Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko believes that several “stagnant” drivers in Formula 1 are blocking the way into the sport for young hopefuls.
This season marked a historical first in F1 – an unchanged grid from the previous year, with all ten teams opting to retain their driver pairings, leaving no room for fresh faces.
As a promoter of young talent through Red Bull’s long-lasting Driver Development Programme, Marko sees this stability as a worrying trend for young drivers who aspire to join motorsport’s elite.
In his recent column in Red Bull’s in-house magazine Speedweek, Marko singled out a specific group of drivers who, in his view, are stagnating and not performing to a level that justifies their spot on the grid.
The Austrian also noted that teams are often reluctant to take a risk on young drivers.
“I can’t name any names, but there are drivers in the field who stagnate and are a bit better or worse depending on their mood,” the Austrian stated.
“They block the way for the young drivers. The teams are also afraid of juniors.
“Of course, they make mistakes, but I’d rather someone makes mistakes and is a hope for the future than there is no more improvement.”
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Next season will see at least one young aspiring champion join Grand Prix racing’s ranks, with Ferrari junior Ollie Bearman being assigned to a full-time seat with Haas.
Marko reckons that the 19-year-old Briton owes his promotion to his outstanding one-off and F1 debut with the Scuderia at last March’s Saudi Arabian GP.
“With Oliver Bearman, he was in the right place at the right time and will move up to Formula 1 next year,” Marko said.
“His race in the Ferrari has shown him his F1 future, but if you were to look at his Formula 2 results, things would look a lot worse for him.
“But it’s good that young people are coming into Formula 1, I’m absolutely in favour of that.”
As for Red Bull, it’s been over three years since the energy drink company propelled one of its young drivers to F1, a graduation bestowed upon Yuki Tsunoda in 2021.
But Marko has earmarked current FIA Formula 2 Championship leader Isack Hadjar and Formula 3 charger Arvid Lindblad as two bright talents that could potentially follow in the footsteps of the Japanese driver.
“During the summer break, we will also analyse and evaluate the performance of the Red Bull juniors in more detail,” he said.
“Hadjar took the lead in the F2 standings with his victory in the feature at Silverstone. We mustn’t forget that he was unlucky several times.
“There was the engine failure, then the reserve engine that didn’t work and then the two fuel supply failures and twice he was also spun out through no fault of his own.
“Otherwise he would have been miles ahead in the championship.
“Lindblad shone in Formula 3, having stepped up directly from Formula 4 to Formula 3 as a rookie and winning both races.
“He is only 16 years old and we are delighted that you can now drive Formula 1 again at 17.
“But we’re staying calm and continuing to produce good results with our juniors, who are now enjoying more priority again and are also allowed to drive Formula 1 cars.
“Isack did well in his most recent test, he never had the soft tyres on the car, but he showed strong performances.
“Isack and Arvid have extremely good qualities, they are super fast and have Formula 1 quality.
“We mustn’t forget Ayumu Iwasa either, who is currently in second place in the Super Formula in Japan.”
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