Kush Maini joins Alpine Academy

Formula One's Anglo-French outfit Alpine has announced that FIA Formula 2 driver Kush Maini has joined their young driver programme, the Alpine Academy.

Currently competing in his rookie FIA Formula 2 season with Campos Racing, Maini secured his first F2 podium with a third-place finish in the Sprint Race in Australia and his best Qualifying result of second at Silverstone. The Bangalore-born Indian driver currently sits just outside of the top 10 in the championship standings, having secured 11 point scoring finishes across the season.

The 23-year-old driver will join Alpine Academy line-up which currently features drivers such as BWT Alpine F1 Team Reserve Driver Jack Doohan and 2022 FIA Formula 3 Champion Victor Martins, and has a host of successful graduates including current F1 drivers Zhou Guanyu and Oscar Piastri, and Olli Caldwell who currently competes for Alpine Elf Endurance Team.

Commenting on the announcement, Kush Maini said: “I am super excited to be joining the Alpine Academy. 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.”

Alpine Sporting Director Julian Rouse commented: “We are happy to welcome Kush into the Alpine Academy. He is a young talent who we believe has strong potential and will be a great asset to our driver development programme.

"he Alpine Academy will enter its ninth year in 2024 and currently features nine drivers of eight nationalities, spanning four different series from FIA Formula 2 through 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.”