Students
The Class of 2028
Five drivers from five countries, March 2028 to February 2029. Here is what each of them worked on, in our words and theirs, and where they go next.
Why we publish these
A note from Maren Lindqvist
Every year we write about the students who have just finished their year with us. We do it for the people who pay for the programme, who deserve to know what their money did. We do it for the students, who should have something to show for a year of hard work that is not a lap time. And we do it for the drivers who will read this and wonder whether to apply.
We write about what each student did, not where they came from. Every profile is read and agreed by the student and their family before we publish it, and the line in their own words is exactly that.
Maren Lindqvist, Head of Communications
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Tomás
- Country
- Portugal
- Category
- F4
Tomás moved up from karting to F4 in 2027 and arrived with plenty of speed and very little consistency under braking. His year was mostly about one thing: braking at the same point, with the same pressure, lap after lap, until the car stopped surprising him.
By the November block his braking traces from one lap to the next were close to identical, and his race pace had stopped depending on the first two laps. He has spent a lot of the year in the workshop with Davide, learning what the car does when he asks it to stop.
Next season: Spanish F4, with one of our partner teams.
I used to brake when I was scared. Now I brake where I decided to brake.
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Yasmin
- Country
- Jordan
- Category
- Karting (OK)
Yasmin was the best qualifier in her cohort from the first block, and she knew where her races were going wrong: in the first 100 metres. Her year went into race starts, from reaction drills in Elena Vasquez’s library to dozens of practice launches on the kart circuit.
She now gains places at the start more often than she loses them. She also kept a notebook of every start she made in 2028, with the conditions and the result, and she has asked to keep going with it at home.
Next season: a full European karting season, with our travel support.
Qualifying is me against the track. The start is me against everybody. I wanted to be good at both.
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Kofi
- Country
- Ghana
- Category
- Karting, F4 test
Kofi was the first student to come to us through the Africa outreach led by our trustee Kwabena Asante-Reid. He arrived as a karting driver and spent his year building towards his first single-seater runs, which came in September on the main circuit at Modena.
He took to the performance-education syllabus faster than anyone in his cohort, and by the end of the year he was running his own neck-conditioning programme. He comes back in March for a second year, with a full season of F4 testing planned.
Next season: a second year on the programme.
The first time I sat in the F4 car I thought it was too much car. By the third run it was not enough.
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Marta
- Country
- Poland
- Category
- F4
Marta is the most engineering-minded driver we have coached. She treated the telemetry reviews in the instruction room as the most important part of each block, and by the end of the year she was running her own data reviews and bringing them to us, rather than the other way round.
She finishes the year with an F4 programme for next season and a place to study mechanical engineering, and she intends to do both.
Next season: F4, and a university place in mechanical engineering.
I like the data because it does not care how I feel about the lap.
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Sami
- Country
- Tunisia
- Category
- Karting
Sami was the smallest driver in his cohort and the one with the best feel for grip. On a wet kart circuit he was the reference for everybody, including some of the staff. His year was about turning that feel into something he can explain and repeat in the dry, which is harder than it sounds.
He was one of the students who took most naturally to describing what he felt in his own words. He comes back in March for a second year.
Next season: a second year on the programme.
When it rains everyone else slows down. I just listen to the kart more.
The Class of 2029