Jaime Alguersuari: “The Red Bull junior team is no longer successful.”
Former Toro Rosso driver Jaime Alguersuari has mentioned the Red Bull young driver academy, explaining why it has become obsolete.
The person who was part of this academy recently criticized the Red Bull young drivers program on Sky’s microphone. According to him, Sergio Pérez is the perfect illustration of the dysfunction within the academy run by Helmut Marko.
His interview with Sky started off strong with this statement. « For me, right now, and I’m going to be very clear: the fact that Perez is driving for Red Bull shows that the Red Bull junior team is no longer successful. » For the 33-year-old Spaniard, Red Bull does not give enough opportunities to its young drivers and the fact that they hired Sergio Perez is proof of that.
« What they told us, to the media and everyone, is that they train champions or the best possible drivers. To give them the opportunity to drive for Toro Rosso, now AlphaTauri, to give them experience in Formula 1 », he added afterwards. This obviously raises questions about the choice of Nyck de Vries and now Daniel Ricciardo.
But for Alguersuari, it is truly Pérez who showed the total decline of the Helmut Marko Academy. « The fact that they had to go elsewhere to find a driver for Red Bull Racing is already, you know, controversial. It doesn’t make sense », he explained. Here, the Spanish driver criticizes the decision not to keep Alex Albon or Pierre Gasly. In fact, not taking advantage of a driver from their own academy is an admission of weakness.
The Red Bull method: cruel
But Jaime Alguersuari goes even further by deploring Red Bull’s method regarding its Formula 1 drivers: giving them very little chance to succeed, putting pressure on them, and often firing them. « You spend millions for many years, a lot of money, a huge amount of money, so that many drivers become champions in junior categories. You bring them into F1, give them very little chances, hoping that they will have a good car, because otherwise, you do nothing in F1. You are at rock bottom », explained the 33-year-old Spaniard.
Alguersuari ends his interview with Sky with strong words about Sergio Perez, whom he believes has not lived up to expectations this season. « We must be clear: Checo has never been part of the junior team. If he had been, considering how Helmut Marko judges drivers, he wouldn’t have lasted a year. » He once again illustrates the decline of Red Bull’s young driver program.
Helmut Marko recently announced his intention to reduce the workforce of this academy in order to focus only on truly talented young drivers. But will this solution work or is the problem elsewhere?
