Red Bull Racing's position of luxury puts the brakes on the flow of talent

Red Bull opts for experience

Red Bull Racing made a conscious switch in 2021. For years they used their own juniors, but with Sergio Perez, they opted for an experienced driver. Verstappen is already the leader of the team, but the ideal second driver was still missing. Alexander Albon and Pierre Gasly were deemed unsuitable, but Perez fills the role perfectly.

Perez was offered a contract extension midway through the season, despite mixed performances, and it appears to be helping. Since then Perez has finished on the podium three times and looks set to become the ideal second man. Sure, he fell short of beating Lewis Hamilton in Mexico, but he's at least near the top.

For Red Bull, this is an ideal situation. Verstappen is 24 years old and will be around for years to come. Perez at 31 may have his best years behind him, but with his experience, he is the best driver to have alongside Verstappen. This creates an ideal scenario in which Red Bull no longer needs to pass on talent, but will only do so if that driver is a real improvement on Perez.

Gasly and Tsunoda considered too light?

The bar is therefore high for talents, as Gasly has already noticed. The Frenchman was given a chance at Red Bull for six months but was soon thrown out again, mainly due to his stubborn attitude. Although Gasly has shown at AlphaTauri that he is one of the better drivers in F1, Red Bull no longer seems to see him as a driver for Red Bull Racing.

For now, Gasly is in place at AlphaTauri as the team's frontrunner, but he doesn't want to be the benchmark for young talent at Red Bull's entry-level team forever. He'll never win a world title with the team from Faenza. Like Carlos Sainz and Daniel Ricciardo, he will have to look outside the Red Bull stable for a next step.

If Gasly doesn't get a chance at Red Bull, it seems unlikely that Tsunoda will. To his own surprise, the Japanese driver was given a new contract but has been far from impressive in 2021. He's being dominated by the already written-off Gasly, so Tsunoda being allowed to keep his seat is a clear sign that Red Bull have no one behind them, and perhaps a small favour to Honda too.

With these four drivers in place, Red Bull were looking for a seat for Albon outside of their own training. The Thai did a fantastic job in the simulator for Red Bull Racing but was obviously hoping for a return to F1. With Red Bull and AlphaTauri's seats filled, something else had to be found. At Williams, Albon gets a new chance and can revive his F1 career.

The junior programme

As mentioned earlier, there are no hordes of Red Bull talents ready to take over the seats from Tsunoda and Gasly straight away. This is perhaps the biggest reason why the Japanese driver can keep his seat. In Formula 2, Red Bull will field Juri Vips, Jehan Daruvala and Liam Lawson. Vips is not good enough, Daravula, at 23 years of age, is not an option at all and Lawson is still too unstable.

Of the three, Lawson seems the most likely to win a seat in F1, but he'll have to be more consistent and really compete for the title in F2 in 2022. In the DTM he did, but was thrown out of the race in the final round and missed out on the title. He finished well ahead of his teammate Albon.

Lawson's biggest rival for the AlphaTauri F1 seat may be Dennis Hauger. The Norwegian won the Formula 3 title by a large margin, but in 2020 he came up well short of his older teammate Lawson. In 2022 they will most likely be racing together in F2 and could be fighting for a spot in F1.

Jonny Edgar, Jak Crawford and Ayumu Iwasa raced for Red Bull in Formula 3 but were not able to breakthrough in 2021. Japan's Iwasa may be a little too old at 20, but Edgar and Crawford are only 17 and 16 years old respectively, and, like Hauger, could perhaps make a bigger impact in their second year in F3.

Luxury for Red Bull Racing

Red Bull has seen several of their own drivers break through and make it in Formula 1 in recent years. Daniel Ricciardo, Daniil Kvyat, Max Verstappen, Carlos Sainz, Pierre Gasly, Alexander Albon and Yuki Tsunoda all had a chance to breakthrough. That stream of talent has now dried up a little, but the training won't have to wait long. The next wave of talent is already lining up in the various classes.

While Red Bull Racing has struggled to provide a competitive driver line-up since Ricciardo's departure, they no longer have to worry about that. Where Gasly and Albon were thrown to the wolves too early in that situation, there's now an experienced guy in the team that you don't need to replace until a talent is better.

This seems to be a much healthier situation for Red Bull to continue in the coming years. Gasly may look to other teams, but with the drivers in F2 and F3, Red Bull don't have to worry about Gasly's eventual replacement. He was deemed unsuitable for a place at Red Bull Racing anyway.