Marko sheds light on the latest situation inside the Red Bull Junior set-up
F1 News
The Aston Martin Red Bull Racing development school has had some question marks lingering over it recently, but Helmut Marko is confident the young team still has some "very good" talents. Pierre Gasly was promoted up from Toro Rosso to Red Bull Racing 12 months ago but lasted just half-a-season before being pushed back down. He will start the 2020 season at Alpha Tauri.
Gasly will pair up with Daniil Kvyat at Red Bull Racing's sister team. But the questions arise when looking below those two drivers. With Vettel, Ricciardo and Verstappen, a number of huge talents have been brought to Formula 1 through the Red Bull Junior Team. In recent times, however, many talents have also been sold or they do not appear to have the qualities that the team is looking for. Has the talent pool of the Junior Team dried up?
Helmut Marko doesn't want to hear anything about it. “In our programme, we still have some very good talents, including Yuki Tsunoda. The boy is only 1.58 meters tall and is everyone's favourite," says the Red Bull chief in conversation with Motorsport.com. “We also have Juri Vips, who finished fourth in F3 with a lot of bad luck. This year he will ride in the Japanese Super Formula and was already the fastest man in the test."
More talents on hold
Marko's enumeration does not stop there. “We also have Denis Hauger, a strong Norwegian. Last year he won thirteen or fourteen races in the F4 and I think he will make the switch to F3 next season. Liam Lawson from New Zealand and Jack Doohan, the son of Mick Doohan, also come in that class."