Whereas it’s straightforward to be cynical concerning the up-or-out nature of Crimson Bull’s younger driver programme and the scars its abruptness has typically left, no different enterprise has performed extra to advertise younger expertise in motorsport.
To assemble an exhaustive where-are-they now on paper of everybody who has been by way of the system would require one thing akin to the scale of a phone listing – if such issues existed any extra. So we’ve handed over those that by no means made it to F1 however succeeded elsewhere – the likes of Neel Jani, Antonio Felix da Costa, Filipe Albuquerque, Philipp Eng, Alex Lynn, Robert Wickens, and Callum Ilott.
We’ve additionally omitted those that had been however briefly a part of Crimson Bull’s orbit – a listing which incorporates 2025 Alpine F1 driver Jack Doohan, together with Sky F1 pundit Karun Chandhok…
Enrique Bernoldi
F1 2001-2002
Enrique Bernoldi
Picture by: James Bearne
You might not consider within the existence of a parallel universe during which Enrique Bernoldi was a world championship contender, however Dr Helmut Marko clearly did. Six seasons right into a title-sponsorship association with Crimson Bull, Sauber turned down Bernoldi for 2001 in favour of a younger Finn who was the veteran of simply 23 automobile races. A hissy match ensued and Crimson Bull’s schilling was transferred to the struggling Arrows group, the place Bernoldi partnered Jos Verstappen.
This inconvenienced Sauber not one jot because the Finn in query, Kimi Raikkonen, made such an impression that McLaren and Mercedes purchased out his contract on the finish of the season. Sauber was so flush it might afford to construct a brand new wind tunnel.
Regardless of signing a three-year deal, Bernoldi turned a gentleman of leisure inside 18 months as Arrows ran wanting funds, culminating within the absurd scene on the French Grand Prix of each its drivers finishing only one gradual timed lap in qualifying – a contractual box-ticking train to point out it was nonetheless collaborating within the championship. No more cash entered the coffers and Arrows was by no means seen once more though its motorhome, manufacturing unit and automobiles would get pleasure from second lives in numerous colors.
Bernoldi was briefly tipped to affix Jordan the next season as Crimson Bull magnate Dietrich Mateschitz entered negotiations to purchase the group, however when that deal fell by way of Bernoldi was consigned to marking time in similar to World Sequence By Nissan earlier than he was dropped by Crimson Bull. A 3-year test-driving gig with BAR-Honda led nowhere in F1 and he headed to GTs and his native Brazilian Inventory Vehicles through a quick dalliance with IndyCar.
Christian Klien
F1 2004-2006, 2010
Christian Klien leads David Coulthard
Picture by: Mark Capilitan
A younger Austrian expertise naturally generated pleasure inside the corridors of Crimson Bull HQ in Fuschl am See, the bucolic lakeside city east of Salzburg, and, since Enrique Bernoldi was failing to make a splash in F1, Klien was fast-tracked by way of the junior formulae. He arrived in F1 in 2004 with however a smattering of race wins and one championship title, in German Formulation Renault.
Klien was partnered with Mark Webber at Jaguar Racing within the canine days of a group whose guardian firm was dying to rid itself of the entire shoddy enterprise. The wretched R5 automobile was good for under 10 factors that season, simply three of which had been scored by Klien in a Belgian GP the place simply 11 automobiles completed and Klien hit David Coulthard whereas defending his place.
That November, Crimson Bull acquired Jaguar Racing’s belongings for the nominal determine of £1.
In a state of affairs that might change into acquainted to many Crimson Bull juniors in future years, Klien was already ‘on watch’ by way of 2005, sharing the second seat alongside group chief Coulthard – awkward, given the occasions of Belgium ’04 – with one other Crimson Bull protégé, Vitantonio Liuzzi. The RB1 automobile, a carry-over from Jaguar, was workmanlike at finest however Klien did sufficient to warrant being stored within the automobile for the rest of the season after a four-race handover to Liuzzi early on.
Towards widespread expectations Klien was retained for 2006. The Ferrari-powered RB2 was woeful – incoming technical director Adrian Newey ran a watch over it, shuddered with revulsion, and retreated to his drafting board – and hypothesis mounted by way of the season that Klien was to get replaced; his response was to riposte that it was Coulthard, not he, who was underneath menace.
It should, subsequently, have come as a shock when, after the Italian GP, Klien was introduced with the selection of a funded Champ Automotive drive or the exit door. He selected the latter and was changed by take a look at driver Robert Doornbos for a reported €15million.
It was an costly three-race cameo since Doornbos’s sponsor, Harry Muermans, later pursued him by way of the courts, claiming the cash was a mortgage fairly than sponsorship. Klien gamely soldiered on in a holding sample by way of three seasons of test-driving jobs in F1 earlier than contesting three rounds in 2010 with the moribund Hispania outfit. GTs and WEC then beckoned.
Patrick Friesacher
F1 2005
Patrick Friesacher, Crimson Bull Racing
Attend a monitor day on the Crimson Bull Ring and chances are you’ll be fortunate sufficient to get the personable Patrick Friesacher as an teacher. He’s an outlier on this listing since he was dropped from the Crimson Bull Junior Workforce earlier than reaching F1 however later rejoined the household – if not as one in all its F1 hopefuls.
Friesacher graduated to F3000, F1’s help class on the time, in 2001 with Helmut Marko’s group however, after three seasons with only one win to his title, he was supplied Formulation Nippon or out on the finish of 2003. He discovered his personal sponsors to proceed in F3000 the next season and began 11 grands prix with Minardi in 2005 earlier than his cash ran out and he was changed by Robert Doornbos.
A again harm throughout an A1GP take a look at ended his single-seater profession however he made a quick return to the cockpit within the American Le Mans Sequence in 2008, and is a frequent sight on Crimson Bull demo runs alongside his work on the Austrian circuit.
Vitantonio Liuzzi
Vitantonio Liuzzi leads Scott Velocity, Scuderia Toro Rosso STR01-Cosworth
Picture by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Photographs
F1 2005-2011
A type of baffling abilities who shone brightly in junior sequence solely to flounder once they reached the highest desk, Vitantonio Liuzzi was backed by Crimson Bull by way of F3000, which he dominated throughout a 2004 season with Christian Horner’s Arden group, profitable seven of the ten races and solely ending off the rostrum as soon as.
By this level Liuzzi had already been talent-spotted by Williams. Late in 2001, aged 19, Liuzzi had overwhelmed no much less an eminence than Michael Schumacher by virtually a minute in a kart race at Schumacher’s house monitor in Kerpen. Among the many 5000-strong crowd was Jonathan Williams, son of Frank, and a 12 months later Liuzzi discovered himself testing a Williams F1 automobile after profitable the karting world championship.
A four-race cameo for Crimson Bull in 2005 presaged a full-time seat for 2006 when the delicate drinks empire absorbed the ailing Minardi group and rebranded it Scuderia Toro Rosso. There he carved out a fame for being quick however vulnerable to errors; cynics noticed that he would fare higher if he spent much less time selecting modern garments and stopped attempting to drive an F1 automobile like a go-kart.
In strutting across the paddock in his glad rags, although, Liuzzi was solely obeying orders from above to replicate Crimson Bull’s hard-partying picture. Damned in case you do, damned in case you don’t.
Dr Marko’s finger quickly started to hover over the set off and Liuzzi discovered himself within the place of being mistaken on a regular basis, as evinced at Monaco when he was castigated for shunting at Massenet when in truth he’d been nudged off by David Coulthard.
By mid-2007 there was discuss that both Liuzzi or team-mate Scott Velocity – or each – had been imminently to get replaced. This got here to move as Champ Automotive champion Sebastien Bourdais was introduced as one of many 2008 line-up that August and Velocity was ejected in favour of Sebastian Vettel.
After 18 months out of F1 Liuzzi returned in late 2009, taking Giancarlo Fisichella’s Power India seat when Fisi took over from the benighted Luca Badoer at Ferrari. Firstly of the 2011 season he was tipped as a potential alternative for the injured Robert Kubica at Renault however misplaced out to Nick Heidfeld; consigned to the walking-dead Hispania outfit, he vanished from F1 on the finish of the 12 months, contesting six extra seasons in an eclectic assortment of different classes.
He has subsequently acted as an FIA driver steward.
Scott Velocity
Scott Velocity, Toro Rosso STR02-Ferrari
Picture by: Charles Coates / Motorsport Photographs
F1 2006-2007
Among the many extra obscure and forgotten threads of F1 historical past, hidden within the shadows of Crimson Bull Racing’s success, is that earlier than he purchased Jaguar Racing, Dietrich Mateschitz’s authentic plan was to arrange an explicitly American group – ideally with a US-born driver – the higher to promote caffeinated fizzy pop in a progress promote it had solely entered within the mid-Nineteen Nineties.
As a part of this, Mateschitz and Indy 500 winner – and someday F1 driver – Danny Sullivan launched the ‘Crimson Bull Driver Search’ programme during which expertise scouts scoured the US single-seater racing scene. Scott Velocity (together with future IndyCar stars AJ Allmendinger and Ryan Hunter-Reay, and Le Mans class winner Joey Hand) registered a outstanding ping on the radar.
Crimson Bull funded a drive within the British F3 championship for 2003 however Velocity’s season was disrupted when he developed ulcerative colitis, an disagreeable and incurable situation which might inconvenience him for the remainder of his profession.
Nonetheless, and regardless of Crimson Bull abandoning plans to wave the Stars & Stripes, Velocity acquitted himself nicely sufficient to rise by way of GP2 and beat Neel Jani to the Scuderia Toro Rosso seat alongside Vitantonio Liuzzi for 2006. Working in a group with little prospect of ending within the high 10, not to mention profitable races, sapped Velocity’s enthusiasm and he would later admit that his motivation – and public manner – suffered.
The obvious signal of the simmering rancour got here on the 2007 European Grand Prix when each Toro Rosso drivers had been among the many many spinners into the gravel through the downpour that stopped the race. Afterwards Velocity and group principal Franz Tost got here to blows within the pitlane, an trade partially caught on TV.
Afterwards Velocity instructed group co-owner Gerhard Berger that if Tost “ever touches me once more, I’ll knock him out”. Regrettably for the viewing figures, maybe, there can be no televised rematch – Velocity was dropped in favour of Sebastian Vettel from the subsequent spherical onwards.
Whereas Vettel was very a lot the approaching man in Crimson Bull’s F1 imaginative and prescient, Mateschitz stepped in and organized for Velocity to be supported by way of the NASCAR ladder. That led to 2010 when Velocity was dropped shortly after agreeing a three-year contract extension, though this altercation was carried out inside the relative decorum of the courts.
Since then Velocity has raced in rallycross, barring a quick four-race look within the first Formulation E season.
Sebastian Vettel
Race winner Sebastian Vettel, Crimson Bull Racing in parc ferme
Picture by: Daniel Kalisz
F1 2007-2022
The Crimson Bull driver ladder’s first and largest win till Max Verstappen got here alongside – and the corporate was far more concerned within the early phases of Vettel’s profession, having talent-spotted him in karting. Vettel received the Formulation BMW ADAC championship in 2005, was second to Paul di Resta in Euro F3 the next season whereas performing as BMW Sauber’s take a look at driver in F1, and was main the Formulation Renault 3.5 championship in 2007 when he was referred to as up as non permanent alternative for the injured Robert Kubica on the US GP.
There he caught the attention by changing into the youngest-ever driver to attain some extent, which led to him being fast-tracked to Toro Rosso, when Scott Velocity was solid out three races later. There, the next 12 months, armed with a automobile which was the efficient clone of the Adrian Newey-designed Crimson Bull RB4, he received the Italian Grand Prix from pole place on what was a grotesquely moist and difficult weekend.
Promoted to the senior group for 2009, he received 4 consecutive titles from 2010-13 and broke a number of data, together with Alberto Ascari’s profitable streak. Blown off for essentially the most half by new team-mate Daniel Ricciardo in 2014, a season marred by an unreliable Renault hybrid energy unit, Vettel moved to Ferrari the place he loved a number of profitable years earlier than experiencing what can finest be described as a meltdown in 2019, when he was pushed laborious by newcomer Charles Leclerc.
Dropped by cellphone name through the 2020 COVID lockdown, Vettel moved to Aston Martin, the place his newly found ardour for eco-activism rubbed group proprietor Lawrence Stroll up the mistaken means. With out tangible outcomes he was given the heave-ho and retired on the finish of 2022.
Sebastien Buemi
Sebastien Buemi, Toro Rosso STR5 Ferrari
Picture by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Photographs
F1 2009-2011
Swiss-born Sebastien Buemi was technically behind Michael Ammermueller within the Crimson Bull queue however leapfrogged him after standing in efficiently when the German suffered a damaged scaphoid bone within the opening spherical of the 2007 GP2 season. Ammermueller returned to the cockpit for Magny-Cours and Silverstone however failed to attain and was then ‘rested’ till the tip of the season, after which he was ejected from the programme.
Buemi turned Toro Rosso’s F1 take a look at driver in 2008 and was promoted to a race seat the next season when Sebastian Vettel was elevated to the senior squad. He outqualified his new team-mate – the already-under-pressure Sebastien Bourdais – and scored factors within the opening spherical, however seventh in Melbourne can be his equal-best outcome all 12 months.
Few outcomes of observe eventuated by way of 2010 and ’11, though Buemi achieved ‘meme’ standing when his entrance uprights underwent ‘speedy unscheduled disassembly’ through the 2010 Chinese language Grand Prix. Having accomplished three seasons with out convincing Helmut Marko he was worthy of additional promotion, Buemi was retained solely as take a look at and reserve driver thereafter, dovetailing this with Formulation E and a profitable stint in sportscars with Toyota in WEC, which he received in 2014, ’22 and ’23, together with 4 Le Mans victories.
Jaime Alguersuari, Toro Rosso, with Sergio Perez, Sauber
Picture by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Photographs
F1 2009-2011
After profitable the British F3 championship in 2008 (beating Sergio Perez, Oliver Turvey and Brendon Hartley), Alguersuari took some time to get into his stride in Formulation Renault 3.5 the next season. Regardless of, although, for Helmut Marko was in axe-swinging mode, eradicating Brendon Hartley from Toro Rosso take a look at driving duties mid-season after which relieving Sebastien Bourdais of his race seat.
Alguersuari, subsequently, had barely added ‘F1 take a look at driver’ to his Twitter bio when, on the age of 19 years, 4 months and three days, he turned the youngest-ever F1 race driver on the 2009 Hungarian Grand Prix. He scored no factors that season and simply 5 the next 12 months; and, whereas 2011’s statistics learn higher (26 factors), it wasn’t sufficient and each Alguersuari and team-mate Sebastien Buemi had been dropped from the line-up.
He returned to karting briefly earlier than reappearing in Formulation E, solely to abruptly name time on his racing profession in 2015. Since then he has targeted on music, a longtime parallel occupation during which he goes underneath the title DJ Squire.
Having returned to the karting scene in 2021, Alguersuari has additionally spoken out (to El Confidencial, a Spanish media outlet) about what he regards because the “trauma” of his F1 years, although he concedes he was “stuffed with ego and prickly”.
“I’ve performed remedy. After I retired a number of psychologists helped me. Now, even so, unusual issues come into my head. And typically get up, like, crying, having dreamed of getting performed an amazing lap solely to see the face of Mr Marko, indignant.”
Daniel Ricciardo
Daniel Ricciardo, Crimson Bull Racing, 2nd Place, on the rostrum together with his trophy and champagne
Picture by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Photographs
F1 2011-2024
“Having a hungry teen on the books will hold our present driver pairing good and sharp.” With these phrases, asserting the arrival of Daniel Ricciardo as Toro Rosso take a look at driver in 2011, Helmut Marko started tolling the bell for the F1 careers of Sebastien Buemi and Jaime Alguersuari.
Picked up by Crimson Bull for 2008 and positioned in Formulation Renault Eurocup, which he received convincingly, Ricciardo received British F3 in ’09 and was a runner-up in Formulation Renault 3.5 the next 12 months. These are exactly the sort of marks a Crimson Bull junior should tick to progress.
Halfway by way of 2011 Ricciardo obtained race seat time as Crimson Bull paid for him to exchange Narain Karthikeyan at HRT, an apparent prologue to him racing for Toro Rosso in 2012. Regardless of a middling couple of years the place doubts hovered over whether or not he was having fun with the life-style an excessive amount of, Ricciardo obtained the nod over Jean-Eric Vergne to exchange Mark Webber in Crimson Bull Racing for 2014.
There he very a lot exceeded expectations, profitable three races and ending third within the championship in an underpowered, unreliable RB10, one of many least spectacular automobiles to emerge on Adrian Newey’s technical watch. He additionally contrived to make his four-time world champion team-mate, Sebastian Vettel, look fairly atypical.
In 2015 he had the higher of latest team-mate Daniil Kvyat, much less so the person who changed him in 2016 – Max Verstappen. Rancour constructed, Ricciardo felt he wasn’t being given equal therapy, and he left to affix Renault in 2019.
Observers felt he was merely cashing out by going to a group with such little aggressive hope. However, whereas Ricciardo’s model was seen as a diminishing one in racing circles, a brand new Netflix present depicting a largely fictionalised model of F1 enabled his vibrant, brash character to realize traction because the viewers grew.
Nonetheless, a subsequent transfer to McLaren netted only one win and he was ousted in favour of fellow countryman Oscar Piastri for 2023. A quick reappearance in Crimson Bull’s second-string group, renamed AlphaTauri after which RB, dangled the potential of a top-team comeback because the organisation’s young-talent pipeline spluttered.
However it was to not be and he’s now a person of leisure.
Jean-Eric Vergne
Jean-Eric Vergne, Toro Rosso STR8
Picture by: Motorsport Photographs
F1 2012-2014
British F3 champion in 2010, runner-up to fellow Crimson Bull protégé Robert Wickens in Formulation Renault 3.5 in 2011, Jean-Eric Vergne obtained an additional enhance by way of the ranks when Brendon Hartley was dropped from the junior group throughout 2010.
Like different younger drivers quickly promoted by way of the ranks by Crimson Bull into an uncompetitive F1 automobile – the 2012 STR was a stinker – he struggled for motivation.
“Whenever you’re a driver used to profitable all the pieces in all the opposite classes,” he instructed Autosport after being fined €25,000 for a pointless shunt on the European GP in 2012, “even when you recognize you’re coming to F1 and that you simply won’t win, that you simply will not get podiums and even that will probably be troublesome to attain factors, once you’re in the back of the grid – or in case you make a superb race and also you end it fairly far off – it’s in fact a bit bit troublesome for me.”
After finishing the seemingly statutory three years at Toro Rosso with out warranting promotion – the youthful Daniil Kvyat went to Crimson Bull in Sebastian Vettel’s place for 2015 as a substitute – Vergne was dropped. A take a look at driving and sim jockey function at Ferrari helped him hold his hand in for a few years however led to nothing in F1.
In Formulation E, although, Vergne discovered his metier, profitable the championship twice alongside a choice of endurance racing gigs in WEC and ELMS.
Daniil Kvyat
Daniil Kvyat, Crimson Bull Racing, second place
Picture by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Photographs
F1 2014- 2020
One other a number of karting champion who tailored quickly to single-seaters – profitable Formulation Renault 2.0 Alps and the GP3 Sequence in 2012-13 – was amongst that era of drivers within the 2010s who made it to F1 earlier than their twentieth birthdays. Making his F1 debut in 2014 introduced him with challenges from the off, because the issue in packaging the brand new hybrid-powered automobiles to the burden restrict pressured many drivers to shed kilos to remain aggressive – and the tall, gangly Kvyat had little room to manoeuvre in that regard.
He acquitted himself nicely sufficient to earn promotion to the senior group in 2015 however a sequence of high-profile accidents underneath strain earned him the nickname “the torpedo”. After crashing into Sebastian Vettel’s Ferrari twice in his house grand prix, Kvyat was demoted again to Toro Rosso forward of the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix.
“The crash in Sochi is a consequence of the inner strain, which he has constructed himself, it didn’t come from us,” defined Helmut Marko.
His alternative, Max Verstappen, received that very race. Kvyat’s profession by no means actually recovered from this wobble and he was changed by Pierre Gasly late in 2017.
After a 12 months on the sidelines as Ferrari’s sim jockey, Kvyat was recalled to Toro Rosso unexpectedly in 2019 when Gasly changed the Renault-bound Daniel Ricciardo. New team-mate Alex Albon was then picked in place of Kvyat when Gasly was ejected late within the season.
On the finish of 2020 Kvyat was ushered out in favour of Yuki Tsunoda and has plied his commerce in WEC since, together with a few dalliances in US racing.
Max Verstappen
Max Verstappen, Crimson Bull Racing, 1st place, celebrates on the rostrum
Picture by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Photographs
F1 2015-present
Crimson Bull can hardly be stated to have supported Max Verstappen from the earliest phases of his profession because it has with different drivers – it swooped in to beat Mercedes’ Toto Wolff in a bidding battle halfway by way of the teen’s F3 season in 2014 – however it has been decided to maintain him.
On the time, Crimson Bull’s F1 marketing campaign was in disarray whereas Mercedes was completely dominant. However Helmut Marko was capable of supply one thing Wolff couldn’t: a quick monitor to F1.
Inside days of signing as much as Crimson Bull, Verstappen was introduced as Toro Rosso’s take a look at driver – and the race seat adopted. Max did his bit by excelling, whereas behind the scenes ‘Workforce Verstappen’ all the time ensured its man obtained precedence in all enterprise.
This hasn’t all the time led to harmonious relationships with team-mates, however then once more neither has Max’s behavior of destroying them on monitor.
In case you’ve been in a coma for the previous decade, Max is now defending his fourth world championship.
Carlos Sainz Jr., Scuderia Toro Rosso STR11
Picture by: Crimson Bull Content material Pool
F1 2015-present
Signed to Crimson Bull’s young-driver programme since his early Formulation BMW days in 2010, Sainz was elevated to F1 with Toro Rosso alongside Max Verstappen in 2015 after profitable the Formulation Renault 3.5 championship. Two drivers with extremely aggressive racer fathers in attendance was by no means going to make for harmonious relations, and the Sainz household quickly turned discombobulated by what they believed to be the preferential therapy given to Max.
There was fury, too, when Max was promoted to Crimson Bull’s senior group early in 2016 and Carlos was left in a holding sample.
By mid-2017 Sainz was publicly highlighting the truth that for many Toro Rosso drivers it was three-seasons-then-out. He then took the choice out of Crimson Bull’s arms by signing for Renault and leaving.
He did only one full season with Renault earlier than leaving for McLaren, however it was throughout a four-season stint at Ferrari that he lastly turned a grand prix winner.
Brendon Hartley
Brendon Hartley, Scuderia Toro Rosso and Pierre Gasly, Scuderia Toro Rosso put together for the tip of 12 months grid photograph
Picture by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Photographs
F1 2017-2018
Europe beckoned and Hartley initially rewarded Crimson Bull’s religion by exhibiting nicely in Formulation Renault 2.0 and British F3, solely to fully lose momentum in Formulation Renault 3.5 in 2009 and 2010. The strain of racing in each FR 3.5 and Euro F3, whereas attending grands prix as Toro Rosso’s take a look at driver, turned an excessive amount of.
Ejected from the Crimson Bull programme, Hartley rebuilt his trajectory in sportscars – plus a simulator function with Mercedes – and received Le Mans twice with Porsche. Come 2017, when Porsche introduced its withdrawal from the WEC, Hartley felt the time was proper to attempt F1 once more – and Marko not solely took the cellphone name, he stated sure.
Granted, Crimson Bull/Toro Rosso’s choices for 2018 had been a bit skinny given Carlos Sainz’s sudden departure. Hartley changed Sainz for the final 4 rounds of 2017 and had a full season in 2018 however he by no means regarded snug within the automobile and was outscored by team-mate Pierre Gasly.
That was it for Hartley in Formulation 1 however three extra Le Mans victories – with Toyota – lay in his future. He’s now racing a Wayne Taylor-run Cadillac in IMSA.
Pierre Gasly
Pierre Gasly, Crimson Bull Racing RB15
Picture by: Jerry Andre / Motorsport Photographs
F1 2017-present
One other driver arguably promoted too quickly, Pierre Gasly was already a Formulation Renault 2.0 champion when he joined the Crimson Bull household on the age of 18 and completed runner-up to Carlos Sainz within the 2014 FR 3.5 championship. The GP2 title adopted in 2016 however, with no F1 seat instantly within the offing, Crimson Bull positioned him in Tremendous Formulation for 2017.
Gasly was nicely within the working to win that championship when Crimson Bull had one in all its summer season pivots and determined to drop Daniil Kvyat from Toro Rosso – to the extent that Kvyat was briefly invited again for the US spherical whereas Gasly went again to Japan.
Daniel Ricciardo’s sudden departure for Renault on the finish of 2018 created a emptiness within the high group however Gasly struggled with the strain and located the automobile a handful. He was demoted again to the junior group earlier than the tip of 2019 in fairly merciless circumstances – throughout his first week again at Toro Rosso, in Belgium, his childhood buddy Anthoine Hubert was killed through the F2 characteristic race.
Though Gasly seized the second to take a shock (however totally deserved) win on the Italian GP in 2020, it turned more and more clear to him that he wasn’t in competition for any future vacancies at Crimson Bull Racing, so he departed for Alpine on the finish of 2022.
Alex Albon
Alexander Albon, Crimson Bull Racing
Picture by: Andrew Hone / Motorsport Photographs
F1 2019-present
Few drivers epitomise the usually capricious nature of Crimson Bull’s junior driver programme than Alex Albon. He was solely on it briefly – after reaching respectable leads to karts he joined the scheme in 2012, his first 12 months in automobile racing, solely to wrestle in Formulation Renault 2.0 Alps and Eurocup FR2.0.
On the finish of that season he acquired the decision from Dr Marko that he was now not a part of the programme. Aged simply 18, he was going to must make it another means.
Remarkably, he did, ultimately making it to F2 the place he was a part of the well-known ‘Class of 2018’, ending third behind George Russell and Lando Norris. Since Toro Rosso was wanting expertise and the Crimson Bull driver pipeline seemingly airlocked, as detailed above, Albon’s cellphone duly buzzed to announce an incoming name from Marko – shortly after Alex had signed to race in Formulation E.
Albon determined in opposition to the world of glorified milk floats and grabbed his F1 alternative, however it was to be a bruising expertise – promoted to the highest group as Pierre Gasly was despatched the opposite means, then demoted to check driver on the finish of 2020 when Crimson Bull determined a extra skilled candidate with a harder conceal was the reply to its downside of discovering a associate for Max Verstappen.
He was additionally given a drive within the DTM however, on the finish of 2021, reached an association during which he might race for Williams in F1 whereas retaining publicly unspecified ties to Crimson Bull.
Yuki Tsunoda
Yuki Tsunoda, Visa Money App RB F1 Workforce
Picture by: Andrew Ferraro / Motorsport Photographs
F1 2021-present
Honda’s tie-up with Crimson Bull, introduced in mid-2018, made it politically expedient so as to add a Japanese driver to the Crimson Bull younger driver programme, and Yuki Tsunoda was the apparent candidate. This furnished his progress from Japanese F4 to FIA F3 for the 2019 season and, regardless of an sometimes irritating 2020 F2 season during which he in the end completed third, he was promoted to AlphaTauri for 2021.
Helmut Marko supposedly stays a fan however Tsunoda’s trigger hasn’t been helped by questions over his health, consistency and temperament. He’s labored on them however not, it appears, sufficient to benefit being moved up on the planet.
After an unprecedented fourth season in Crimson Bull’s second group he was leapfrogged for promotion by Liam Lawson. Given Honda will now not be the group’s engine associate from the tip of this season, it’s make-or-break time.
On this article
Stuart Codling
Formulation 1
Crimson Bull Racing
Racing Bulls
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