Red Bull has brought many drivers through its junior team into Formula 1 and has become known for its ruthless approach.
The Austrian team have developed multiple world champions, Max Verstappen and Sebastian Vettel who won titles with Red Bull.
They have also aided the careers of Daniel Ricciardo and Carlos Sainz, who have both won races in Formula 1.
Alongside creating a pathway for drivers ascending the ladder towards F1, they have been brutal in their decision-making, dropping Pierre Gasly as just half a season at Red Bull in 2019.
Mexican driver Noel Leon explained to the Formula Latina YouTube channel that they made an error when he was a Red Bull junior in 2022.
Noel Leon feels he didn’t move to Europe ‘in the right way’ when he was a Red Bull junior
He has been competitive this season, and Leon took four podiums in FIA F3, and his third place at Imola was the most special for Van Amersfoort.
Before moving to Europe, the Mexican driver won the NACAM Formula 4 Championship and the F4 United States title.
This success nearly led him to USF 2000 on the Road to Indy and he was on the verge of signing a contract before he caught the attention of Red Bull.
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Leon moved to FRECA in 2022 but conceded that he and Red Bull could have handled his transition from North America to Europe more effectively.
He said: “The support that Red Bull gave me helped me make the jump to Europe but we didn’t do it in the right way.
“I didn’t know any European tracks I had never driven in Europe and the European settings with European techniques are different so I only had two days of testing in Barcelona.
“This is a good track but two days is nothing, there were people who had been in the car for 40 days and drivers in their third year so it was a big jump and I didn’t manage to prepare well enough on the tracks but it made me adapt very quickly to the tracks and i think this year I showed it a lot in Formula 3.”
Noel Leon has handled the transition from North America to European racing very well
European racing is a very different world to the championships on the Road to Indy as the circuits are very different.
Ovals are almost non-existent in Europe, and the cars are difficult to drive. The rules around wheel-to-wheel combat are also slightly different.
Leon suffered a difficult first season in Europe as he had little testing before his rookie season in FRECA, only taking points twice at Monaco.
He improved significantly last year, winning the Euroformula Open Championship, which was perfect preparation for FIA F3.