Somaca issued the following announcement on Jan. 23.

Renault Sport Racing is proud to welcome Chinese Guanyu Zhou and Brazilian Caio Collet to the Renault Sport Academy for the 2019 season.

They will join Max Fewtrell, defending champion in Formula Renault Eurocup, Christian Lundgaard, crowned in the rookies in the same category, and Victor Martins, all three retained in the program in 2019. Titled in GP3 Series, the Renault Sport Anthoine Affiliate Driver Hubert becomes a full member of the Academy.

In 2019, four of them will be present regularly in support of the F1 Grand Prix: Anthoine and Guanyu (FIA Championship Formula 2) and Max and Christian (FIA Championship Formula 3). Victor and Caio will be involved in the Formula Renault Eurocup, whose schedule includes nine F1 tracks, including Monaco and Yas Marina.

The Academy's pilots will be able to draw on Renault's extensive experience in motorsport to accelerate their careers while benefiting from physical, psychological, media and marketing programs, as well as the expertise of Renault F1 Team engineers based in Paris. Enstone (United Kingdom) and Viry-Châtillon (France).

Mia Sharizman, Director of the Renault Sport Academy:

"I have confidence in our six drivers for 2019. They have all demonstrated the qualities needed to win races and play titles. This highlights the quality of this promotion. The evolution of the program leads us to be more strict and the requirements to become a member of the Academy are even more. We are happy with this approach, which should see us reap the benefits of our work at the end of the year as we get closer to the moment when we want to have an Academy pilot competing for an F1 car. For now, our six drivers have their own goals for the upcoming season and we can not wait to see how that goes. "

Cyril Abiteboul, General Manager of Renault Sport Racing:

"We are extremely pleased to have such a talented group in the Renault Sport Academy. These six drivers have emerged as promising talents in promotion and we look forward to working with them in 2019. The F1 team will benefit from such a group in the short and long term, and the Academy will continue to work in this direction in the coming years. We look forward to seeing Max, Christian, Anthoine and Victor again and we are delighted to welcome Guanyu and Caio for their first steps on the team. We will support them all to succeed in their season. "

Renault Sport Academy

Launched in 2016, the Renault Sport Academy aims to detect and train young talents through the ranks of promotion formulas in order to finish one of them driving an F1 car.

In parallel with the development of Renault F1 Team, the Academy aims for one of its drivers to become Formula 1 World Champion with the team.

The year 2019 opens the second triennial phase of the program. This will be marked by a strengthening of links between the young Renault drivers and the F1 team.

Original source: https://media.group.renault.com/global/fr-fr/renault/media/pressreleases/21221264/la-renault-sport-academy-annonce-sa-promotion-2019