Almost half of the Formula 1 grid in 2025 will have come from the Red Bull Junior Team, making it one of the most successful academy programmes in motorsport.
Jack Doohan, Pierre Gasly, Alex Albon, Carlos Sainz, Isack Hadjar, Yuki Tsunoda, Liam Lawson and reigning world champion Max Verstappen have all come through the Red Bull ranks.
Each team in F1 has its own driver academy; for example, George Russell graduated from the Mercedes junior programme, but what makes the Red Bull system so unique?
What is the Red Bull Junior Team?
The Red Bull Junior Team is a driver development programme operated by Austrian conglomerate Red Bull GmbH, best known for its energy drinks brand, and headed by motorsport advisor Helmut Marko.
It was officially founded in 2001 with the aim of signing and developing young racing drivers, so that they are capable of establishing successful careers within the industry.
This entails Red Bull identifying drivers from Formula 2 right down to karting to fund and support their progression through the open-wheel ranks with aspirations of eventually getting to F1.
Sebastian Vettel, for example, first received Red Bull backing in karting, while Liam Lawson joined the programme at the age of 17 ahead of his rookie Formula 3 campaign.
Red Bull therefore owns two teams in motorsport’s top single-seater championship: Red Bull Racing and Racing Bulls, which is what it will be known as in 2025.
Red Bull made its F1 debut in 2005 after the company purchased Jaguar Racing and thus took over its Milton Keynes base.
This saw Christian Klien and Vitantonio Liuzzi become the first two Red Bull juniors to compete in F1, as they both contested selected rounds of the 2005 season alongside 13-time grand prix winner David Coulthard, who was signed from McLaren.
It was not a stellar debut year for Red Bull as it finished seventh in the championship, but the following season saw the company expand its presence on the grid.
That’s because Red Bull bought the uncompetitive Minardi, an Italian squad that had been in F1 from 1985 to 2005.
The company rebranded the team as Toro Rosso - which is ‘Red Bull’ in Italian - to serve as Red Bull’s junior squad in F1.
So, whenever a Red Bull junior driver has made their F1 debut, it has usually come with the Faenza-based squad and impressive form has then been rewarded with a promotion to the ‘A’ team.
Since its debut in 2006, the Italian outfit has raced under many guises as ‘Toro Rosso’ was ditched for ‘AlphaTauri’, Red Bull’s fashion brand, in 2020 before rebranding as ‘RB’ in 2024. From 2025, Red Bull’s sister team will be known as Racing Bulls.
Throughout the many rebrands, however, its sister outfit has become one of F1’s most successful teams in history.
Red Bull has won eight drivers’ world championships (Vettel, 2010-13, and Verstappen, 2021-24) and six constructors’ titles (2010-13, 2022-23) while breaking many records like most victories in a season (21), most consecutive wins (15) and most points in a campaign (860).
But not every Red Bull junior will reach F1, as many graduates of the programme are contesting other forms of motorsport whether it is the World Endurance Championship, IndyCar or even DTM.
Which F1 drivers have graduated from the Red Bull Junior Team?
Hadjar will become the 17th F1 driver to have graduated from the Red Bull junior system when he makes his series debut in 2025.
The 20-year-old will partner Tsunoda at Racing Bulls after Lawson was promoted from the Italian outfit to become Verstappen’s team-mate next season.
Red Bull has a long history of signing drivers from its sister squad, with Vettel the first to make that jump in 2009 shortly after winning the 2008 Italian Grand Prix.
The eventual four-time world champion was a catalyst for drivers making the same transition, as Daniel Ricciardo and Verstappen both joined Red Bull directly from Toro Rosso.
Given Vettel and Verstappen have each claimed four F1 world championships with Red Bull, while Ricciardo won seven grands prix with the Austrian squad, the programme has many success stories.
But it is also a very cut-throat programme. Should a driver not immediately perform well, their future within the system becomes under question.
Gasly, for example, moved to Red Bull in 2019 after a season and a quarter with Toro Rosso. But, the Frenchman was demoted back to the ‘B’ team after just 12 grands prix having struggled against Verstappen.
His successor did not fare much better either. Albon was promoted midway through his rookie year, but he was dropped from the ‘A’ team after just a season and a half.
That followed a very disappointing 2020 campaign where Albon finished seventh in the championship and 109 points behind Verstappen, who was third.
So the Thai-Briton was off the grid in 2021 before returning with Williams in 2022.
During his year away from F1, Albon contested DTM in a Ferrari 488 GT3 which was just one of many examples of a Red Bull junior graduate competing in a different racing series than F1.
Sebastien Buemi, for example, has become a four-time winner of the WEC after his three-year stint with Toro Rosso.
Ayumu Iwasa, meanwhile, is a Red Bull junior in the Super Formula championship and IndyCar’s Callum Ilott spent 2015 in the programme - yet neither have started a grand prix.
On a rare occasion, Red Bull has also signed a driver from outside of its junior ranks, as Sergio Perez replaced Albon for 2021 before staying with the Austrian outfit until the end of 2024.
Perez made his F1 debut with Sauber in 2011 having had no previous affiliation to the energy drinks brand and over the years forged a respectable career scoring a victory and 10 podiums before his move to Red Bull.
However, his prior team Racing Point, opted to replace him with Vettel for 2021 meaning Perez was without a drive despite finishing a then career-equalling best of fourth in the championship.
So, considering Albon’s struggles, Red Bull swiftly signed the free agent Perez shortly after the 2020 Abu Dhabi season finale given that at the time it did not have any junior drivers capable of replacing the Thai-Briton.
Coulthard and Mark Webber have also raced for Red Bull despite not coming through its ranks, likewise with Sebastien Bourdais and Nyck de Vries at Toro Rosso/AlphaTauri.
|
Driver
|
F1 Team(s)
|
Year(s) in F1
|
F1 world titles
|
|
Vitantonio Liuzzi
|
Red Bull, Toro Rosso, Force India, HRT
|
2005-07; 2009-11
|
N/A
|
|
Scott Speed
|
Toro Rosso
|
2006-07
|
N/A
|
|
Christian Klien
|
Jaguar, Red Bull, HRT
|
2004-06; 2010
|
N/A
|
|
Sebastian Vettel
|
BMW-Sauber, Toro Rosso, Red Bull, Ferrari, Aston Martin
|
2007-22
|
4 (2010-13)
|
|
Sebastien Buemi
|
Toro Rosso
|
2009-11
|
N/A
|
|
Toro Rosso
|
2009-11
|
N/A
|
|
|
Daniel Ricciardo
|
HRT, Toro Rosso, Red Bull, Renault, McLaren, AlphaTauri, RB
|
2011-24
|
N/A
|
|
Toro Rosso
|
2012-14
|
N/A
|
|
|
Toro Rosso, Red Bull, AlphaTauri
|
2014-17; 2019-20
|
N/A
|
|
|
Carlos Sainz
|
Toro Rosso, Renault, McLaren, Ferrari, Williams
|
2015 - present
|
N/A
|
|
Max Verstappen
|
Toro Rosso, Red Bull
|
2015 - present
|
4 (2021-24)
|
|
Toro Rosso
|
2017-18
|
N/A
|
|
|
Pierre Gasly
|
Toro Rosso, Red Bull, Toro Rosso, AlphaTauri, Alpine
|
2017 - present
|
N/A
|
|
Alex Albon
|
Toro Rosso, Red Bull, Williams
|
2019 - present
|
N/A
|
|
Yuki Tsunoda
|
AlphaTauri, RB, Racing Bulls
|
2021 - present
|
N/A
|
|
Liam Lawson
|
RB, Red Bull
|
2023 - present
|
N/A
|
|
Isack Hadjar
|
Racing Bulls
|
Incoming for 2025
|
N/A
|
Who are the current drivers in the Red Bull Junior Team?
There are 16 drivers who are currently in the Red Bull Junior Team starting with Iwasa, who recently finished fifth in the 2024 Super Formula championship.
The 23-year-old joined the system in 2021, where he subsequently made his F3 debut before a promotion to F2 just the following season. Iwasa then spent two years in F2, scoring five wins and a best finish of fourth in the 2023 standings before returning to his native country to contest Japan’s top single-seater series.
Iwasa also made his F1 session debut in 2024, as he drove for RB in first practice at the Japanese GP.
Other current members of the programme include Pepe Marti, who became an F2 race winner in 2024, while Arvid Lindblad will make his series debut in 2025 having recently finished fourth in the F3 championship as a rookie.
Nikola Tsolov and Niklas Schaufler will also join the Red Bull junior programme in 2025.
|
Driver
|
Year joined
|
Racing series in 2024
|
|
Ayumu Iwasa
|
2021
|
Super Formula
|
|
Pepe Marti
|
2023
|
Formula 2
|
|
Oliver Goethe
|
2023
|
Formula 3
Formula 2
|
|
Arvid Lindblad
|
2021
|
Formula Regional Middle East
Formula 3
|
|
Tim Tramnitz
|
2023
|
Formula 3
|
|
Nikola Tsolov
|
Joining in 2025
|
Formula 3
Eurocup-3
|
|
Enzo Deligny
|
2023
|
Formula Regional European
Formula 4 UAE
|
|
Jules Caranta
|
2024
|
Formula 4 UAE
French F4
|
|
Enzo Tarnvanichkul
|
2023
|
Spanish F4
Formula Winter Series
|
|
James Egozi
|
2024
|
Spanish F4
Formula Winter Series
|
|
Ernesto Rivera
|
2024
|
Spanish F4
Formula Winter Series
|
|
Fionn McLaughlin
|
2024
|
Karting
|
|
Scott Lindblom
|
2024
|
Karting
|
|
Rocco Coronel
|
2024
|
Karting
|
|
Christopher Feghali
|
2024
|
Karting
|
|
Niklas Schaufler
|
Joining in 2025
|
Karting
|
In this article
Ed Hardy
Formula 1
Red Bull Racing
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