Red Bull’s operation in the top levels of motorsport is a complex one, from their race teams down to their driver academy.
Over the years, Red Bull have brought up some incredible talents in F1 who have gone on to become race winners and world champions, with the most notable names including the likes of Mark Webber, Daniel Ricciardo, Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen.
But while they have seen success, the Milton Keynes-based outfit are notorious for bringing on multiple drivers to their junior team and not giving many of them opportunities. Several drivers who eventually get their shot are dismissed from the team quicker than they entered the sport.
This has been the case for the likes of Brendan Hartley, Daniil Kvyat, Pierre Gasly, Alex Albon, and most recently, Nyck de Vries and Ricciardo, with the Aussie being let go after the Singapore Grand Prix in favour of Liam Lawson.
Formula 2 talent Jak Crawford very quickly learned about his reality with the team this year, and speaking with Motorsport.com, the American explained his reason for leaving.
Jak Crawford saw ‘no path’ to a race seat with Red Bull
Crawford joined the Red Bull junior team in 2020. At the time, he was competing in ADAC Formula 4 and Italian F4, where he would go on to finish second and sixth respectively.
The American went on to spend the next two years in Formula 3, finishing the 2021 season 13th with Hitech and the following year in seventh with PREMA. Crawford returned to Hitech in 2023 as he embarked on his debut season in F2.
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That year, Crawford grabbed his first win at the Sprint Race in Austria but struggled to find points regularly and ended up finishing 13th in the standings with 57 points. Ahead of the 2024 campaign with DAMS, the 19-year-old was left assessing his future in the Red Bull setup.
The team had their line-ups nailed down at the start of the season and had Liam Lawson as their reserve driver. Red Bull also had multiple other academy drivers racing in F2, including Isack Hadjar and Pepe Marti.
It was the number of drivers already in the junior team that led to Crawford decision to depart the team before the start of the year.
“I realised there was no path for me into a race seat [with Red Bull],” he said. “There were too many guys – a lot of really good ones – so I figured it was best that I left.”
Jak Crawford signed with Aston Martin in 2024
After leaving Red Bull, Crawford joined the Aston Martin Driver Development Programme ahead of the 2024 F2 season. Later in the year, he got his first taste of F1 machinery.
Crawford got his first F1 test in July as he drove the AMR22 around the Red Bull Ring in Austria. The 19-year-old returned to the circuit a month later to test the 2022 car again.
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Aston Martin are set to put Crawford behind the wheel of this year’s AMR24 in Abu Dhabi for the Young Driver Test following the conclusion of the 2024 F1 season.
Crawford is currently fifth in the F2 standings with 116 points. The American does have a mathematical chance of winning the championship, but he is most likely too far behind the leader Gabriel Bortoleto.