Red Bull Senior Advisor Upholds Plan To Push Junior Talent To F1

Saajan Jogia | 17 Hours Ago

Oct 23, 2022; Austin, Texas, USA; Helmut Marko (left) and Red Bull Racing Limited driver Max Verstappen (right) of Team Netherlands celebrate winning the U.S. Grand Prix F1 race at Circuit of the Americas. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-Imagn Images / Jerome Miron-Imagn Images

Red Bull senior advisor Helmut Marko has commented on the recent promotion of Liam Lawson to Red Bull and Isack Hadjar to the Formula 1 sister team VCARB following Sergio Perez's departure, claiming that the squad will be focusing on promoting drivers from Red Bull's junior program in the future. That means Red Bull could depend less on hiring external talent, potentially turning down opportunities for drivers approaching the Milton Keynes outfit for a racing seat in the future.

The 2024 season saw Red Bull endure serious challenges both on-track and off-track. While the first half of the season marked internal power struggles in the team and a controversy surrounding team principal Christian Horner, the second half of the season was riddled with on-track challenges due to balance problems on the RB20 F1 car and a resurgence of rival outfits such as McLaren, Mercedes, and Ferrari.

Red Bull also lost the top two spots in the Constructors' Championship to McLaren and Ferrari in the same order, allegedly caused by Perez's underperformance, which led to his exit after the Abu Dhabi season finale. Lawson, who was being evaluated alongside Yuki Tsunoda at VCARB, was promoted to the seat alongside Max Verstappen. Revealing the reason for handing the Red Bull seat to the Kiwi driver over Tsunoda, Marko told Kleine Zeitung:

“With his mental strength, Lawson is the one who is most likely to be able to hold his own alongside Max, and nobody can beat him at the moment anyway.

“Due to his limited Grand Prix experience, we also see him as having the greatest potential for further development.

“The decision was certainly disappointing for him [Tsunoda]. His speed is undisputed, but he lacks a certain consistency and is also a very emotional driver.

“The overall package was just right for Lawson, but Yuki Tsunoda is the spearhead of the Racing Bulls.”

Hadjar, a Red Bull junior, narrowly missed out on the Formula 2 championship by 22.5 points to Gabriel Bortoleto, who will join Sauber next season. While Marko described Hadjar as impulsive, he emphasized that Red Bull remains committed to promoting drivers from its own talent pool. He added:

“He is a very fast but also very impulsive driver, so that could be interesting for the team.

“With the promotion, however, we have once again clearly focussed on promoting drivers from our own Red Bull junior team. I am sure that this is the right way to go and Hadjar will confirm this.”