Jul.17 (GMM) Red Bull is shaping up to install an all-rookie driver lineup at its junior team RB next year.
The energy drink concern’s top F1 consultant Dr Helmut Marko has said repeatedly recently that all shareholders agree that the outfit formerly known as Alpha Tauri must revert to its status as a proper “junior team”.
Currently, 34-year-old former race winner Daniel Ricciardo is struggling simply to keep up with his Japanese teammate Yuki Tsunoda (24), who has been in the same race seat since 2021.
Auto Motor und Sport believes Red Bull is trying to offload Ricciardo to Sauber, but the Audi-owned Swiss team “has shown little interest so far”.
Simply dropping Ricciardo could therefore be an option, with the impressive Tsunoda potentially moving up to replace the struggling Sergio Perez at Red Bull Racing.
Liam Lawson appears to be definitely set for his full-time Formula 1 race debut with RB from 2025, with F2 championship leader and Red Bull junior Isack Hadjar tipped to be his fellow rookie teammate.
“We will analyse and evaluate the performance of the Red Bull juniors in more detail during the summer break,” Marko told Speed Week.
The 81-year-old said that without a bad run of luck for 19-year-old French-Algerian Hadjar in Formula 2 this season, he would be “miles ahead” in the championship.
“Isack did well in his most recent (F1) test,” Marko said. “He never had the soft tyres on his car, but he showed strong performances and his comments were good too.”
Meanwhile, although Marko applauds Ferrari-backed Haas for giving Oliver Bearman his full-time race debut next year, he thinks the 19-year-old was simply “in the right place at the right time” when Carlos Sainz fell ill earlier this year.
“His race in the Ferrari gave him his grand prix future,” the Austrian said. “If you take his Formula 2 results into account, things would look a lot worse for him.
“But it’s good that young people are coming to Formula 1. I’m absolutely in favour of that,” Marko added.