We know the Red Bull Racing team spends on young talents. Subsequently, many drivers have come and gone in this span of time. However, McLaren cannot handle such a gamble yet.
Many drivers like Jean-Eric Vergne, Sebastien Buemi, and Jaime Alguersuari joined in and also left Red Bull Racing. However, only Max Verstappen, Daniel Ricciardo, Pierre Gasly, and the four-time World Champion Sebastian Vettel are the successful names from their program. Alexander Albon and Daniil Kvyat are also coming from this program. Whereas Albon is now a reserve for the Red Bull team and Kvyat is driving for Alpha Tauri, the sister team of Red Bull Racing.
Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo are the successful names from Red Bull’s recruitment process.
What does Brown think about Red Bull’s process?
McLaren boss Zak Brown appreciates the Red Bull’s process, but they still cannot allow such a program for their team. Brown thinks the Red Bulls program can leave many drivers ready with no seats to drive.
McLaren CEO Zak Brown.
Brown said, “While it’s great that Red Bull has found Max, they have gone through a lot of talent to get there and a lot of expense,” said Brown. “I think we’re better off being very targeted.
“At this point, we are paying attention to what is happening in the junior formulae. We don’t have anyone really that is on a junior programme at this point because, again, I don’t think we would really have a home for them.
“We have a different philosophy. I think you do run into the problem, that the others have, where they have too many drivers and then they start to try to place them with other teams or they don’t have a seat available when their driver is ready.”
How will McLaren pick their drivers?
McLaren won third place in the constructor’s championship in the 2020 season. They are still a growing team in the realm of Formula 1. Subsequently, the recent addition of the ‘Honey-badger’ Ricciardo is a step for their evolution.
Daniel Ricciardo in the McLaren in 2021.
McLaren is still growing, and they do not have many seats. They monitor promising young talents, but they do not have anyone and stick with the handpicking process. They were lucky to get Norris early. However, they might also have more seats for young talent when they mature.
Brown said, “Lando is very young, we’re just getting started with Daniel, so to have a driver knocking down our door in a year or two, we’re not going to have room for them.
“So I think we are more strategic like we were with Lando. We found him early, like we did with Stoffel. Unfortunately, that didn’t work out. It worked with Lewis.
Lando Norris drives for McLaren F1.
“We just handpick a few when you kind of see they might mature at a time when you might have a seat available.”
We might not see many young talents in McLaren in near future. They are sticking with their handpicking process. However, we can expect more strategic growth of the team in the near future.
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