- George Russell has launched the GR63 Karting Academy at Silverstone with the British Racing Drivers’ Club, giving 25 children aged eight and nine a fully funded eight-round championship in 2027 (per Motorsport.com).
- Entry starts at £25 for an open qualifying session in December, rises to £75 for a January shootout, and costs nothing from the championship stage onward.
- The winner of the December 2027 final at Silverstone earns a fully funded karting season in 2028.
A Mercedes Star Builds the Ladder He Climbed
Karting is where George Russell started, and four days after his team clinched the constructors’ title he went back to it. On Thursday the 28-year-old Mercedes driver, an eight-time grand prix winner, announced the GR63 Karting Academy, a program based at the kart track at Silverstone and built with the circuit and the British Racing Drivers’ Club.
“Karting is where it all started for me,” said Russell, who won titles on a national and international level before progressing into single-seater competition.
“It taught me everything I’ve relied on throughout my career. I know how hard it is for talented young drivers to get that first opportunity, especially when budgets are tight.”
“With the GR63 Karting Academy, I want to give something back by finding those hidden talents and giving them the support and platform they need to reach their potential.”
“I’m really grateful to Silverstone and the British Racing Drivers’ Club for helping make this happen.”
The academy opens to boys and girls aged eight and nine. Every driver must be a citizen of a Commonwealth country. The program is designed for children without the budget to progress through the sport, and a season of junior karting often costs well into six figures.
How the GR63 Academy Works
The path to the top has four stages, and each one narrows the field.
Stage one is open access. From December 6 to December 31, 2026, eligible children can book an arrive-and-drive qualifying session at Silverstone Kart Track. Each session costs £25. The 80 fastest drivers move on.
Stage two is the GR63 Shootout on January 31, 2027, where those 80 drivers compete for 25 places. Entry costs £75.
Stage three is the GR63 Championship. The 25 selected drivers race an eight-round series from March to November 2027, and each round runs on a different circuit configuration at Silverstone. The academy covers all participation costs. Each of the 25 also receives a full set of equipment: overalls, a helmet, boots and gloves.
Stage four arrives in December 2027, when the top five finishers in the championship line up for a final race at Silverstone. The winner receives a fully funded karting season for 2028.
The judging runs wider than a stopwatch. Drivers are evaluated on racecraft, lap times, fitness and media skills. Russell will mentor the group and guide the young drivers through the process.
Russell announced the academy on social media as well, in a post that names him as the person who picks the 25.
“So proud to introduce you all to the GR63 Academy,” he wrote. “Karting is where it all started for me and has played a crucial role in my career.”
“I also know how hard it is for talented young drivers to get that first opportunity, especially when budgets are tight. With the GR63 Academy, I want to give something back to my sport by finding those hidden stars and giving them the support and guidance they need to reach their potential.”
“Following the first two rounds at Silverstone, I’ll identify 25 kids to take part in the GR63 Academy in 2027. Thank you to Silverstone and the BRDC for helping make this happen.”
Why the Price Tags Matter
The numbers on the entry form tell their own story. A £25 session and a £75 shootout are the only fees, and everything from stage three onward is covered. A child who makes the top 25 gets a full championship season, equipment included, without a sponsor or a team owner paying the bills.
That design answers the problem Russell names in his own statement: talented young drivers with tight budgets who never get the first opportunity. Stage one is open to every eligible child, and the 80 fastest move on to the shootout.
Russell knows what a first opportunity can turn into. He won back-to-back European titles in karting before he moved up the ladder. Born in King’s Lynn, England, on February 15, 1998, he won the 2017 GP3 championship and the 2018 Formula 2 title. Mercedes signed him to its junior program in 2017. He raced for Williams from 2019 and out-qualified his teammate Robert Kubica at all 21 grands prix in his rookie year. His first win came with Mercedes in Brazil in 2022, and in 2025 he took over as the team’s leader after Lewis Hamilton left for Ferrari.
The Backers at Silverstone
The British Racing Drivers’ Club owns Silverstone, and its president, David Coulthard, welcomed the academy as part of a longer tradition of investing in young talent.
“As owners of Silverstone and guardians of British motorsport, the BRDC has always been committed to reinvesting in the sport and nurturing home-grown talent.”
“That commitment has played a big part in Britain’s long record of success in motorsport, and it is a great source of pride for the Club and its Members.”
“The GR63 Academy captures that ethos perfectly, and we are delighted to work with George to support the next generation of drivers here at Silverstone,” said Coulthard.
Bookings for the first stage go through Silverstone’s GR63 Academy website.
A Week of Contrasts for Russell
The launch landed in a week that held both a team triumph and a personal ache. Mercedes won its ninth constructors’ title at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix on November 8, the first for the team after its run of eight in a row ended in 2021. The four seasons from 2022 to 2025 brought little success while the team wrestled with the ground effect cars. Russell joined Mercedes in 2022 and lived through every one of them.
His own 2026 looks different from the team’s. Teammate Kimi Antonelli took the drivers’ championship, a title Antonelli clinched in Mexico City with four races left, and Russell sits third in the standings, 17 points behind Max Verstappen with three races to go.
Russell said in October that early-season problems landed on him rather than on Antonelli.
Around the same time Helmut Marko said Russell is no longer Mercedes’ number one driver, and Wolff answered that Marko was wrong about him.
After Brazil, Russell told reporters he was crediting the people around him, and he pointed to Wolff’s refusal to rebuild the team in the lean years as a big reason Mercedes is back on top.
“We have been through a lot over those years. It’s been extremely tough times,” he said. “But I think something I admire a lot about Toto’s leadership is that the people we have today are the same people who were there during the glory years, and they’re the same people who went through the difficulties during 2022 to 2025. Nobody was hired or fired.”
“Credit to everybody in the team, but huge credit to Toto for that loyalty and belief in the people, even when times were tough.”
Wolff, asked about the team’s stability after the race at Interlagos, also pointed to the lack of staff turnover.
“but we have also many people that have joined us recently, and I think what I would like to choose as a word is safety. You know, we are not a hire and fire organisation.”
“We provide a culture and an environment where you can thrive, where you’re allowed to make mistakes, where you can speak up. And over the long term, I believe if you want to be successful, not over a period of a few years, but over many, many decades, this is what you need to be able to kind of ingrain in the team.”
Wolff said the same years were harder to live through than the results suggest. Mercedes finished second in two of those seasons.
“It wasn’t that bad at all when you look at the sheer numbers, but it felt not good,” Wolff said. “And the resilience of the team, the people that held together in those tough times, is a factor, I think.”
Wolff said after the race that the constructors’ title belonged to Russell as much as anyone.
Russell spent the week talking about patience and the people who stayed. The academy asks 25 children to show what they can do with the same kind of backing.
What Comes Next
Racing comes first. The Las Vegas Grand Prix is on Saturday, November 21, at 8pm local time, and Russell has three races left to close the 17 point gap to Verstappen in the standings.
After that, attention turns to Silverstone. The first GR63 qualifying sessions open on December 6, and by the end of the month 80 children will know they have made the shootout. On January 31, 25 of them will earn a place on a grid the academy funds. Whether one of those kids reaches Formula 1 is a question for the next decade, but the first lap times that count will be set on December 6.
