The recent signing of Nyck de Vries by Scuderia AlphaTauri proves that the aspiring Red Bulls are not ready for Formula 1.
The situation of the giant Red Bull team B is reminiscent of what happened at Scuderia Toro Rosso in 2017, when Carlos Sainz was released (four Grands Prix since the end of the season!) To switch to Renault.
If Pierre Gasly goes to the end of the championship with AlphaTauri before spinning at the Alpine, his successor will wait until post-season testing in Abu Dhabi.
Five years ago, Helmut Marko hadn’t found the nugget ready to jump into Sainz’s bucket in his Red Bull Junior Team pool and had fallen back on Brendon Hartley, former house member, then WEC victorious for Porsche, but it wasn’t going to last a long…
This time the Austrian technician was faced with the same dilemma: none of his young drivers met the criteria, he turned a little to de Vries to everyone’s surprise after the Dutch elf’s exploit at Monza at Williams.
So why keep an expensive sector if it doesn’t fulfill its purpose? Probably because Marko is passionate about nurturing young talent and has always been very involved in finding future F1 drivers in the promotional categories.
Currently there are five to defend the colors of the winged bull in Formula 2: the Indian Jehan Daruvala, the New Zealander Liam Lawson, the Norwegian Dennis Hauger, the Japanese Ayumu Iwasa and to a lesser extent the Estonian Jüri Vips (because he was excluded for non-sporting reasons).
Among them, Lawson took over from Vips as a reserve at Red Bull Racing and is set to make another EL1 appearance at AlphaTauri this season, but his disappointing run in F2 is not in his favor.
Veteran Daruvala is only fifth in the standings for his third year in the Grand Prix antechamber, while his teammate Prema, reigning F3 champion Hauger, still lacks consistency, as does promising rookie Iwasa with DAMS.
It remains the next level in Formula 3 where French teenager Isack Hadjar impressed while American Jak Crawford and Briton Jonny Edgar are still learning the trade. In short, Red Bull did not have a young prospect ready for promotion to F1, which paved the way for de Vries.
“The principle of the Red Bull Junior Team is to get your hands on a future world champion and not just on a potential Grand Prix driver, Mark hammer. We are not afraid to take risks, but you can’t find a Sebastian Vettel or a Max Verstappen in every generation … “
Hauger ahead of Lawson in F2: not ready for F1!
