Two newly signed Red Bull Formula 1 junior drivers are set to make their car racing debuts this weekend in the Ginetta Junior Winter Series, part of Red Bull’s ongoing efforts to rejuvenate its driver academy’s success.
The Ginetta Junior Series, featuring a field of 14-16-year-olds competing in Ginetta G40 Juniors, is known for being the starting point of notable drivers such as McLaren’s Lando Norris, who first raced here in 2014.
Other prominent graduates include 2025 IndyCar driver Louis Foster, Indy NXT race winner Jamie Chadwick, and Pau Grand Prix champion Billy Monger.
This weekend, 14-year-olds Rocco Coronel and Scott Lindblom will kick off their car racing careers driving Red Bull-branded Ginettas in the Ginetta Junior Winter Series.
This standalone event, hosted during Silverstone’s Walter Hayes Trophy weekend, features a qualifying session and three races.
Coronel and Lindblom will then move to their first full-season campaign in the Ginetta Junior Championship in 2025, which includes seven rounds at English circuits and a potential overseas event. They’ll be racing with the R Racing team, which has won the last four drivers’ championships.
The winter series at Silverstone has often proven to be a predictor of future champions, with seven past winter series winners going on to secure the main series title.
Both Coronel and Lindblom have recent experience in the Ginetta cars, having reached the final stage of a Ginetta scholarship contest at Blyton Park.
Coronel, son of touring car drivers Tom Coronel and Paulien Zwart, and Lindblom were both signed to Red Bull’s junior programme after impressing during a driver shootout held for 13-16-year-olds.
The event included testing of GP3 and Formula 4 cars at Jerez, with technical support from Campos, which manages Red Bull juniors in Formula 2, Formula 3, and F4.
Red Bull has recently intensified its focus on improving its junior programme, aiming to regain a competitive edge as other teams enhance their young driver initiatives.
This effort is part of a long-term goal to develop a solid pool of future drivers for Red Bull Racing, which has had to recruit externally several times in recent years.
Starting with Ginettas allows drivers to begin their careers before reaching the FIA’s minimum age requirement of 15 for Formula 4 championships.
Lindblom views the Ginetta experience as “good preparation for single-seaters in 2026,” while Coronel expressed his primary goal to “learn as much as possible and gain experience” without setting specific expectations.
Ginetta is set to introduce changes in 2025, including an upgraded Ginetta G40 Junior Evo.
The Silverstone winter series event will be streamed live on the BRSCC YouTube channel as part of the Walter Hayes Trophy coverage and will also be available on GinettaTV’s YouTube channel.