Alain Valente

Alain Valente is on the way to turning his passion into his profession. He has been successfully involved in motor sports since the age of seven. It all began with karting. There he became Vice Swiss Champion and in 2010 even Swiss Champion in the Junior category. In 2011, Alain won the Trofeo Andrea Margutti, the youngest and only Swiss kart, which is one of the most prestigious races in international karting. In 2013 Alain was awarded the Young Driver Award as the best young Swiss racer. In 2014 he switched to FIA Formula 4 and celebrated six podium places in seven race weekends.

In 2015 Alain Valente will move to the European Lamborghini Super Trofeo for the next two years. He was then admitted to the Lamborghini Young Driver Programme in 2017 and competed in the Italian GT3 Championship. There he celebrated a total of 6 podium finishes. In 2018 Valente achieved 5 race victories in the Italian GT Championship and one race victory at a guest start in the BOSS GP with a Formula 2 racing car. Alain also drove for the traditional McLaren brand in a 570 S GT4 racing car. He secured pole position at the Red Bull Ring and a podium place each in Misano (I) and Budapest (H). In the 2019 season Alain Valente fights again with the McLaren in the German ADAC GT4 Championship with the German Youtuber Felix von der Laden for the championship.

Since the end of 2019, Alain Valente is officially part of the McLaren Automotive Driver Development Programme.

The McLaren Automotive Driver Development Programme enters its third year in 2020 and, once again, will see four of the most exciting youngsters in motorsport fighting for top honours at the wheel of a McLaren 570S GT4. The final four drivers were selected from a shortlisted group of 18 young, talented, up-and-coming drivers during an intensive two-day process. The names were from a diverse range of motorsport backgrounds who have each individually impressed in their respective 2019 campaigns across the UK, Europe, North America and Australia.

The programme was held at the UK’s Snetterton circuit, and saw the drivers assessed across a number of different attributes on and off-track. Each participant arrived at the circuit with the programme set up to simulate a race weekend, working with the McLaren Customer Racing engineers on set up before embarking on qualifying and race simulations.

After the track running, the drivers were then individually assessed on data analysis and telemetry, working with the engineering team and driver coaches. Off track, each of the drivers were subjected to a mental and physical assessment with media interviews carried out in conjunction with the team from motorsport.com and fitness tests run by programme partner iZone. The results from these independent specialists was key to the assessment, and the feedback forms the start of the drivers’ involvement with the Driver Development Programme. The selected drivers will continue to build on these relationships with motorsport.com and iZone throughout the 2020 season, along with McLaren Customer Racing as they each look to further establish themselves and build a strong foundation for a future career in motorsport.

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