The return of a motorsport institution

The resurrection of the legendary Winfield Racing School signals a step change in the education of young racing drivers. Its founder, Mike Knight, was encouraged by what he saw

James Newbold Apr 5, 2019, 1:07 PM

Performance

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On a warm February evening at the Circuit Paul Ricard, Mike Knight scrutinises a wall of portraits hanging in the offices of the Winfield Racing School. The co-founder of the original Winfield school, which settled at Magny-Cours before it expanded to a second site at Paul Ricard, Knight is back for the first time since the business was sold 20 years ago.

He's now head judge of the revived Volant Winfield, first won by two-time Le Mans winner Jean-Pierre Jaussaud in 1963 when it was sponsored by Shell, before Elf took over several years later. The modern iteration, held last year for the first time since 1994, is a three-day driver evaluation for 14 to 17-year-olds who haven't raced single-seaters before. The prize is a fully funded season in French Formula 4.

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Author James Newbold

James Newbold is Autosport's Plus Editor, responsible for coordinating website feature content.

In a sign of things to come, having completed his Politics and International Relations degree at the University of East Anglia in 2015, he left his graduation ceremony early to catch the last train to Brussels for the following day's Spa 24 Hours.

After a period as a freelancer, he joined the Autosport staff in 2018 and won the Motorsport UK young journalist of the year award. He initially edited Autosport magazine's Performance and Engineering supplements before joining the website team in his current role in 2020.

A keen enthusiast of anything that can be categorised unusual or niche, he enjoys unearthing little-known stories across all branches of motorsport, but has spent most of his career covering sportscars and is a regular part of the Le Mans 24 Hours reporting team.

He lives with his wife and children in Plymouth, England.