Lamborghini Picks 26 Drivers for a Revamped Young Driver Program
Lamborghini Squadra Corse confirmed its 2025 Young Driver and GT3 Junior Program intake on July 16, naming 20 Junior drivers and six Young Professional drivers who will compete for factory backing throughout the season. The announcement spans three tiers: 16 Super Trofeo Junior drivers spread across European, North American, and Asian championships; four GT3 Junior drivers already racing the Huracán GT3 EVO2 in international GT competition; and six Young Professional drivers receiving direct support from Sant’Agata Bolognese and the Scuola Federale ACI Sport.
The real story, though, is not the headcount. Lamborghini says the 2025 selection process abandoned its previous age-based criteria entirely, replacing them with a coefficient ranking drawn from the opening two rounds of each continental championship. Performance, not passport date, now determines who enters the program. That single structural change reframes the entire initiative from a youth academy into something closer to a genuine meritocracy, where a 16-year-old Italian and a 26-year-old Irishman compete on the same scorecard. Every element of the 2025 cycle, from the evaluation criteria to the November shootout at Misano, flows from that principle.
How the New Selection Actually Works
The coefficient ranking deserves scrutiny because it reveals what Lamborghini now values in a prospective factory driver. Assessments were conducted by Niki Cadei, chief instructor for Scuola Federale ACI Sport, working alongside Factory Drivers Andrea Caldarelli (overseeing North America) and Marco Mapelli (covering Europe and Asia). These are working factory drivers evaluating the next generation, not retired consultants offering theoretical advice.
Lamborghini says the criteria extend well beyond lap times. Qualifying and race results are monitored closely, but so are on-track etiquette, post-weekend driver reports, and the quality of technical feedback each driver provides to engineers and Squadra Corse staff. An average score across all these indicators determines the final shortlist. A driver who is fast but cannot communicate tire degradation patterns or work constructively with an engineering team will score lower than one who can do both. That emphasis on technical communication reflects the reality of modern GT racing, where driver feedback directly shapes setup decisions and race strategy, and it is the clearest expression of the merit-based philosophy underpinning the entire program.
Engineers analyze performance data on a laptop, crucial for optimizing racing strategies.
The Road to Misano: A Season-Long Evaluation
Selection is only the starting gate. All 20 Junior Program drivers will be monitored throughout the entire season on progression, consistency, experience, professionalism, and technical feedback. Lamborghini says a selection of Young Drivers will attend a dedicated training camp at the Sant’Agata Bolognese headquarters before the annual end-of-year shootout at Misano World Circuit in November. GT3 Junior drivers face a parallel evaluation track, culminating in their own dedicated shootout at Misano after the Lamborghini World Finals.
The concrete prize for the best performers: Squadra Corse support for the 2026 season, the kind of factory backing that can transform a self-funded racing career into a professional one. For context, the 2024 shootout winner, Frenchman Enzo Geraci, now leads the European Super Trofeo championship for Oregon Team while simultaneously contesting the North American series with Ansa Motorsports. He is the only driver in the 2025 intake running a dual-continental campaign, a workload that speaks to the commitment Lamborghini expects from its graduates and to the caliber of talent the merit-based system is designed to surface.
A participant watches Lamborghini race cars in the pit garages during the Young Driver Programs event.
From Junior to Professional: Colin Queen and Hugo Cook Prove the System Works
A meritocracy is only as credible as its outcomes, and the 2025 cycle already delivered a compelling result. American driver Colin Queen was named the winner of the Super Trofeo Young Driver Program Shootout, earning factory support for the 2026 racing season. Rouven Mohr, Interim Head of Motorsport at Automobili Lamborghini, also confirmed Hugo Cook as the GT3 Young Driver Shootout winner.
Queen’s trajectory illustrates exactly what the program is designed to produce. He transitioned from junior open-wheel competition into his first season of Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America with ANSA Motorsports, partnered with Geraci, and secured two podium finishes including one at the Lamborghini World Final in Misano Adriatico. His shootout victory was based on practice performance, qualifying and race simulations, on-track etiquette, driver reports, and technical feedback, the same holistic scorecard applied to the entire intake. Queen is slated to return for his sophomore season in 2026, contending for the North American championship aboard the Huracán Super Trofeo EVO2.
Queen was born with a congenital heart defect and underwent three open-heart surgeries early in life. That detail matters not as sentiment but as evidence that a merit-based system can surface talent from unconventional backgrounds, precisely the kind of outcome that validates the structural shift Squadra Corse made this year.
Why This Investment Matters for Lamborghini’s Racing Future
Squadra Corse is developing the Temerario GT3, which will eventually replace the Huracán GT3 EVO2 as Lamborghini’s weapon in international GT competition. The drivers cultivated through this program today are the ones who will be asked to race that car tomorrow. Building a deep roster of factory-trained drivers who understand Lamborghini’s engineering philosophy, communication standards, and competitive culture gives Squadra Corse a genuine advantage when the platform transition arrives.
The six Young Professional drivers already receiving factory support this season illustrate the program’s current output: Danny Formal (IMSA), Mattia Michelotto (Italian GT and GTWC Europe), Maximilian Paul (GTWC Europe and DTM), Hampus Ericsson (Super Trofeo North America), Georgi Dimitrov (Super Trofeo Europe), and Jacopo Guidetti (Italian GT). They compete across major international championships, extending Lamborghini’s factory presence far beyond what a small in-house team could achieve alone. Each one arrived through the same pipeline that the 2025 intake has just entered, which is the strongest argument for why the shift to merit-based selection matters beyond a single season.
A black Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO2 blazes through a corner on the racetrack, showcasing its speed.
Key Drivers to Watch in the 2025 Intake
The 16 Super Trofeo Junior drivers represent 11 nationalities, with 16-year-old Patrik Fraboni as the youngest member. Race winners in the 2025 intake include Anthony Pretorius, Silas Lovén Rytter, Jerzy Spinkiewicz, Fraboni, and Paul Levet in Europe; Charles Leong, Ethan Brown, and Alex Denning in Asia; and Elias de la Torre, who took a pair of wins at Watkins Glen in North America.
The GT3 Junior intake is smaller but arguably higher-stakes, since these four drivers already compete in full GT3 machinery. Andrea Frassineti races in Italian GT and GT World Challenge Europe, Rodrigo Testa contests the Italian GT Endurance Cup, Robin Rogalski competes in International GT Open, and Hugo Cook runs British GT. All four are former Super Trofeo competitors who graduated into GT3, the exact progression the program is explicitly designed to produce.
For anyone following Lamborghini’s motorsport trajectory, the practical takeaway is straightforward: the names emerging from this program over the next two to three years are likely the same names that will pilot the Temerario GT3 in its early competitive life. How Squadra Corse evaluates and promotes them will tell you as much about Lamborghini’s racing ambitions as any technical specification sheet.
Two Lamborghini Squadra Corse team members pose confidently in their team gear in front of a race car in the pit garage.
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