Academy Report: 2024's single-seater newcomers' first year at Williams Racing

The Williams Racing Driver Academy saw many new faces for 2024 as our driver development programme continued investing in our future.

With representatives from karting to F2, Williams Racing is proud to back emerging talent and support them on their motorsport journey.

Lia Block, Alessandro Giusti, and Oleksandr Bondarev each ended their maiden year under the Williams Racing banner driving in single-seater machinery.

Although each had a unique season, growth and experience were shared properties for all three. This is how each handled 2024.

Lia could have the most varied year in professional motorsport of any driver anywhere in 2024, but she unquestionably is the most versatile racer in Williams Racing's roster this year.

F1 Academy is where our American newcomer recorded the most seat time, but appearances in Formula Winter Series, Spanish F4, Italian F4, Nitrocross, the Baja 1000, and even in a FW08 kept Lia busy in the long gaps between races.

A steady season of progress in F1 Academy showed that those extracurricular appearances all helped, and improvements in qualifying and finishing positions kept coming as the seven-race calendar progressed.

The Jeddah Corniche Circuit is where it all began, and there aren't many more formidable venues for an opening round than the fastest street circuit that F1 visits.

Lia left Saudi Arabia without points, although she was agonisingly close to a top-10 finish in Sunday's race, but she got off the mark in Round 2 on home soil.

The cheering Miami crowd got to watch their fellow American secure a P11 finish that soon became P10 after the stewards penalised a rival's illegal overtake. The points would continue coming from then.

F1 Academy's brief European leg had two rounds in Spain and the Netherlands, where Lia added three more top-10 finishes from the four races.

Barcelona, in particular, was a weekend that showed what our rookie driver could do as she grabbed a P6 qualification and a P6 finish in the second race, netting her eight valuable points for her season tally.

Singapore, the series' third and final street circuit of 2024, was the site of Lia's best weekend performance of her maiden season with a pair of P4 results.

Securing two second-row starts for both races had Lia among the championship's 'big three' drivers who had secured the lion's share of trophies, and Lia didn't look out of place at the front.

More points followed in the doubleheader season finale, where Lia grabbed a P6 finish in Qatar, but penalties demoted her from the points-paying positions in Abu Dhabi despite her solid pace.

James Vowles was clear in his assessment of Lia's season when he said, "There's a little bit more to come from her, there's a little bit more to come from the team, but it's a multi-year project and I can't wait to see how she progresses."

Lia will remain in F1 Academy as Williams Racing's representative for 2025.

Sandro was a new name to the Williams Racing Driver Academy when he joined in January, but he spent his season racing in familiar territory by taking on a sophomore year in the Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine (FRECA).

The brief for any driver doing a second year in a series is always to do better than they did in their first, and Sandro managed to do so despite impressing in his 2023 debut.

He finished the season with seven podium trips and top-10 finishes in 16 of the 20 races, ending 2024 with 75% more points than he took one year earlier.

FRECA's 10-round calendar takes the deep grid of over 30 drivers to some of the continent's best circuits of F1's past and present, including Spa-Francorchamps, Spielberg, Hockenheim, and Monza.

Amazingly, Sandro scored points at every single one, starting his season with a P8 at the Hockenheimring before two top-10 finishes at Spa a fortnight later.

June's trip to the Dutch dunes is where Sandro really kicked off his 2024 campaign, though, mastering the changeable conditions and low light of Saturday evening in Zandvoort to take his first silverware of the season.

That P3 finish led to another rostrum result on Sunday in much drier weather, where another trophy came Sandro's way after battling his way to a second P3 finish.

Points rather than podiums punctuated his next rounds at the Hungaroring and Mugello, but FRECA's frantic racing meant Sandro gained plenty of wheel-to-wheel wisdom, especially after a five-car fight in Budapest.

Our Frenchman's trip to Le Castellet saw his FRECA first victory in 2023. History repeated in 2024 when Sandro scythed through the spray on Sunday to jump from P5 to P2 in a single lap.

Extreme confidence after a mid-race Safety Car saw a Turn 1 pass for the lead, and Sandro never looked back to delight the French fans watching his victory celebrations.

A long summer break didn't stop the momentum, with a second triumph coming in a Safety Car-filled Race 2 at Imola to keep Sandro in the upper championship spots.

The final three rounds had three more podium finishes but also a brace of retirements to end any hopes of the vice-champion title, and Sandro ended his season just three points from P3 after finishing 2024 with a P2 trophy in Monza.

Formula 3 awaits in 2025 when Sandro will drive for MP Motorsport for his rookie campaign.

Of the four karting names to join the Williams Racing Driver Academy family in 2024, Sasha was the one with the honour of ending his season in single-seater machinery.

A campaign that saw some success and some struggles ended with graduation to the entry point of open-wheel racing in Formula 4 ahead of a full-season drive in 2025.

Signs that Sasha's season would see the Ukranian hopeful soar began in his first 2024 event at Italy's South Garda Karting circuit for the WSK Champions Cup.

Bondi contested the OK category after his 2023 success in OKJ, where he became the CIK-FIA European champion.

Racing through the drizzle, Sasha took a P1 finish from a P2 qualification to begin his year with victory, following in United States Logan Sargeant's footsteps, who won the 2016 competition.

The same venue hosted the opening round of 2024's WSK Super Master Series, and Bondi promptly secured another win to put him in a strong position for the championship.

Pole positions and podiums followed throughout the four-round series, and Sasha grabbed the vice champion title in the OK category.

His season was only starting, though and races in Champions Of The Future and FIA Karting European Championship kept Bondi busy over the year until his Tatuus F4-T-421 debut.

Italian F4 supported FRECA at Barcelona and Monza, and Sasha dealt with an experienced field and variable weather in preparation for next year

Even though he only had one weekend of F4 racing under his belt, Bondi managed a P11 finish around the Temple of Speed to show he's ready to fight in single-seater machinery.

Sasha will drive for teams' champions Prema Racing when he steps up to Italian F4 for the 2025 season.