Kush Maini is presently competing in his rookie Formulation 2 season. Picture credit score: BWT Alpine F1 Staff
Enstone, England: India’s Kush Maini on Tuesday joined the younger driver growth programme of Alpine Formulation 1 workforce.
Earlier than Kush, Jehan Daruvala was one other Indian who was on the motive force programme of a Formulation 1 workforce — Purple Bull Racing in his case — however he couldn’t graduate to the very best degree after three blended Formulation 2 seasons beneath their wings.
Kush, 23, is competing in his rookie Formulation 2 season.
The Bengaluru-based driver secured his first Formulation 2 podium with a third-place end within the Dash Race in Australia and his greatest Qualifying results of second at Silverstone.
He presently sits simply exterior of the highest 10 within the championship standings having secured 11 point-scoring finishes throughout the season. Kush’s brother Arjun was a growth driver with the Haas Formulation 1 workforce however he too couldn’t attain the top of four-wheel racing.
Tremendous excited to announce that I might be aside of the Alpine Academy! A dream come true for me and I can’t wait to start out working with the workforce. Huge thanks to Alpine for believing in me and for the superb alternative! #Alpine pic.twitter.com/pfHdNggnDq
— Kush Maini (@kmainiofficial) October 24, 2023
Kush will be a part of the rising Alpine Academy line-up which presently options drivers reminiscent of Alpine F1 Staff Reserve Driver Jack Doohan and 2022 FIA Formulation 3 Champion Victor Martins, and has a number of profitable graduates together with present Formulation 1 drivers Zhou Guanyu and Oscar Piastri, and Olli Caldwell who presently competes for Alpine Elf Endurance Staff.
“It’s a dream come true to be associated with a team like BWT Alpine F1 Team, where I can learn and grow to hopefully one day be ready to take the step into Formula 1. A massive thank you to Alpine for believing in me and giving me this opportunity,” mentioned Kush.
Julian Rouse, Alpine F1 Staff Interim Sporting Director, added: “He’s a younger expertise who we consider has robust potential and might be an incredible asset to our driver growth programme.
“The Alpine Academy will enter its ninth 12 months in 2024 and presently options 9 drivers of eight nationalities, spanning 4 completely different collection from FIA Formulation 2 by means of to European Karting.
“The continual expansion of the Academy’s talent pool runs in parallel to the expansion of our facilities at Enstone with the development of our new state-of-the-art training and testing facilities, the AHPC, underway.”
Narain Karthikeyan and Karun Chandhok are the one two Indians who’ve made it to Formulation 1.