What Is the Point of Driver Development Anymore? (2024)

If you’ve been paying attention to Frontstretch this week, we have had two columns focusing on the open wheel side of things, which together tell volumes.

One was the F1 Midweek column regarding the 2025 Red Bull lineup, where I bemoaned that Liam Lawson may not find a space at the team owing to the presence of Sergio Perez and Daniel Ricciardo.

The second piece, Inside IndyCar, featured the latest circus act at McLaren, which involved them letting Theo Pourchaire go just a couple of months after hiring him for their IndyCar program.

Both topics raise the honest question of why Formula 1 junior programs are even a thing at this point.

Pourchaire has been part of the Sauber Academy for years now, a program where he won the F2 championship in 2023. But Pourchaire has been passed over for an F1 seat in 2022, 2023, 2024, and almost certainly now 2025.

Why? Well, the decision in 2022 made sense because Pourchaire was only 18 years old. This year and 2023 have made less sense, especially with the team sticking with a very un-exhilarating lineup of Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyus.

Now that Sauber is being fully operated by Audi, the Germans have looked at their Academy roster and their main driver lineup and shrugged. They have pursued Carlos Sainz to pair with reliable veteran Nico Hulkenberg.

And if Sainz says no, which he is reported to be doing by choosing Williams instead, their next option is Pierre Gasly, as per Will Buxton during F1 TV’s practice telecasts this weekend. Gasly is a fine driver, but he will grab a large paycheck to be just that, a fine driver.

Next year will be a lame-duck season for Sauber. Audi will be in control but will have little say over car development before coming into 2026 with its own car and engine.

Why not take a stab at Pourchaire and try him out over the year? Nobody will notice or care that much if they end up last in the constructor standings. Run Pourchaire, try him out, and compare him to Hulkenberg directly. If he’s not performing by mid-year, they would have plenty of options on the free agent market.

But no, that’s not going to happen. Pourchaire was instead hired away to race for McLaren for two months before being let go for somebody else on the driver market. The Frenchman is still affiliated with Sauber, but what exactly can he do from here if nobody wants him?

Let’s look at the F1 grid for just a second. The last rookies on it outside of injury substitutes were Logan Sargeant and Oscar Piastri last year. In 2022, Zhou was the lone rookie. 2021 had three rookies, two of whom — Nikita Mazepin and Mick Schumacher — are no longer on the F1 grid. And in 2020, Nicholas Latifi was the only designated full-time rookie.

This means that just four drivers on the current F1 grid did not make a start prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. And considering that Sebastian Vettel chose to retire instead of continuing on while he could still compete well, there’s an alternate universe where that number is three.

What even is the point of F1 driver development programs anymore? Yes, three of the four race winners this year were extensively developed by the teams they have driven for. But if few teams are willing to take a chance on rookies in general due to budget cap concerns, which ended Schumacher’s time at Haas, why are teams spending so much on developmental?

If there is only one diamond a team looks to polish on their developmental teams, like Andrea Kimi Antonelli is at Mercedes, there’s no real point in surrounding them with 10 other guys who will never rise above F2.

“But junior drivers keep existing driver contracts in check by providing options for teams” is a statement I hear a lot about this issue. Keep in mind that had Red Bull decided against retaining Perez next season, every single free agent still on the board would have been in play for them. Drivers have zero leverage as it is.

The only driver who has multiple race wins in the past 22 months who is not currently driving for Red Bull is still unsigned for next season and is, in fact, heavily rumored to be joining the team that is in ninth place in the constructor standings.

So, either cut the programs or give these drivers a real chance. Because the only thing worse than no chance is the illusion of there being one.