italian succeeding Dorian Boccolacci, who moves into a Porsche Driver role.
The Porsche Motorsport Asia Pacific Selected Driver Program consists of young drivers being scouted to drive GT Sport in the region and internationally, with support from Porsche Motorsport Asia Pacific. Alongside financial backing, the programme ensures consistent coaching from Porsche Junior coach Sascha Maassen. The Selected Driver is mentored both on and off track including physical training camps, brand and marketing training, and is the final stage of the regional driver development programme before a potential step up to full Porsche driver status.
Trulli now becomes the fourth Porsche Motorsport Asia Pacific Selected Driver, following a strong second season in GT racing. The 20-year-old made a positive impression in his debut year in Porsche Carrera Cup Asia, finishing second in the championship and taking six podiums, including a debut victory at Shanghai International Circuit. As a result of this exceptional performance, Trulli was selected to attend the Porsche Junior shootout in late 2025.
SRO GT Academy Goes global with Pan-Continental Young Driver Competition
SRO GT Academy is going global in its search for the next generation of racing talent by introducing a new prize for the 2026 season.
Four drivers – one each from British GT and the continental GT World Challenge powered by AWS series in America, Asia and Australia – will earn a fully-funded seat at the 2027 CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa. The successful quartet will share a Silver Cup entry run by an accomplished professional team, providing them with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to impress at the biggest GT race in the world.
Candidates must be aged under 30 on 31 December 2026 and hold an FIA Silver driver classification for that season. They will be judged using SRO GT Academy’s assessment-based criteria, which seeks to reveal each driver’s true ability and potential by eliminating external factors such as co-driver performance, reliability and luck.
Full details can be found here.
Lucas Oil Announces 2026 Winter Series and Race Series Dates
Lucas Oil School of Racing have announced the dates for the 2026 Winter series as well as their Lucas Oil Formula Car Race Series.
With $100,000 in Lucas Coin Scholarship prizes, their 2026 Winter Series is a series that should be looked into by young drivers. The series kicks off January 28-29 at Laguna Seca with a school immediately preceding for those looking for additional training time. Full details on their website.
The Lucas Oil Formula Car Race Series features a full season USF2000 Scholarship prize. Details can be found here.
Ivan Machado Perez Wins 2025 Skip Barber Race Series Championship
Ivan Machado Perez has joined an illustrious club of drivers as a Skip Barber Race Series champion. The Spaniard capped off his masterpiece-like season with a dominating win in the rain at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, his tenth victory of the season. Perez dedicated his final win of the season to fellow driver Alan Orzynski’s father who passed away the morning of the season finale.
Perez began this journey over one year ago, competing in the Skip Barber Formula iRacing Series before earning one of three spots at an in-person shootout at VIR. There, he impressed instructors from Skip Barber and was awarded a seat in the 2025 Skip Barber Race Series. Since then, Perez has served as model of what is possible for the top sim-racers, showcasing the power of simulators and iRacing in driver training and development.
While the future plans for this year’s class of drivers remain to be finalized, on the horizon for drivers are outings in European open-wheel racing, North American GT racing, and more. For information on the 2026 Skip Barber Race Series, including a preview of the schedule, click here.
Last Week on The Business of Being a Race Driver
The Paddock Is the New Boardroom
How the paddock is the new boardroom is the focus in last week’s Business of Being a Race Driver. You will understand why the paddock is a great place to build meaningful business relationships and how to go about it.
From the Sim Racing Roundup
Dialing In Your Field of View
How to dial in your field of view is just one of the things that you will learn in last week’s Sim Racing Roundup. I also cover the advantage that sim racing gives you on real tracks, the latest tech news and more!
Driver Journeys
How Laurens van Hoepen Kickstarted His Career by Skipping F4
Laurens van Hoepen jumped straight into Formula Regional machinery at the beginning of his single-seater career, opting to bypass F4 championships as a whole. In the most recent Feeder Series Podcast episode, the Dutchman, who recently graduated to F2, opened up about the positives and negatives that came with such a decision.
Pourchaire On His Single-Seater Career and Endurance Future
From third-year Formula 2 champion to McLaren IndyCar reject, Théo Pourchaire has been at the center of plenty of single-seater discourse in the past two years, but now he is taking his talents to the World Endurance Championship. He opened up on his single-seater career, how it ended, and how he returned to the path of professional motorsport. Read his story here.
Joining Invicta, Leaving AIX and Fame in Paraguay: F2’s Joshua Dürksen
Joshua Dürksen has surpassed expectations since making the ambitious jump from Formula Regional to F2 at the start of 2024, and now he has secured a move to the reigning champions for his third season in the series. Feeder Series caught up with Dürksen to discuss his career to date.