Red Bull talents fail to put pressure on Tsunoda and De Vries

Pressure on the AlphaTauri seat

De Vries and Tsunoda know the performances needed in 2023. For Tsunoda, it is his third season in Formula 1, and according to Franz Tost, that is always the year of truth. He will now have to show that he can lead the team. Beating his new teammate in qualifying at Bahrain by 0.721s will do him good in that respect, but he needs to keep this up for a whole year.

De Vries may be making his debut in F1 this year, but for the 28-year-old driver, the pressure is also immediate. With F2 and FE titles under his belt, there are high expectations of him. The man from Friesland has to succeed the experienced Pierre Gasly and provide Tsunoda with solid resistance. The feedback given proved very specific, but the first race weekend did not go well just yet.

De Vries will have time to get used to his new car but also knows that there many talents eager to take over his spot. Yet, they showed little or nothing in Bahrain, which would make Helmut Marko happy. Six talents competed in F2, but none of them managed to impress.

Red Bull talents in Formula 2

In qualifying, Dennis Hauger impressed the most. The Norwegian, who will be in action on behalf of MP Motorsport in 2023, qualified in fourth place. However, this was over nine-tenths away from the man on pole, Theo Pourchaire.

In the sprint race, Hauger came from P6 handsomely to second place, but in the main race, things went wrong on the first lap. There, he ended up in chaos after a weak start and would eventually not finish the race. In his second F2 season, though, this is the year where the former F3 champion needs to perform.

Zane Maloney impressed more in that respect. The 19-year-old driver from Barbados has only been part of the Red Bull squad since this season, following his surprising second place in the Formula 3 championship in 2022. Maloney had a disastrous qualifying session in which he did not go beyond P18, but he more than made up for it in both races. On Saturday, he drove to P9 in the sprint race, and on Sunday in the main race, he even finished on the podium with P3.

Biggest disappointment for Marko

Of all the other talents, Marko probably expected more. Ayumu Iwasa finished seventh in qualifying and did not get beyond P4 and P8 in the races. That was better than Enzo Fittipaldi however, who finished eighth and ninth in the races after a P13 in qualifying. American Jak Crawford was also disappointing. After qualifying in P19, he failed to make it up in the race. He finished outside the points on both Saturday and Sunday.

The biggest disappointment was Isack Hadjar. Marko expects a lot from the still only 18-year-old Frenchman, but after a fourth place in the 2022 F3 championship, the first F2 weekend was a bit disappointing. Hadjar drove over a second slower than Pourchaire in qualifying (good enough for P14) and finished the sprint race 20th. On Sunday, Hadjar still made something of his weekend by crossing the finish line in seventh place.

Besides the F2 talents, Red Bull also has Liam Lawson in its ranks. The New Zealander was deemed too light for F1 after finishing third in the 2022 F2 championship, needing to prove to himself in Japan's Super Formula that he belongs in F1. However, that championship does not start until April.