JULIA ANGELARD STARTS THE CHAMPIONS OF THE FUTURE ACADEMY SEASON

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  • A completely new challenge in her karting career awaits 13-year-old Julia Angelard – participation in the full season of the Champions of the Future Academy.
  • This weekend, the Polish driver will start competing at the Kartódromo Internacional Algarve track in Portimão as part of the first of six rounds of the prestigious series, held in Europe and the Middle East.
  • The Minardi Management protégé will appear on the Portuguese track for the first time, and her goal for the upcoming round is to find herself in a completely different racing environment than the one known from the Polish Karting Championship, ROK Cup Italia or WSK.

Julia Angelard, who normally represents the JSTR by Jastrzębski Racing team, is heading to Portugal after a short break at her family home, where she will face one of the biggest challenges of her karting career to date – participation in the Champions of the Future Academy series. The COTFA program is a global karting championship that aims to make racing more accessible and fair for all drivers. By reducing entry fees and providing identical chassis and engines through a lottery system, it ensures equal opportunities on the track and also encourages greater participation of women in the sport. For Julia, this means driving a completely different chassis (Kart Republic with an IAME engine) than usual (Kosmic).

More than just racing
Champions of the Future Academy is a karting competition program that – as the series slogan says – is a chance to be noticed. Supported by the F1 Academy, the series launched by RGMCC is a global concept that allows drivers to showcase their talent and skills on the international stage. The year 2025 brings the second full season of the series, lasting 6 racing weekends. Before the first round, scheduled for the upcoming weekend in Portimão, the competitors will have two days to get to know each other and the rules of the competition. Then, the participants will start six racing weekends, offering two separate races each. Four rounds are organized in Europe, and the other two outside the European Union – in the Middle East. The aim of the Champions of the Future Academy program is to make it easier for young adepts to enter professional karting racing series.

The series calendar is as follows:

  1. Portimão (Kartódromo Internacional Algarve), Portugal, 28.02.-2.03.2025;
  2. Valencia (Kartódromo Internacional Lucas Guerrero), Spain, 11-13.04.2025;
  3. Jesolo (Pista Azzurra), Italy, 4-6.07.2025;
  4. Ostffyasszonyfa (Pannónia-Ring Kart Center), Hungary, 19-21.09.2025;
  5. Doha (Lusail International Karting Circuit), Qatar, 24-26.11.2025;
  6. Al Forsan (Al Forsan International Sports Resort), United Arab Emirates, 1-3.12.2025.

Step into the unknown
“After numerous appearances during WSK rounds and participation in the Polish Karting Championship and ROK Cup Italia, it is time for a new challenge in my karting career. I am glad that this year I can try my hand at a completely different competition, in a series that the F1 Academy is watching. I don’t have high expectations for the upcoming round in Portugal, first of all I want to get to know the track and get into the flow as quickly as possible in a new environment for me,” admits the 13-year-old competitor.

Portimão weekend schedule (CET)
Thursday, February 27th, 2025
13:40-13:55 – Engine Run in
15:10-15:22 – Practice 1
16:40-16:52 – Practice 2

Friday, February 28th, 2025
10:50 – Warm Up
12:10-12:22 – Practice 1
13:40-13:52 – Practice 2
15:10-15:22 – Pracitka 3
16:40-16:52 – Practice 4

Saturday, March 1st, 2025
10:00-10:12 – Non Qualifying Practice 1
11:05-11:11 – Time Qualifying
12:20 – Qualifying Heat (7 laps)
14:00 – Qualifying Heat (7 laps)
16:00 – Final (14 laps)

Sunday, March 2nd, 2025
10:00-10:12 – Non Qualifying Practice 1
11:05-11:11 – Time Qualifying
12:20 – Qualifying Heat (7 laps)
14:00 – Qualifying Heat (7 laps)
16:00 – Final (14 laps)

JULIA ANGELARD, 13-year-old karting competitor, a protégé of Minardi Management, a member of the PZM junior national karting team in the 2025 season. Representing the colors of JSTR by Jastrzębski Racing, in the 2025 season she will compete in the Polish Karting Championships, in the Italian ROK Cup Italia series and in the international Champions of the Future Academy program, supported by F1 Academy – a series accompanying Formula 1. In July 2024, she was the only Polish woman to be among the 20 competitors who appeared in the Iron Dames Young Talents shootout finals.

She began competing in karting at the age of 4. She began her professional starts in the Rotax Max Challenge Poland series in the years 2017-2022 in the MicroMax and Minimax categories. In 2023, at the age of 11, she started in the ROK Cup Poland in the Junior category. In September 2023, she made her international debut as part of the ROK Superfinal and ROK Cup Italia, where she also appeared in 2024, becoming the fastest and highest ranked competitor and advancing 17 positions in one of the races.