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Atom It's always a nice surprise to discover you may have a future top-level racing driver in your back yard. 13-year-old Ben Barnicoat, from Palterton, has joined the McLaren Young Driver Programme.
Admittedly, this programme has only produced one F1 racer so far - but when that driver is Lewis Hamilton, one has to think that the scheme is good quality. McLaren is well-known for looking after its protegés, provided they in turn respect McLaren's modus operandi. McLaren is also rather selective in picking people to join the programme. Ben won Formula Kart Stars and was 2nd in the British Junior Kart Championship this year, but it's possible to thrive in karts and fail to switch to cars well. McLaren's support implies that Ben is likely to make a successful transition, partially because finances and advice will no longer be the difficulty they pose for the majority of young racers.
The Derbyshire Times reported that Lewis himself said, "I believe 200 per cent in Ben. It's his ambition to lift the trophy in Formula One - in fact, he'd like to beat Sebastian Vettel and become the youngest driver to win the competition. If he says he can do it, he can - I'm with him all the way."
I hope Lewis is right about this. Derbyshire has produced two Grand Prix drivers since the F1 World Championship was formed (as many as Wales, but still not very many). It would be great to see Ben become Derbyshire F1 racer No. 3 in a few years' time.
How many of the other teams have something similar in place? I know Ferrari has the Ferrari driver's Academy, and Red Bull has something, but who else?... Lonny
Ferrari - Ferrari Driver Academy (currently has Jules Bianchi, Brandon Maisano, Raffaele Marciello, Lance Stroll, Nicola Costa and Sergio Perez, who must be the only person on a young driver scheme despite already making it into F1)
McLaren - Young Driver Programme (Oliver Turvey, Oliver Roland, Nyck de Vries and Ben Barnicoat)
Red Bull/Toro Rosso - Red Bull Driver Search (doesn't appear to have its own official page, possibly due to multiple strands across the world. The drivers are too numerous to even try listing; there were originally around 20 but this has gone down since the recession began)
Mercedes - no programme of this type (though it does have a free training programme for over-12s in Surrey)
Renault - has partnership with DAMS for this purpose; the 2010 drivers were Jérôme d’Ambrosio and Ho-Pin Tung, but the 2011 "young drivers" will probably be whoever DAMS picks for its GP2 team next year.
Wiliams - no programme
Force India - they were supposed to be starting an intensive talent search for karters in India, but I've seen no sign of it being initiated yet.
BMW Sauber - unnamed in-house programme (Esteban Guiterrez)
Lotus - Young Drivers' Development Plan (Nabil Jeffri)
Virgin - no programme
Hispania - don't make me laugh...