ACADEMY INTERNATIONALS
To enable that pathway to broaden, Hartley is keen to put an emphasis on the talents of the team behind it. Coaching, he says, never stands still, and new knowledge is continually developing – so the challenge to develop and improve the prospects for the Academy begins by developing the network and skills of motorsport coaches across the board.
“ I believe that all aspects of motorsport need access to a greater number of qualified people with more capacity and capability to work and support drivers,” he explains.“ One thing I have noticed since I joined is that being qualified as a coach does not necessarily hold the same currency as it would do in other sports.
“ People have done good work for so long and I am keen that we start to find ways to recognise these things and help to create a culture that being a coach means you engage with ongoing learning and development. Other sports have a lot more history around coaching than motorsport does, and that gives us more agility to set things up.
“ If you look at things from a grassroots perspective, when there are more people who know about coaching, it raises the floor. We need to start to build a greater pool of coaches who have the knowledge and experience of working with drivers participating at all the different levels of the sport.
“ A lot of the work I did at UK Coaching was supporting the people who support the coaches, and for the future work we do in motorsport, being able to establish that coach development workforce is hugely important. Driver, coach, coach developer is like an onion and the more people that engage in this, the better it will be for everybody.”
The Coaching Pathway
Motorsport UK relaunched its coaching pathway in 2023 and since then more than 100 people have completed their Level Two qualification, after which they can choose to become a driver coach – which requires them have the appropriate instructor licence to coach inside the car – or a support coach – which allows them to offer guidance from the sidelines.
One challenge Hartley has found since his arrival is that the distinction between an instructor and a coach is blurred, but he sees the two as overlapping circles and explains:“ If you ask five people what the difference is between instruction and coaching, you will probably get five different answers and that highlights the lack of coherence.
“ Coaching involves anything that would take into account human performance – and that includes physical, psychological, emotional and environmental aspects. The word I would use is holistic, and what I want to do is help everybody who is working to support a driver to be as good as they can be in all areas.
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Revolution- May 2025
Elliott Edmondson, WRC Co-driver Graduated: 2014
Edmondson started out in Road Rallying and Endurance Road Rallying before making his Stage Rally debut in 2010. He had his first experience of the WRC at the Academy, making his debut on Wales Rally GB, and has since partnered with drivers including Gus Greensmith and Oliver Solberg in the top tier, currently competing with Solberg in a Toyota GR Yaris Rally2.
Elfyn Evans, WRC Driver Graduated: 2015
The son of former WRC star Gwyndaf Evans is now one of the UK’ s most recognised Rally stars in his own right. He had already won the British Rally Championship and the WRC Academy before joining the Motorsport UK Academy, after which he went on to earn a WRC seat with M-Sport. He joined Toyota in 2020 and is currently at the top of the WRC leaderboard.
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Michael Jurtin / Red Bull Content Pool