Red Bull have been very successful in Formula 1 since joining the grid in 2005 and developed a lot of talent in their junior team.
The Austrian team have produced multiple world champions, such as Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen, who have been impressive.
Red Bull have been very successful with its young drivers alongside their two world champions, Carlos Sainz and Pierre Gasly, have both scored podiums.
Despite the success, some drivers haven’t worked out, such as Antonio Felix da Costa and Dan Ticktum, who were talented but didn’t make it to Formula 1.
Ticktum was particularly very fast on the circuit but was let down by off-track circumstances and his attitude.
He parted ways with Red Bull in 2019 after a difficult stint in Japan while racing in Super Formula, and Ben Anderson feels the Austrian team may not have had full faith in the British driver when speaking on The Race F1 podcast.
Red Bull had some faith in Dan Ticktum ‘but not full belief’ when he was part of the junior team
Ticktum had a successful junior single-seater career, winning the Macau Grand Prix twice in a row as well as finishing second in the Formula 3 European Championship in 2018.
There were some downsides to his career as he was climbing the ladder towards Formula 1, Ticktum received a two-year racing ban from the MSA in 2015 after a clash in a MSA Formula Championship race.
This was a difficult time for the British driver despite his success further up the ladder and becoming a Formula E driver.
Ticktum also struggled at times in Formula 2, taking three races wins over his couple of full seasons but he didn’t challenge for the championship.
Anderson explained that Red Bull’s approach to signing drivers has been mixed and Ticktum didn’t have the full backing of the team.
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He said: “There’s something about where they’re finding these drivers and who they’re picking that isn’t working right. And it goes back a long way because they’ve had quite a few flops.
“If you go back, even before we reach this point of chaos, where they’ve back drivers that have… As they’ve got towards F1, whether it’s GP3 or GP2 level, they’ve not been good enough or they’ve had some fundamental floor.
“I think of people like Ticktum, for example, who they picked up. And there was some belief in him, but not full belief. And again, this division between parts of Red Bull that backed him and parts that didn’t. But this is an ongoing long term problem.”
Red Bull still have a lack of quality in their junior programme
There is uncertainty over the Red Bull driver line-up heading into 2025 as Sergio Perez continues to struggle in Formula 1.
Liam Lawson has been given an opportunity to impress at RB for six races and may have a chance to move up to Red Bull if he’s deemed good enough.
If the New Zealander left RB, Isack Hadjar is the only Red Bull junior who could be a potential fit. He has experienced an FP1 session at Silverstone, but wasn’t spectacular and made less of an impression than Franco Colapinto.
Further down the ladder, they have Arvid Lindblad is in their ranks, but he needs a good season in F2 next year to knock on the door of Formula 1.