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Lewis Hamilton's comments about Nyck de Vries getting the ax at Red Bull caught the eye of quite a few fans. Several F1 pundits termed what Hamilton said as a scathing remark against how the Austrian team operates.
In all fairness, Hamilton has not been the only driver that was not entirely happy with how the Milton Keynes-based squad took only 10 races to get rid of de Vries. Having said that, it did start an important conversation that is not brought up often.
The conversation is around driver academies and how the teams manage their drivers. More often than not, it has almost become traditional in a sense to point fingers at Red Bull as a team that does not manage its drivers well. More often than not, the mid-season swaps and somewhat utterly brutal firings have been used as a metric to criticize the way Red Bull goes about its business.
In this feature what we'll do is try to analyse how justified Lewis Hamilton's comments are. We will take a look at the driver academies of different teams in F1 and see how they stack up on different parameters.
The aim is to see what kind of impact various teams have in terms of bringing new talent to F1, how many of them eventually make it to the parent team and most importantly the history of driver management in the past few years.
Hence the factors are:
- No. of drivers that have made it to F1
- No. of drivers supported in the junior categories
- No. of drivers that made it to the parent team in F1
- History of driver management
On the current F1 grid, we will take a look at the following teams
- Red Bull
- Mercedes(Lewis Hamilton's current team)
- McLaren(Lewis Hamilton's former team)
- Ferrari
- Alpine
Was Lewis Hamilton justified?
First of all, let's start with Lewis Hamilton's current team Mercedes and see how it stacks up on these parameters.
Mercedes
Number of drivers who have made it to F1
When we talk about Mercedes, only three drivers have made it to F1. The first graduate from the team's driver academy was Pascal Wehrlein who debuted with Manor and was part of the sport for only two seasons.
Other than Wehrlein, Mercedes has brought Esteban Ocon and George Russell to the sport. Both of them are still a part of the sport and doing a very good job.
Number of drivers supported in the junior categories
At the moment, the Mercedes driver academy has seven drivers. They include the current F2 championship leader Frederic Vesti, the much-hyped Kimi Antonelli, and F3 championship contender Paul Aron.
Number of drivers who made it to the parent team in F1
king about the drivers who have made it to Mercedes in all these years, we have only one driver - George Russell. He is currently Lewis Hamilton's teammate and is looked upon as one of the best drivers on the grid.
History of driver management
Mercedes and Toto Wolff have often maintained a positive image of how the team has managed its drivers over the years. Having said that, George Russell spending three years in a backmarker, Esteban Ocon getting chucked out of F1 in 2019 despite a very strong debut, or Pascal Wehrlein disappearing from the sport doesn't really paint a great picture
Verdict
The main thing that might need to be questioned here is the paucity of 'Mercedes' talent that has either made it to the sport or driven for the senior team. Having only three F1 graduates from a program that has been around for close to a decade now is almost embarrassing. What's worse is that there has been only one driver that has found a seat on the parent team.
Overall, while the outlook might be positive for the Mercedes program, one has to ask how many opportunities is the team even giving to the young drivers.
McLaren
Number of drivers who have made it to F1
Arguably the biggest name ever to make it through McLaren's driver program has to be Lewis Hamilton. The Brit is, however, not the only one. On the current grid itself, there are three drivers that made their way to F1 through the team's driver program.
Kevin Magnussen, Lando Norris, and Lewis Hamilton have all made their way to the sport through this program. Overall, there have been four names with former McLaren driver driver Stoffel Vandoorne also a graduate of the team's program.
Number of drivers supported in the junior categories
At the moment, McLaren supports three drivers - Pato O’Ward (IndyCar), Alex Palou (IndyCar), and Young Driver Ugo Ugochukwu.
Number of drivers who made it to the parent team in F1
For McLaren, every graduate directly made it to the parent team and hence there have been four drivers that have done that.
History of driver management
McLaren's history of driver management in the last decade or so has been a bit questionable. The way Sergio Perez was released much later in the season or what happened to Kevin Magnussen, or even Stoffel Vandoorne, was not ideal.
Even last season, the way Daniel Ricciardo was released with the Australian being caught unawares, wasn't the best way to deal with the situation.
On paper, McLaren's driver program has produced stars like Lewis Hamilton and Lando Norris but it isn't as extensive as compared to some of the top teams.
Verdict
McLaren's driver program is not as distinguished or as engaging as other top teams. Having said that, one thing that stands out is the team's history of not being one of the best when it comes to driver management. There have been far too many occasions where McLaren could have done a better job.
Ferrari
Number of drivers who have made it to F1
Ferrari has had a few drivers that have made their way into the sport. Felipe Massa was one of the earlier ones. And While many might have forgotten, even Sergio Perez was a Ferrari academy driver.
In all, there have been six drivers who have graduated to F1 since the program began.
Number of drivers supported in the junior categories
At the moment, there are eight Ferrari driver academy members in the junior categories with F2 star driver Oli Bearman one of the standouts.
Number of drivers who made it to the parent team in F1
Only Felipe Massa and Charles Leclerc have been the two drivers who have made it to the parent team.
History of driver management
Leaving aside the political nature of the way the team goes about most things, what is arguably a bad look for the team is the way it has handled its young drivers. Arguably the biggest blot has to be the batch that included Mick Schumacher, Callum Illot, and Robert Schwartzman.
The contrasting nature of the opportunities given to Antonio Giovvinazzi compared to Mick Schumacher is quite obvious but what's worse is how two very impressive talents in Callum Illot and Robert Shwartzman could not even get a shot at the sport.
Ferrari has cashed in with Charles Leclerc big time but other than that, it has left too much to be desired from the way it manages drivers.
Verdict
Looking at the small number of graduates and an even smaller number that makes it to the senior team, one can't really say that enough opportunities are generated from the Italian unit.
Alpine
Number of drivers who have made it to F1
Just to clarify, we've excluded the Renault driver academy and are specifically looking at Alpine's driver academy which has been in existence recently. The two graduates from Alpine have Oscar Piastri and Guanyu Zhou.
Number of drivers supported in the junior categories
Alpine has eight drivers in its academy with F2 frontrunners Jack Doohan and Victor Martins being some of the notable names.
Number of drivers who made it to the parent team in F1
Oscar Piastri could have been the first driver to make it to the parent team but unfortunately, that didn't happen. Other than Piastri, no driver has been able to do it yet.
History of driver management
Alpine's history when it comes to managing its drivers has been a bit checkered. Be it Oscar Piastri, Fernando Alonso, or even Daniel Ricciardo (a driver who moved to Renault to emulate Lewis Hamilton), drivers have not had the best experience with the team.
Conclusion
Alpine is still a very fresh unit and it's hard to truly compare it with the other giants on the grid.
Red Bull
Number of drivers that have made it to F1
Now talking about the team Lewis Hamilton targeted, Red Bull, we don't even need to look beyond the current grid.
On the current F1 grid alone there are as many as six drivers who have made their way to the grid through the team's program. This number alone is equal to the most overall graduates for any other team on the grid.
Number of drivers supported in the junior categories
At the moment, there are as many as 12 drivers supported by Red Bull in the junior categories
Number of drivers who made it to the parent team in F1
Now, when we talk about making it to the senior team, there are as many six drivers who made it to Red Bull. These six include Lewis Hamilton's former adversary Sebastian Vettel and his current adversary, Max Verstappen.
History of driver management
In terms of driver management, as Lewis Hamilton also suggested, Red Bull has a very cutthroat operation. The drivers are under pressure most of the time and only the ones that are good enough make it. The instances of Danil Kvyat being removed midseason and replaced with Max Verstappen are not the only ones.
The team has the tendency to set very high standards which if not fulfilled could mean being thrown out of the team.
Conclusion
In terms of driver management, Red Bull has never shied away from making tough decisions. At the same time, the opportunity provided by the team to drivers hoping to make it to F1 cannot be ignored.
Final conclusion after comparisons (was Lewis Hamilton right?)
Considering Lewis Hamilton's comments, yes, the 'Red Bull way' can be a bit ruthless. At the same time, just like anything else in life, there are two sides of a coin. On one side, there's no team that even comes close to Red Bull when it comes to giving the kind of opportunity to young drivers.
To add to this, before Hamilton claims that's the 'Red Bull way', he could easily look at the example of Nyck de Vries. The Dutchman was part of the Mercedes camp and had no hope of getting an F1 driver. On the contrary, Helmut Marko got him his shot in the big league.
Would Lewis Hamilton's team Mercedes have ever given him that shot? Probably not. While it is fair to say that Helmut Marko can be a ruthless operator, he's still giving young drivers a shot in F1 and the ones who are cut out for the big league end up making it.
On one side you have the rest of the grid that arguably manages a driver better but in terms of giving opportunity comes nowhere close. On the other side, you have Red Bull whose operation could be a bit ruthless but gives opportunity to young drivers to make it to F1.
Whether Lewis Hamilton is right or wrong can be judged simply by asking Nyck de Vries. Would he prefer a Red Bull management model that gave him 10 races to prove himself or the Mercedes model where the best he could hope for a reserve driver role?
I think we all know the answer, Lewis Hamilton does as well!
