The young guard of Formula 1

(Motorsport-Total.com) – Dear readers,

It was a soporific trend that had crept into Formula 1 in recent years: drivers who were long past their prime and yet still stuck to their cockpits for far too long – just like Jogi Löw in the coach’s chair of the German national team or Angela Merkel in the office of German Chancellor a few years ago.

Well, in Baku this weekend, many people who hadn’t tuned in for a while due to the acute Verstappen boredom of the last few years – or who were simply called Lewis Hamilton, who drove directly behind and got a box seat for the duel between Franco Colapinto and Oliver Bearman – could rub their eyes.

Franco was? Oliver was? No, I didn’t lose track of time and accidentally switched on the Formula 2 sprint, this was Formula 1 – and the three-way battle between the two youngsters and the record champion in the Mercedes was also quite high-class. The fact that Hamilton, at 39, could be the father of the two boys (21 and 19 years old) is a given…

Both Williams’ gap-filler until the arrival of Carlos Sainz and Haas’ replacement for the suspended Kevin Magnussen, who will take over the cockpit of the discontinued model from Denmark full-time in 2025, did an excellent job this weekend – and was also able to keep up with their experienced teammates, or even leave them behind in some cases.

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Suddenly in Formula 1: Oliver Bearman and Franco Colapinto

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In the end, both young drivers were rewarded with points in their first and second Formula 1 appearances: Colapinto in eighth place, Bearman in tenth, making him the first driver in F1 history to score points for different teams in his first two Grand Prix appearances.

Speaking of things that have never happened before in the premier class: Last winter, this was mainly the fact that there was not a single change in the driver field between the old and new seasons! The blocked bottleneck could not have been portrayed more clearly, which metaphorically best describes the lack of permeability for talent from Formula 2, and which Formula 1 has been suffering from for some time.

Youth research: Renaissance of youth madness in F1

But sometimes such an illness also has a healing effect, as when Carlos Sainz’s appendix became inflamed in Saudi Arabia, this helped young driver Bearman to make a spontaneous Ferrari debut, in which he performed more than respectably. This subsequently secured him a place in the Scuderia customer team Haas for the coming season.

At Williams, however, Logan Sargeant’s performance had been poor since the beginning of his time in Formula 1. After the next expensive crash in Zandvoort, team boss James Vowles had had enough, took the Americans out – and for the rest of the season, he preferred to use Colapinto, a driver from their own junior program, rather than let former employer Mercedes talk him into signing Mick Schumacher.

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Three-way battle: Colapinto, Bearman and Hamilton gave each other no quarter in Baku

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Aside from that, a few dominoes fell on the transfer market of the full-throttle industry in the summer, so that the writers of all the headlines can, with an eye on the future, dig out old slogans like “Youth Research” from the drawer as a precaution. Of course, someone who greeted from the top of the podium in Baku on Sunday also played a part in this renaissance: McLaren’s race winner Oscar Piastri (23).

The Australian and his meteoric rise to become one of the top drivers in the series, just a year and a half after his F1 debut, have made many team bosses rethink whether it is really such a smart idea to keep the talents in their own ranks on the bench for a long time, as has happened far too often in recent years – just think of Formula 2 champion Felipe Drugovich, who is still waiting for a Grand Prix appearance.

Piastri leads the seasoned F1 stars for the second year

“Unbelievable, it doesn’t even seem like he’s only been here for a year and a half. He really drove like a hardened driver,” said former F1 driver and TV expert Christian Klien on ServusTV on Sunday, praising Piastri: “First the overtaking manoeuvre, and then the pressure from Charles Leclerc behind him the whole time. But he didn’t make a single mistake and finished perfectly.

In fact, on Sunday Piastri will be leading the seasoned Ferrari star Leclerc (seventh year in Formula 1) on the brakes, just as he did two weeks ago in Monza with his equally seasoned teammate Lando Norris (sixth year in Formula 1), to whom I would like to wish a lot of fun with the team-mate who will be joining him in the coming years – regardless of how the World Championship turns out this season.

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Oscar Piastri can become the superstar of a new generation of drivers

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Curiously, before the race in Baku, McLaren had finally decided, after weeks of uncertainty, that the highly talented Australian should now drive for Norris in the World Championship. In the end, however, it was the other way round: the World Championship runner-up had to tactically make room in the race and hold up Red Bull’s Sergio Perez in order to help the exact leader Piastri.

For weeks, the experts in the paddock have been wondering why the Papaya team has held on to having two number 1 drivers for so long? Anyone who saw Piastri’s toughness on Sunday, the very thing that Norris so often lacks, will understand why Andrea Stella and Zak Brown see Mark Webber’s protégé as perhaps even more promising for the future…

Double agent Alonso: Soon next to his driver on the grid?

Formula 1 is certainly not lacking in promises for the future, as was impressively demonstrated at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Baku: The future Audi factory team should now take a leaf out of its book, the last racing team that still has a free cockpit to offer for 2025.

Recently, rumors have been circulating that Audi’s new strong man Mattia Binotto has his eye on Formula 2 championship leader Gabriel Bortoleto in order to get rid of Valtteri Bottas, who at least on the track appears rather miserable (yes, I find the whole mullet show entertaining). The young Brazilian is managed by none other than Fernando Alonso!

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Next, please! Antonelli and Bortoleto are currently still driving in Formula 2

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You have to give the clever fox from Asturias credit for that: While the youth craze is taking hold in Formula 1, Alonso is not only holding his own despite being 43 years old and having a long-term contract with the soon-to-be Adrian Newey team Aston Martin – if he now also manages to place his own protégé in the driver field while he is still an active driver, that has a very special touch.

You can probably only learn something like that from Flavio Briatore himself… who, as a special advisor for Alpine, is also involved in the big Formula 1 concert, and recently hired a new face – sorry, babyface! – for his racing team:

With Jack Doohan (21), who already has his Alpine contract for 2025 in his pocket, just as Mercedes super talent Kimi Antonelli (18) has his contract with the Mercedes Silver Arrows, the next youngsters are already in the starting blocks. And in the case of Red Bull’s Liam Lawson (22), it also seems to be only a matter of time before the young New Zealander sends Racing Bulls veteran Daniel Ricciardo into retirement.

Fresh blood on all fronts for a refreshing premier class! It was time…

Yours, Frederik Hackbarth