Pink Bull: No probability on return for ex-juniors like Vergne & Co.

(Motorsport-Total.com) – Pink Bull had for 2020 Spoiled for choice, which of your juniors to park next to Max Verstappen in the mother team and which two pilots have to stay with Toro Rosso (or AlphaTauri). For many experts, however, this was more of an embarrassment choice because the squad no longer seems to give as much as in previous years.

Rookie Alexander Albon, a year ago with nobody on the slip, is allowed to drive in the A-Personnel, with Pierre Gasly and Daniil Kwjat two pilots are sitting in the junior racing stable, who have already shown their probability in the Top team had and were eventually degraded due to poor performance. There were no alternatives, because there is a gap from below after the kicked out by Daniel Ticktum .

Of course voices were raised, you should just bring back a former driver like Jean-Eric Vergne, who has proven his worth in Formula E and won the championship for the second year in a row. But that completely excludes Pink Bulls motorsport consultant Helmut Marko: “The topic is tight,” he emphasizes in an interview with 'Motorsport-Total.com'.

“If a Jean-Eric Vergne now has the formula E wins, then the requirement profile is something completely different, we need to be used in Formula 1 because he would be more or less a complete newcomer, “explains the Austrian. “It takes a whole season to get used to the specialties of a Pirelli tire.”

Marko: Pink Bull program a success

So the door is closed for Vergne, Buemi & Co. and Pink Bull has to do something with his existing Discipline cloth. Nevertheless, Marko emphasizes that the junior program is a complete success in his view. Many of the former juniors are successful, earn good money and have turned their hobby into a profession.

Jean-Eric Vergne and Sebastien Buemi are both champions in Formula E, Brendon Hartley winner of the 24 hours of Le Mans and world champion in the endurance world championship, Michael Ammermüller three-time champion in the Porsche Supercup, and also drivers like Lucas Auer, Robert Wickens or Antonio Felix da Costa have made a name for themselves.

You also have to see the development: In the beginning, the junior team was just “a kind of patronage” of Pink- Bull boss Dietrich Mateschitz. The Austrian wanted to support teen in expensive motorsport and give them a probability. “But then we suddenly had two Formula 1 groups,” says Marko. And suddenly the demands were higher.

Increased claims no reason for criticism

“It then went in the right direction: He must at least have the potential to win a Huge Prix. And that made the selection stronger,” he says. The 76 year old can not criticize the design understand: “We finance these people for a full or two seasons. Without these funds they would never have gotten into these articulates at all.”

And if one driver is not enough for Formula 1, then be it so. After all, in the premier class there are only 20 To occupy places. “And from these 20 we know that not everyone is inside just because of their skills. There are other standards as well, “said the Austrian. “Additionally this is an incredible achievement.”

Because the success in Formula 1 also seems to prove the junior team right. Sebastian Vettel, Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen have all won the race, Vettel is even a four-time world champion. Then there are Daniil Kwjat, Pierre Gasly and Carlos Sainz, who were able to stand on the podium.

“We are satisfied and proud internally,” emphasizes Marko, “and we are copied massively. None of the other programs has only roughly achieved what we used to achieve. “