Williams has signed reigning Italian F4 Champion, Kean Nakamura-Berta to its driver academy.
The Japanese-Slovak driver has already demonstrated consistency and pace all through his early profession, with a number of karting titles to his title. He made his karting debut at seven years previous, rapidly happening to compete in worldwide karting and securing each the 2021 CIK-FIA OKJ World Championship and the 2022 CIK-FIA OK European Championship.
Graduating to single seaters on the finish of 2023 within the F4 South East Asia Championship, Kean had a formidable debut marketing campaign securing two pole positions and a podium, additional including to this with two race wins and 6 additional podiums within the 2024 System UAE Championship.
2025 was a breakout yr for the teenager as he secured the Italian F4 Championship with 9 wins and a number of podiums throughout the season. He’ll problem for the System Regional Center East and System Regional European championships in 2026.
As a part of the Academy, Kean may have the workforce’s full assist and steering in nurturing his expertise and creating his abilities all through his development within the junior classes of motorsport.
The Academy helps drivers on each rung of the motorsport ladder, working with them on and off the monitor to develop the talents essential to race on the high degree. It has a convention of supporting younger expertise, which has most not too long ago seen alumnus Franco Colapinto graduate to an F1 race seat.
“I am very excited to be becoming a member of the Williams F1 Group Driver Academy,” mentioned Kean. “It is a workforce that has achieved a lot and has an enormous historical past, and I am proud to be a part of it.
“Racing in System Regional will likely be a brand new problem,” he continued, “however one which I am particularly trying ahead to. Thanks to everybody at Williams for believing in me, and I can not wait to start out this new chapter!”
“We’re thrilled to have Kean be part of the Academy at this key second in his profession,” added Sporting Director, Sven Smeets. “He has proven quite a lot of promise, proving that he’s able to studying, adapting and finally profitable championships. We look ahead to working with him this yr and can watch keenly as he hits the monitor.”
