Purple Bull’s F1 juniors: The place are they now?

Whereas it’s simple to be cynical in regards to the up-or-out nature of Purple Bull’s younger driver programme and the scars its abruptness has typically left, no different enterprise has executed extra to advertise younger expertise in motorsport.

To assemble an exhaustive where-are-they now on paper of everybody who has been by the system would require one thing akin to the scale of a phone listing – if such issues existed any extra. So we’ve handed over those that by no means made it to F1 however succeeded elsewhere – the likes of Neel Jani, Antonio Felix da Costa, Filipe Albuquerque, Philipp Eng, Alex Lynn, Robert Wickens, and Callum Ilott.

We’ve additionally omitted those that had been however briefly a part of Purple Bull’s orbit – a listing which incorporates 2025 Alpine F1 driver Jack Doohan, together with Sky F1 pundit Karun Chandhok…

Enrique Bernoldi

F1 2001-2002

Enrique Bernoldi

Picture by: James Bearne

You might not imagine within the existence of a parallel universe during which Enrique Bernoldi was a world championship contender, however Dr Helmut Marko clearly did. Six seasons right into a title-sponsorship association with Purple Bull, Sauber turned down Bernoldi for 2001 in favour of a younger Finn who was the veteran of simply 23 automotive races. A hissy match ensued and Purple Bull’s schilling was transferred to the struggling Arrows group, the place Bernoldi partnered Jos Verstappen.

This inconvenienced Sauber not one jot because the Finn in query, Kimi Raikkonen, made such an impression that McLaren and Mercedes purchased out his contract on the finish of the season. Sauber was so flush it might afford to construct a brand new wind tunnel.

Regardless of signing a three-year deal, Bernoldi turned a gentleman of leisure inside 18 months as Arrows ran in need of funds, culminating within the absurd scene on the French Grand Prix of each its drivers finishing only one gradual timed lap in qualifying – a contractual box-ticking train to point out it was nonetheless collaborating within the championship. No extra money entered the coffers and Arrows was by no means seen once more though its motorhome, manufacturing facility and automobiles would get pleasure from second lives in numerous colors.

Bernoldi was briefly tipped to affix Jordan the next season as Purple Bull magnate Dietrich Mateschitz entered negotiations to purchase the group, however when that deal fell by Bernoldi was consigned to marking time in comparable to World Sequence By Nissan earlier than he was dropped by Purple Bull. A 3-year test-driving gig with BAR-Honda led nowhere in F1 and he headed to GTs and his native Brazilian Inventory Automobiles through a quick dalliance with IndyCar.

Christian Klien

F1 2004-2006, 2010

Christian Klien leads David Coulthard

Picture by: Mark Capilitan

A younger Austrian expertise naturally generated pleasure throughout the corridors of Purple Bull HQ in Fuschl am See, the bucolic lakeside city east of Salzburg, and, since Enrique Bernoldi was failing to make a splash in F1, Klien was fast-tracked by the junior formulae. He arrived in F1 in 2004 with however a smattering of race wins and one championship title, in German System Renault.

Klien was partnered with Mark Webber at Jaguar Racing within the canine days of a group whose dad or mum firm was dying to rid itself of the entire shoddy enterprise. The wretched R5 automotive was good for under 10 factors that season, simply three of which had been scored by Klien in a Belgian GP the place simply 11 automobiles completed and Klien hit David Coulthard whereas defending his place.

That November, Purple Bull acquired Jaguar Racing’s belongings for the nominal determine of £1.

In a situation that might turn into acquainted to many Purple Bull juniors in future years, Klien was already ‘on watch’ by 2005, sharing the second seat alongside group chief Coulthard – awkward, given the occasions of Belgium ’04 – with one other Purple Bull protégé, Vitantonio Liuzzi. The RB1 automotive, a carry-over from Jaguar, was workmanlike at greatest however Klien did sufficient to warrant being stored within the automotive for the rest of the season after a four-race handover to Liuzzi early on.

In opposition to widespread expectations Klien was retained for 2006. The Ferrari-powered RB2 was woeful – incoming technical director Adrian Newey ran a watch over it, shuddered with revulsion, and retreated to his drafting board – and hypothesis mounted by the season that Klien was to get replaced; his response was to riposte that it was Coulthard, not he, who was underneath risk.

It should, subsequently, have come as a shock when, after the Italian GP, Klien was offered with the selection of a funded Champ Automobile drive or the exit door. He selected the latter and was changed by check driver Robert Doornbos for a reported €15million.

It was an costly three-race cameo since Doornbos’s sponsor, Harry Muermans, later pursued him by the courts, claiming the cash was a mortgage relatively than sponsorship. Klien gamely soldiered on in a holding sample by three seasons of test-driving jobs in F1 earlier than contesting three rounds in 2010 with the moribund Hispania outfit. GTs and WEC then beckoned.

Patrick Friesacher

F1 2005

Patrick Friesacher, Purple Bull Racing

Attend a observe day on the Purple Bull Ring and you could be fortunate sufficient to get the personable Patrick Friesacher as an teacher. He’s an outlier on this record since he was dropped from the Purple Bull Junior Crew earlier than reaching F1 however later rejoined the household – if not as considered one of its F1 hopefuls.

Friesacher graduated to F3000, F1’s assist class on the time, in 2001 with Helmut Marko’s group however, after three seasons with only one win to his title, he was provided System Nippon or out on the finish of 2003. He discovered his personal sponsors to proceed in F3000 the next season and began 11 grands prix with Minardi in 2005 earlier than his cash ran out and he was changed by Robert Doornbos.

A again damage throughout an A1GP check ended his single-seater profession however he made a quick return to the cockpit within the American Le Mans Sequence in 2008, and is a frequent sight on Purple Bull demo runs alongside his work on the Austrian circuit.

Vitantonio Liuzzi

Vitantonio Liuzzi leads Scott Velocity, Scuderia Toro Rosso STR01-Cosworth

Picture by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Photos

F1 2005-2011

A type of baffling skills who shone brightly in junior sequence solely to flounder after they reached the highest desk, Vitantonio Liuzzi was backed by Purple Bull by F3000, which he dominated throughout a 2004 season with Christian Horner’s Arden group, successful seven of the ten races and solely ending off the rostrum as soon as.

By this level Liuzzi had already been talent-spotted by Williams. Late in 2001, aged 19, Liuzzi had overwhelmed no much less an eminence than Michael Schumacher by nearly a minute in a kart race at Schumacher’s residence observe in Kerpen. Among the many 5000-strong crowd was Jonathan Williams, son of Frank, and a 12 months later Liuzzi discovered himself testing a Williams F1 automotive after successful the karting world championship.

A four-race cameo for Purple Bull in 2005 presaged a full-time seat for 2006 when the gentle drinks empire absorbed the ailing Minardi group and rebranded it Scuderia Toro Rosso. There he carved out a fame for being quick however vulnerable to errors; cynics noticed that he would fare higher if he spent much less time selecting modern garments and stopped attempting to drive an F1 automotive like a go-kart.

In strutting across the paddock in his glad rags, although, Liuzzi was solely obeying orders from above to replicate Purple Bull’s hard-partying picture. Damned when you do, damned when you don’t.

Dr Marko’s finger quickly started to hover over the set off and Liuzzi discovered himself within the place of being flawed on a regular basis, as evinced at Monaco when he was castigated for shunting at Massenet when in reality he’d been nudged off by David Coulthard.

By mid-2007 there was discuss that both Liuzzi or team-mate Scott Velocity – or each – had been imminently to get replaced. This got here to go as Champ Automobile champion Sebastien Bourdais was introduced as one of many 2008 line-up that August and Velocity was ejected in favour of Sebastian Vettel.

After 18 months out of F1 Liuzzi returned in late 2009, taking Giancarlo Fisichella’s Power India seat when Fisi took over from the benighted Luca Badoer at Ferrari. Firstly of the 2011 season he was tipped as a attainable substitute for the injured Robert Kubica at Renault however misplaced out to Nick Heidfeld; consigned to the walking-dead Hispania outfit, he vanished from F1 on the finish of the 12 months, contesting six extra seasons in an eclectic assortment of different classes.

He has subsequently acted as an FIA driver steward.

Scott Velocity

Scott Velocity, Toro Rosso STR02-Ferrari

Picture by: Charles Coates / Motorsport Photos

F1 2006-2007

Among the many extra obscure and forgotten threads of F1 historical past, hidden within the shadows of Purple Bull Racing’s success, is that earlier than he purchased Jaguar Racing, Dietrich Mateschitz’s unique plan was to arrange an explicitly American group – ideally with a US-born driver – the higher to promote caffeinated fizzy pop in a progress promote it had solely entered within the mid-Nineties.

As a part of this, Mateschitz and Indy 500 winner – and someday F1 driver – Danny Sullivan launched the ‘Purple Bull Driver Search’ programme during which expertise scouts scoured the US single-seater racing scene. Scott Velocity (together with future IndyCar stars AJ Allmendinger and Ryan Hunter-Reay, and Le Mans class winner Joey Hand) registered a outstanding ping on the radar.

Purple Bull funded a drive within the British F3 championship for 2003 however Velocity’s season was disrupted when he developed ulcerative colitis, an disagreeable and incurable situation which might inconvenience him for the remainder of his profession.

Nonetheless, and regardless of Purple Bull abandoning plans to wave the Stars & Stripes, Velocity acquitted himself nicely sufficient to rise by GP2 and beat Neel Jani to the Scuderia Toro Rosso seat alongside Vitantonio Liuzzi for 2006. Operating in a group with little prospect of ending within the high 10, not to mention successful races, sapped Velocity’s enthusiasm and he would later admit that his motivation – and public manner – suffered.

The obvious signal of the simmering rancour got here on the 2007 European Grand Prix when each Toro Rosso drivers had been among the many many spinners into the gravel throughout the downpour that stopped the race. Afterwards Velocity and group principal Franz Tost got here to blows within the pitlane, an change partially caught on TV.

Afterwards Velocity advised group co-owner Gerhard Berger that if Tost “ever touches me once more, I’ll knock him out”. Regrettably for the viewing figures, maybe, there can be no televised rematch – Velocity was dropped in favour of Sebastian Vettel from the subsequent spherical onwards.

Whereas Vettel was very a lot the approaching man in Purple Bull’s F1 imaginative and prescient, Mateschitz stepped in and organized for Velocity to be supported by the NASCAR ladder. That resulted in 2010 when Velocity was dropped shortly after agreeing a three-year contract extension, though this altercation was carried out throughout the relative decorum of the courts.

Since then Velocity has raced in rallycross, barring a quick four-race look within the first System E season.

Sebastian Vettel

Race winner Sebastian Vettel, Purple Bull Racing in parc ferme

Picture by: Daniel Kalisz

F1 2007-2022

The Purple Bull driver ladder’s first and largest win till Max Verstappen got here alongside – and the corporate was way more concerned within the early phases of Vettel’s profession, having talent-spotted him in karting. Vettel received the System BMW ADAC championship in 2005, was second to Paul di Resta in Euro F3 the next season whereas appearing as BMW Sauber’s check driver in F1, and was main the System Renault 3.5 championship in 2007 when he was referred to as up as short-term substitute for the injured Robert Kubica on the US GP.

There he caught the attention by changing into the youngest-ever driver to attain some extent, which led to him being fast-tracked to Toro Rosso, when Scott Velocity was forged out three races later. There, the next 12 months, armed with a automotive which was the efficient clone of the Adrian Newey-designed Purple Bull RB4, he received the Italian Grand Prix from pole place on what was a grotesquely moist and difficult weekend.

Promoted to the senior group for 2009, he received 4 consecutive titles from 2010-13 and broke a number of information, together with Alberto Ascari’s successful streak. Blown off for essentially the most half by new team-mate Daniel Ricciardo in 2014, a season marred by an unreliable Renault hybrid energy unit, Vettel moved to Ferrari the place he loved a number of profitable years earlier than experiencing what can greatest be described as a meltdown in 2019, when he was pushed arduous by newcomer Charles Leclerc.

Dropped by cellphone name throughout the 2020 COVID lockdown, Vettel moved to Aston Martin, the place his newly found ardour for eco-activism rubbed group proprietor Lawrence Stroll up the flawed manner. With out tangible outcomes he was given the heave-ho and retired on the finish of 2022.

Sebastien Buemi

Sebastien Buemi, Toro Rosso STR5 Ferrari

Picture by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Photos

F1 2009-2011

Swiss-born Sebastien Buemi was technically behind Michael Ammermueller within the Purple Bull queue however leapfrogged him after standing in efficiently when the German suffered a damaged scaphoid bone within the opening spherical of the 2007 GP2 season. Ammermueller returned to the cockpit for Magny-Cours and Silverstone however failed to attain and was then ‘rested’ till the tip of the season, after which he was ejected from the programme.

Buemi turned Toro Rosso’s F1 check driver in 2008 and was promoted to a race seat the next season when Sebastian Vettel was elevated to the senior squad. He outqualified his new team-mate – the already-under-pressure Sebastien Bourdais – and scored factors within the opening spherical, however seventh in Melbourne can be his equal-best outcome all 12 months.

Few outcomes of be aware eventuated by 2010 and ’11, though Buemi achieved ‘meme’ standing when his entrance uprights underwent ‘fast unscheduled disassembly’ throughout the 2010 Chinese language Grand Prix. Having accomplished three seasons with out convincing Helmut Marko he was worthy of additional promotion, Buemi was retained solely as check and reserve driver thereafter, dovetailing this with System E and a profitable stint in sportscars with Toyota in WEC, which he received in 2014, ’22 and ’23, together with 4 Le Mans victories.

Jaime Alguersuari, Toro Rosso, with Sergio Perez, Sauber

Picture by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Photos

F1 2009-2011

After successful the British F3 championship in 2008 (beating Sergio Perez, Oliver Turvey and Brendon Hartley), Alguersuari took some time to get into his stride in System Renault 3.5 the next season. Regardless of, although, for Helmut Marko was in axe-swinging mode, eradicating Brendon Hartley from Toro Rosso check driving duties mid-season after which relieving Sebastien Bourdais of his race seat.

Alguersuari, subsequently, had barely added ‘F1 check driver’ to his Twitter bio when, on the age of 19 years, 4 months and three days, he turned the youngest-ever F1 race driver on the 2009 Hungarian Grand Prix. He scored no factors that season and simply 5 the next 12 months; and, whereas 2011’s statistics learn higher (26 factors), it wasn’t sufficient and each Alguersuari and team-mate Sebastien Buemi had been dropped from the line-up.

He returned to karting briefly earlier than reappearing in System E, solely to abruptly name time on his racing profession in 2015. Since then he has targeted on music, a longtime parallel occupation during which he goes underneath the title DJ Squire.

Having returned to the karting scene in 2021, Alguersuari has additionally spoken out (to El Confidencial, a Spanish media outlet) about what he regards because the “trauma” of his F1 years, although he concedes he was “filled with ego and prickly”.

“I’ve executed remedy. After I retired a number of psychologists helped me. Now, even so, unusual issues come into my head. And typically get up, like, crying, having dreamed of getting executed a terrific lap solely to see the face of Mr Marko, offended.”

Daniel Ricciardo

Daniel Ricciardo, Purple Bull Racing, 2nd Place, on the rostrum along with his trophy and champagne

Picture by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Photos

F1 2011-2024

“Having a hungry teenager on the books will hold our present driver pairing good and sharp.” With these phrases, asserting the arrival of Daniel Ricciardo as Toro Rosso check driver in 2011, Helmut Marko started tolling the bell for the F1 careers of Sebastien Buemi and Jaime Alguersuari.

Picked up by Purple Bull for 2008 and positioned in System Renault Eurocup, which he received convincingly, Ricciardo received British F3 in ’09 and was a runner-up in System Renault 3.5 the next 12 months. These are exactly the type of marks a Purple Bull junior should tick to progress.

Halfway by 2011 Ricciardo bought race seat time as Purple Bull paid for him to interchange Narain Karthikeyan at HRT, an apparent prologue to him racing for Toro Rosso in 2012. Regardless of a middling couple of years the place doubts hovered over whether or not he was having fun with the life-style an excessive amount of, Ricciardo bought the nod over Jean-Eric Vergne to interchange Mark Webber in Purple Bull Racing for 2014.

There he very a lot exceeded expectations, successful three races and ending third within the championship in an underpowered, unreliable RB10, one of many least spectacular automobiles to emerge on Adrian Newey’s technical watch. He additionally contrived to make his four-time world champion team-mate, Sebastian Vettel, look relatively extraordinary.

In 2015 he had the higher of latest team-mate Daniil Kvyat, much less so the person who changed him in 2016 – Max Verstappen. Rancour constructed, Ricciardo felt he wasn’t being given equal remedy, and he left to affix Renault in 2019.

Observers felt he was merely cashing out by going to a group with such little aggressive hope. However, whereas Ricciardo’s model was considered as a diminishing one in racing circles, a brand new Netflix present depicting a largely fictionalised model of F1 enabled his vibrant, brash persona to achieve traction because the viewers grew.

Nonetheless, a subsequent transfer to McLaren netted only one win and he was ousted in favour of fellow countryman Oscar Piastri for 2023. A quick reappearance in Purple Bull’s second-string group, renamed AlphaTauri after which RB, dangled the potential of a top-team comeback because the organisation’s young-talent pipeline spluttered.

But it surely was to not be and he’s now a person of leisure.

Jean-Eric Vergne

Jean-Eric Vergne, Toro Rosso STR8

Picture by: Motorsport Photos

F1 2012-2014

British F3 champion in 2010, runner-up to fellow Purple Bull protégé Robert Wickens in System Renault 3.5 in 2011, Jean-Eric Vergne bought an additional increase by the ranks when Brendon Hartley was dropped from the junior group throughout 2010.

Like different younger drivers quickly promoted by the ranks by Purple Bull into an uncompetitive F1 automotive – the 2012 STR was a stinker – he struggled for motivation.

“If you’re a driver used to successful every part in all the opposite classes,” he advised Autosport after being fined €25,000 for a unnecessary shunt on the European GP in 2012, “even when you’re coming to F1 and that you simply won’t win, that you simply will not get podiums and even that it will likely be troublesome to attain factors, if you’re behind the grid – or when you make race and also you end it fairly far off – it’s in fact just a little bit troublesome for me.”

After finishing the seemingly statutory three years at Toro Rosso with out warranting promotion – the youthful Daniil Kvyat went to Purple Bull in Sebastian Vettel’s place for 2015 as a substitute – Vergne was dropped. A check driving and sim jockey function at Ferrari helped him hold his hand in for a few years however led to nothing in F1.

In System E, although, Vergne discovered his metier, successful the championship twice alongside a number of endurance racing gigs in WEC and ELMS.

Daniil Kvyat

Daniil Kvyat, Purple Bull Racing, second place

Picture by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Photos

F1 2014- 2020

One other a number of karting champion who tailored quickly to single-seaters – successful System Renault 2.0 Alps and the GP3 Sequence in 2012-13 – was amongst that technology of drivers within the 2010s who made it to F1 earlier than their twentieth birthdays. Making his F1 debut in 2014 offered him with challenges from the off, because the issue in packaging the brand new hybrid-powered automobiles to the load restrict pressured many drivers to shed kilos to remain aggressive – and the tall, gangly Kvyat had little room to manoeuvre in that regard.

He acquitted himself nicely sufficient to earn promotion to the senior group in 2015 however a sequence of high-profile accidents underneath stress earned him the nickname “the torpedo”. After crashing into Sebastian Vettel’s Ferrari twice in his residence grand prix, Kvyat was demoted again to Toro Rosso forward of the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix.

“The crash in Sochi is a consequence of the interior stress, which he has constructed himself, it didn’t come from us,” defined Helmut Marko.

His substitute, Max Verstappen, received that very race. Kvyat’s profession by no means actually recovered from this wobble and he was changed by Pierre Gasly late in 2017.

After a 12 months on the sidelines as Ferrari’s sim jockey, Kvyat was recalled to Toro Rosso unexpectedly in 2019 when Gasly changed the Renault-bound Daniel Ricciardo. New team-mate Alex Albon was then picked as opposed to Kvyat when Gasly was ejected late within the season.

On the finish of 2020 Kvyat was ushered out in favour of Yuki Tsunoda and has plied his commerce in WEC since, together with a few dalliances in US racing.

Max Verstappen

Max Verstappen, Purple Bull Racing, 1st place, celebrates on the rostrum

Picture by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Photos

F1 2015-present

Purple Bull can hardly be mentioned to have supported Max Verstappen from the earliest phases of his profession because it has with different drivers – it swooped in to beat Mercedes’ Toto Wolff in a bidding conflict halfway by the teenager’s F3 season in 2014 – but it surely has been decided to maintain him.

On the time, Purple Bull’s F1 marketing campaign was in disarray whereas Mercedes was completely dominant. However Helmut Marko was capable of provide one thing Wolff couldn’t: a quick observe to F1.

Inside days of signing as much as Purple Bull, Verstappen was introduced as Toro Rosso’s check driver – and the race seat adopted. Max did his bit by excelling, whereas behind the scenes ‘Crew Verstappen’ all the time ensured its man bought precedence in all enterprise.

This hasn’t all the time led to harmonious relationships with team-mates, however then once more neither has Max’s behavior of destroying them on observe.

In case you’ve been in a coma for the previous decade, Max is now defending his fourth world championship.

Carlos Sainz Jr., Scuderia Toro Rosso STR11

Picture by: Purple Bull Content material Pool

F1 2015-present

Signed to Purple Bull’s young-driver programme since his early System BMW days in 2010, Sainz was elevated to F1 with Toro Rosso alongside Max Verstappen in 2015 after successful the System Renault 3.5 championship. Two drivers with extremely aggressive racer fathers in attendance was by no means going to make for harmonious relations, and the Sainz household quickly turned discombobulated by what they believed to be the preferential remedy given to Max.

There was fury, too, when Max was promoted to Purple Bull’s senior group early in 2016 and Carlos was left in a holding sample.

By mid-2017 Sainz was publicly highlighting the truth that for many Toro Rosso drivers it was three-seasons-then-out. He then took the choice out of Purple Bull’s palms by signing for Renault and leaving.

He did only one full season with Renault earlier than leaving for McLaren, but it surely was throughout a four-season stint at Ferrari that he lastly turned a grand prix winner.

Brendon Hartley

Brendon Hartley, Scuderia Toro Rosso and Pierre Gasly, Scuderia Toro Rosso put together for the tip of 12 months grid photograph

Picture by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Photos

F1 2017-2018

New Zealander Brendon Hartley’s Purple Bull profession is a peculiar saga. Aged 15, having received the Toyota Racing Sequence, he and his father managed to pay money for Helmut Marko’s e-mail handle and pitched him for sponsorship. Hartley’s huge mop of blond hair and ‘sk8r boi’ fashion made him an ideal match for Purple Bull.

Europe beckoned and Hartley initially rewarded Purple Bull’s religion by exhibiting nicely in System Renault 2.0 and British F3, solely to fully lose momentum in System Renault 3.5 in 2009 and 2010. The stress of racing in each FR 3.5 and Euro F3, whereas attending grands prix as Toro Rosso’s check driver, turned an excessive amount of.

Ejected from the Purple Bull programme, Hartley rebuilt his trajectory in sportscars – plus a simulator function with Mercedes – and received Le Mans twice with Porsche. Come 2017, when Porsche introduced its withdrawal from the WEC, Hartley felt the time was proper to attempt F1 once more – and Marko not solely took the cellphone name, he mentioned sure.

Granted, Purple Bull/Toro Rosso’s choices for 2018 had been just a little skinny given Carlos Sainz’s surprising departure. Hartley changed Sainz for the final 4 rounds of 2017 and had a full season in 2018 however he by no means seemed snug within the automotive and was outscored by team-mate Pierre Gasly.

That was it for Hartley in System 1 however three extra Le Mans victories – with Toyota – lay in his future. He’s now racing a Wayne Taylor-run Cadillac in IMSA.

Pierre Gasly

Pierre Gasly, Purple Bull Racing RB15

Picture by: Jerry Andre / Motorsport Photos

F1 2017-present

One other driver arguably promoted too quickly, Pierre Gasly was already a System Renault 2.0 champion when he joined the Purple Bull household on the age of 18 and completed runner-up to Carlos Sainz within the 2014 FR 3.5 championship. The GP2 title adopted in 2016 however, with no F1 seat instantly within the offing, Purple Bull positioned him in Tremendous System for 2017.

Gasly was nicely within the operating to win that championship when Purple Bull had considered one of its summer time pivots and determined to drop Daniil Kvyat from Toro Rosso – to the extent that Kvyat was briefly invited again for the US spherical whereas Gasly went again to Japan.

Daniel Ricciardo’s sudden departure for Renault on the finish of 2018 created a emptiness within the high group however Gasly struggled with the stress and located the automotive a handful. He was demoted again to the junior group earlier than the tip of 2019 in relatively merciless circumstances – throughout his first week again at Toro Rosso, in Belgium, his childhood buddy Anthoine Hubert was killed throughout the F2 function race.

Though Gasly seized the second to take a shock (however completely deserved) win on the Italian GP in 2020, it turned more and more clear to him that he wasn’t in competition for any future vacancies at Purple Bull Racing, so he departed for Alpine on the finish of 2022.

Alex Albon

Alexander Albon, Purple Bull Racing

Picture by: Andrew Hone / Motorsport Photos

F1 2019-present

Few drivers epitomise the customarily capricious nature of Purple Bull’s junior driver programme than Alex Albon. He was solely on it briefly – after reaching respectable leads to karts he joined the scheme in 2012, his first 12 months in automotive racing, solely to battle in System Renault 2.0 Alps and Eurocup FR2.0.

On the finish of that season he acquired the decision from Dr Marko that he was now not a part of the programme. Aged simply 18, he was going to must make it another manner.

Remarkably, he did, ultimately making it to F2 the place he was a part of the well-known ‘Class of 2018’, ending third behind George Russell and Lando Norris. Since Toro Rosso was in need of expertise and the Purple Bull driver pipeline seemingly airlocked, as detailed above, Albon’s cellphone duly buzzed to announce an incoming name from Marko – shortly after Alex had signed to race in System E.

Albon determined towards the world of glorified milk floats and grabbed his F1 alternative, but it surely was to be a bruising expertise – promoted to the highest group as Pierre Gasly was despatched the opposite manner, then demoted to check driver on the finish of 2020 when Purple Bull determined a extra skilled candidate with a more durable disguise was the reply to its drawback of discovering a accomplice for Max Verstappen.

He was additionally given a drive within the DTM however, on the finish of 2021, reached an association during which he might race for Williams in F1 whereas retaining publicly unspecified ties to Purple Bull.

Yuki Tsunoda

Yuki Tsunoda, Visa Money App RB F1 Crew

Picture by: Andrew Ferraro / Motorsport Photos

F1 2021-present

Honda’s tie-up with Purple Bull, introduced in mid-2018, made it politically expedient so as to add a Japanese driver to the Purple Bull younger driver programme, and Yuki Tsunoda was the apparent candidate. This furnished his progress from Japanese F4 to FIA F3 for the 2019 season and, regardless of an often irritating 2020 F2 season during which he in the end completed third, he was promoted to AlphaTauri for 2021.

Helmut Marko supposedly stays a fan however Tsunoda’s trigger hasn’t been helped by questions over his health, consistency and temperament. He’s labored on them however not, it appears, sufficient to advantage being moved up on this planet.

After an unprecedented fourth season in Purple Bull’s second group he was leapfrogged for promotion by Liam Lawson. Given Honda will now not be the group’s engine accomplice from the tip of this season, it’s make-or-break time.