Yeah the academies definitely stopped the idea of “if you win a junior championship you’re on a way to F1”. Nowadays it’s “if you’re in an academy you’re on a way to F1”. And winning a championship might only be a part of enabling you to get into an academy.
Just to cement the point we were discussing: https://x.com/ZakOSullivan/status/1833177788628476134
Race winner, challenging at the front with some consistency, but out of a seat. Not sure what happened, but F1 academy drivers should not lose funding to finish an F2 season…
I imagine Williams wasn’t ready to pay as much for his seat as Art GP wanted. And some other sponsor that should have paid the difference fell through?
It might be a combination of factors, but it is weird for an academy backed driver to be bumped as the season is almost done.
And yes, I would guess that Williams was not paying 100% of the cost. Which again is weird, because the concept, as I understood, was support in exchange for exclusivity of driver’s services and less leeway for the driver to choose his path.
