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1997 Formula 1 World Champion Jacques Villeneuve is starting a racing school with the goal to provide cost-effective coaching and mentoring for young talented drivers intent on making it to Formula 1.
“FEED Racing France” is the name of the racing school Villeneuve has established near former French Grand Prix circuit Magny Cours. He and Patrick Lemarie, once a test driver at BAR, are the chief executives.
The project is clearly serious and appears well funded as Villeneuve revealed to Motorsport-Magazin, “All our money is invested in it at the moment.”
Increasingly getting a drive on the Formula 1 grid needs not only talent but also money. Drivers with less of the former will have to dish out more of the latter. For many young drivers, even from well-heeled families, they simply do not have the money it takes to make it through the feeder series’ and then on to F1.
Furthermore hundreds of thousands if not millions will need to be invested by parents to get their kid through karting and through the junior racing series’ which are prohibitively expensive.
Villeneuve continued, “Not long ago when parents came to me and asked: my son wants to race, what should I do? I would say: tell him to do something else.”
“Nowadays young drivers don’t even dream of F1 anymore. For many, the future is at most the Porsche Cup, because they cannot get anywhere financially, so they are not even permitted to dream with their potential.”
“In the past – you needed talent, and money was a nice addition – now you need money, and if you have talent, is a nice bonus, but not essential however without money you won’t do it.”
Villeneuve’s racing school will provide an intensive course for young drivers plus a chance at a fully funded Formula 4 season at €11,500 for a five-days with Villeneuve’s instructors
The last phase of the five-day course, will see a shootout for the fastest lap and the winner of this will race again in the autumn in a final for the fastest drivers. 2019 is the first year for the school, with the first courses already been.
With this system Villeneuve wants to uncover the most talented drivers, the best of which will win a year in the British Formula 4 Championship with top team Carlin, funded by Villeneuve’s school.
The 48-year-old explained, “It’s not this modern thing with half a day… no, they’re with us to drive, and we want them to be independent. Self-learning will help them find out for themselves what they need, and if they don’t, they will not have what it takes to make it to F1 levels anyway.”
“They sit down, listen, study with the others, and try to figure things out. We’ve realized that after two days, they are already clear and understand what is required, and they go on to really made progress as a driver. ”
“It’s also a way for parents to find out if their child has what it takes and also the manufacturers and teams to evaluate drivers. They can send ten kart drivers who they think are good, and we’ll evaluate them before they go off spending on contracts.”
FEED Racing France is open to everyone with the British F4 mandated minimum age of 14 and even open to novices as Villeneuve revealed, “We already had three with us, who have never held a steering wheel in their hands, the first two days were a bit difficult, but at the end they were not far off.”
“If our champion wins in Formula 4, then we’ll do anything to help him, we cannot promise anything because everything is out of our hands right now, so there is not a million for this but if we have someone who is really special, then we will do everything we can to keep going,” added Villeneuve.
Villeneuve: Advice to parents is tell him to do something else
