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Renault’s ‘senior’ junior academy member of its F1 programme, Jack Aitken has become part of the foundations of the new-look squad since its takeover of Lotus at the start of 2016.

Aitken enters his third year as part of the Renault Sport junior academy ahead of his rookie Formula 2 season after finishing last year as runner-up in the GP3 Series to George Russell.

With the backing of Renault and an emerging track record, the British-Korean driver is older than a handful of current F1 drivers at the age of 22 but slots perfectly into the French manufacturer’s plans of building its own future F1 world champion.

Dependent on his F2 success and the 2019 driver market, Aitken has the opportunity to make himself a standout candidate to Renault and with the team climbing up the F1 ranks he knows he could reach F1 with perfect timing.

“Renault have been really helpful in putting me through the motions of preparing for Formula 1,” Aitken said. “Last year I tested the old car to get a taste for it and hopefully we’ll do more of that this year.

“When Renault purchased Lotus they set out a five-year time plan to compete for world titles and that timeframe fits in quite nicely with me. We’ll see, time will tell and I will try my best to take that opportunity.”