F1: Aston Martin launches Driver Academy, announces first young talent. Aston Martin launches its own Driver Academy to support young talents in motorsport.

Aston Martin has just announced the launch of their Driver Academy for young motorsport talents: here is the name of their first signing from F3.

Just a few minutes ago, through a post on their social media channels, the Aston Martin team announced the creation of their Driver Academy, aimed at nurturing and developing young drivers until their debut in the top tier of four-wheel motorsport. In the announcement, the name of the first very young driver signed by Lawrence Stroll’s team was also revealed, directly from Formula 3.

By now, all major teams in the Formula 1 paddock have their own Academy: naturally the top four teams—McLaren, Ferrari, Mercedes, and Red Bull—as well as “smaller” teams like Williams. Driver Academies, these youth development programs run directly by the teams, have become essential tools to identify and grow new talent starting from the lower categories. The goal is clear: once mature, to bring them into Formula 1 to race for the team that trained them.

Many of today’s drivers on the grid come from such Academies. First and foremost the very young Andrea Kimi Antonelli, who joined the Mercedes program at a very young age under the protection of Toto Wolff, eventually making his F1 debut as Lewis Hamilton’s replacement. Equally significant are the careers of Charles Leclerc, developed through the Ferrari Driver Academy, and Max Verstappen, launched by Red Bull.

A signing from Spain: here’s who it is
With the announcement of the Academy’s creation, Aston Martin also confirmed the name of the first driver to join it: the very young Spaniard Mari Boya. Born in 2004, Boya made his Formula 3 debut in 2023 after unremarkable results in lower categories. Among his best achievements are two second-place finishes in the final standings of Spanish F4 (2020) and Eurocup-3 (2023).

Currently, Mari Boya competes in the Formula 3 championship with the Campos Racing team, where he holds 14th place in the driver standings. Joining the Silverstone-based team will give him the opportunity to move significantly closer to the world of Formula 1, working on the simulator and, once he obtains the Super Licence, possibly participating in some on-track tests with the “green machine.”