How Paul Aron went from Tallinn karting to an Alpine reserve seat

Paul Aron's route to Formula One has run through almost every rung of the European ladder, from karting in Italy to Formula 2. He won a Formula 2 race at Lusail in 2024, after several seasons with Prema and a spell in the Mercedes junior programme from 2019 to 2023. Since 2025 he has been Alpine's reserve driver, which means practice sessions rather than race starts.

Who is Paul Aron and where did his racing start?

Aron was born in Tallinn on 4 February 2004 and is the younger brother of sportscar driver Ralf Aron. He started karting in Estonia at eight, then raced across Europe, mostly in Italy. In 2018 he claimed the CIK-FIA European karting crown, and then he moved into single-seaters.

Most of that karting took place in Italy, and Prema, the team that ran his first car seasons, stayed with him for much of his climb through the single-seater ranks. The move to cars came naturally to a driver who had already won a continental karting crown.

A karting champion from Tallinn who turned a string of third-place finishes into a Formula 2 win and an Alpine reserve seat.

How did his 2019 junior seasons go?

In 2019 Aron finished seventh in the ADAC Formula 4 standings with two wins, in Austria and the Netherlands, and both of those wins were his only podiums in the series. The Italian F4 championship that same year brought him third overall behind Dennis Hauger and Gianluca Petecof, and he took the rookie title with nine rookie victories.

Italy gave him his strongest results that year. He won in Austria early in the campaign, took another victory at the penultimate round in Mugello, and collected six other podiums along the way. Those results made him the standout rookie of the Italian series.

The next step was the Formula Renault Eurocup. After a test at Paul Ricard in November 2019, he was signed by ART Grand Prix for its new Eurocup outfit, and 2020 became his first full campaign at that level.

Did the 2020 Formula Renault Eurocup season go to plan?

Not in the way his junior results suggested. Aron finished eleventh in the 2020 standings, his only podium was a second place at the Nurburgring, and his more experienced teammates Gregoire Saucy and Victor Martins outscored him. Martins went on to win the title.

Aron went back to Prema for 2021, a team he knew from his Italian F4 title season. David Vidales and Dino Beganovic were his team-mates in the Formula Regional European Championship, and the change of team brought him the results that the Eurocup had withheld.

What did the Formula Regional seasons deliver?

Aron finished third in the Formula Regional European Championship in both 2021 and 2022. In 2021 he scored 197 points with two wins and seven podiums. In 2022 he scored 238 points, with six wins and seven pole positions, the most wins and poles of anyone that season.

The 2021 season began with second place in race 2 at Imola, and a podium drought stretched on until the seventh round. He broke it with third at the Red Bull Ring, then won at Mugello, where he took pole and his first series victory. The next day he took pole again and ended the weekend with another win, completing a sweep.

The 2022 season had a bigger set of highs. He won race 2 from pole at the Monza opener, finished third at Imola and then had a poor weekend at Monaco after a crash in qualifying. A win at Paul Ricard came next, followed by a complete weekend sweep at Zandvoort.

Pole positions at Spa-Francorchamps and on the Red Bull Ring came without podiums, but a win at Barcelona-Catalunya and a podium in its second race kept him in the title hunt. He won race 1 in the final round at Mugello, yet a poor second race meant no points. Teammate Dino Beganovic took the title, and Gabriele Mini finished second, just ahead of Aron.

How did Formula 3 go in 2023?

Aron joined Prema for the 2023 FIA Formula 3 season, with Dino Beganovic and Zak O'Sullivan, who had won the GB3 title, as his team-mates. He ended third overall with 112 points, one win and four podiums, and Prema won the teams' title that year with him in the squad.

The season began in Bahrain, where the sprint race turned into a first podium after Franco Colapinto was disqualified. Monaco was better, with third on the grid and a third-place finish in the feature race after he held off Gabriele Mini to score in the sprint. At Barcelona-Catalunya he qualified fifth, and he finished both races in the same position.

Austria was the high point. He took pole, then lost it for track limits and started from fourth. The sprint race rewarded him: he climbed from eighth to second by lap 8, and a safety car restart let him overhaul Pepe Marti for his lone win of the season. The feature race went less well after a clash with Gregoire Saucy damaged his front wing and sent him to the pits.

Silverstone brought a fourth place in the feature race, and Budapest produced fourth and fifth. Spa-Francorchamps was less kind in qualifying, where he managed eleventh. He started the sprint second, dropped to fourth, and recovered to third, and then took a wet-tyre gamble in the feature race. The gamble paid off early, but an early stop behind the safety car, while the surface was still drying, cost him a win, and he finished eighth.

The Monza finale was a difficult one. He qualified third, but a sprint race collision with Caio Collet ended his hopes, and his feature race saw him slip to seventh after a messy run through the battles. Gabriel Bortoleto took the title with Aron 38 points behind, with 37 points still on offer. Later that year, at Macau, a major crash in the main race split his car in two.

Why did he move up to Formula 2 with Hitech?

Formula 2 was the next rung, and Aron had already tried it. Trident gave him a Yas Marina debut in 2023, and in November 2023 Hitech Pulse-Eight announced him for 2024 alongside Amaury Cordeel. The 2024 season opened with his first F2 podium in Bahrain.

Bahrain set the pattern for the year. He had left the Mercedes programme in November 2023, the same month the Hitech deal was announced. He charged to fifth in the sprint, held off former F3 rival Gabriel Bortoleto, and finished third in the feature race despite a penalty for speeding in the pit lane.

Jeddah was a near miss. He led the sprint early on, then dropped to third at the flag, but race winner Richard Verschoor was later disqualified and Aron moved up to second. The feature race ended in tenth after a late collision with Victor Martins.

Melbourne was a mixed round. An incident with Richard Verschoor in the sprint sent him to 18th, but he moved up to second in the feature race, his third podium in as many rounds.

At Imola he avoided the start-line carnage in the sprint and took the lead, only to lose it to Franco Colapinto on the final lap. He was sixth in the feature race, which brought Zane Maloney, the points leader, within five points.

Did Aron win in Formula 2?

He did, at Lusail in the Qatar round of 2024. He qualified on pole there for the fourth time in the series, lost the lead to Gabriel Bortoleto at the start, and then inherited the race when Bortoleto took a five-second penalty.

The win came in a season that also brought his first F2 pole, at Barcelona. Juan Manuel Correa was penalised for track limits in that weekend's sprint, and Aron was promoted onto the podium. A sprint retirement at Silverstone followed after his engine cut out, and a collision with Zane Maloney ended his Hungarian race.

Monaco had given him the championship lead with third place in the feature race, and he kept it after a fifth place in the Austrian feature, even with a five-second penalty for weaving.

The Belgian round had a painful ending. Aron fought for the lead of the feature race, then dropped to third after Isack Hadjar and Gabriel Bortoleto both went past him. His engine failed on the last lap, costing him points and second place in the standings to Bortoleto. Monza added another retirement on the opening lap of the feature race.

The Yas Marina finale was sharp in both directions. He qualified third, then finished third in the sprint, but that place was lost when the DRS actuator was found to be an illegal modification. He started the feature race from the pit lane and finished eleventh. The season ended with third in the standings, 163 points, one win, four poles and eight podiums.

What is his role in Formula One?

Aron is an Alpine reserve driver, a role he took on for 2025 after signing in November 2024. He first drove a Formula One car at the post-season test in 2024, and his listed appearances are all free practice or test sessions rather than race starts.

The 2025 practice schedule was spread across two teams. He drove for Sauber at the British Grand Prix in Nico Hulkenberg's C45 and repeated that role at the Hungarian Grand Prix. Alpine gave him a session at the Italian Grand Prix, and further outings followed at Mexico City and Abu Dhabi. At the Abu Dhabi young drivers' test he set the second fastest time and completed 126 laps.

The 2026 season brought a new twist. Alpine kept him on as reserve, but Audi borrowed him for free practice at Barcelona-Catalunya and the Austrian Grand Prix. He finished sixth in the Barcelona session, before returning to Alpine for the Hungarian and Italian outings.

Has Aron raced in Formula E?

He has one listed Formula E appearance. Aron's first Formula E start came at the 2024 Berlin ePrix with Envision Racing, deputising for Sebastien Buemi, who was committed to Toyota Gazoo Racing that weekend. He finished 13th in the first race and 14th in the second, a weekend that gave him his first taste of electric machinery.

Career results at a glance