I read an article in F1 Racing where Ricciardo basically admitted that every driver on the young driver programme is s*** scared of talking to him, could be a messy year for STR with Ricciardo and Vergne fighting for their careers in F1.
Wow, never heard that before! Having said that, the amount of careers he's ruined into the ground, I'd be a tad wary myself.
Yeah you do hear whispers about Marko's attitude towards his young drivers, even Seb said he was a demanding mentor at the time, a real task master and proper ball breaker if he messed up.
Both; every STR driver must stand on the nose of their cars and must make a dash towards the Red Bull in the middle all the while attempting to kill each other. Dietrich Mateschitz is President Snow, Marko is that gamemaking guy (don't remember his name).
Does this mean Ricciardo's career will be over now? After all, Marko terminated Alguersuari just for not letting Seb pass in a practice session.
I just don't expect to see Ricciardo or Vergne on the podium and probably see them go the way of Jaime and Buemi. That's what it will take to get into RBR I reckon, a podium at least.
That's a common judgement based on one season in a pretty ****ehouse car in a new team. From what I hear the rate of development within the team was excruciatingly poor - Giorgio Ascanelli effectively developed nothing for that car and then left them out in the rain when he buggered off in the second half of the season. James Key had to come in and do the best job he could at fixing it. Plus, Helmets program is going to absolutely go down the drain if that's the benchmark he's setting, possible once upon a time but a lot's changed. At Sauber or Force India perhaps, then you could expect podiums, but no way at Toro Rosso. I don't think it's you can make too many judgements about what was effectively a bedding-in season. And everyone talks about Ricciardo having more experience than Vergne, it was half a season in the worst team Formula One has seen in many years. All it would do I think teach you a lot about how a Grand Prix works but it's way OTT to make it out as if he's done so much more than Vergne.
Eccelstone would like to sign a fifty-year contract for Melbourne if he could. Lol, bit of an exaggeration but you get the point. http://www.speedcafe.com/2013/02/26/eccelstone-i-will-sign-a-50-year-deal-to-keep-agp-in-melbourne/
I just don't get what Helmut expects from their young driver program? Vettel is, what, 25? Realistically, they're unlikely to need a new lead driver for 10 years, and finding "the new Vettel" is likely to create an awkward situation at Red Bull, and potentially reduce their chances of the WDC. Webber might well retire at the end of this season, or maybe the next, and whilst Ricciardo/Vergne might not push Vettel as hard as Webber has, either of them is probably good enough to consistently take points off their rivals, which is all they need. He's known that all Red Bull need, so why ditch Alguesuari and Buemi, when an extra couple of seasons would probably have been enough to produce that number 2?
He is like the arsene wenger of F1, looking for 12 year olds that have the potential to become WDC, no chance.
Red Bull need to realise that Vettel was a one off being that good that young, how can you expect every driver to be the finished article by the time they are 23/24, or in Alguersuari's case dumped at the age of 21 which is just ridiculous IMO.
Indeed the program is too cut throat from my point of view, they have used countless young drivers over the last 8 years now? Only Seb came out of it alive so far... At least Ferrari have some faith in the young drivers to fight back the bad form or bad luck. I just think Helmut is only keeping Webber around until he finds Sebmk2 and trying to find another world champion could come anywhere other than his youth program so he needs to support them more rather than just pose around with his only working driver. If he put in Da Costa and Robin Frijns in the next lineup and after 2 years fired them because they were not good enough I would say he will never find a Sebmk2 because he doesn't give them enough time IMO. You need at least 3 seasons to get your foundations settled in F1 as the quality is really good out there. In short if he did that to Da Costa and Frijns the program is a joke...
The problem is the gap between the 2 teams. RBR are at the very top and STR are at the bottom end. Its a big jump. When Vettel made the step up the 2 teams were moth mid field runners (the season before) so it was a more logical step forward. RBR dont need a young driver program they can now have the pick of any driver they want.
There's no way Frijns is joining their program; he's already openly stated that he dislikes the way they treat their drivers. As for Da Costa, everyone says exactly the same things about him that they said about Ricciardo and Vergne when they were dominating lower categories and now everyone's saying they're not worth it so I'm not getting particularly excited about him. Especially as the current pair dominated their YDT and Da Costa was really not that impressive (relatively speaking).
Seb it still too young to lead the team I reckon. Mark has more experience on that matter to suit Newey's uber brain power!
Robin said he never said that or so I read. Or a journalist misquoted him to that degree I think. Logic suggests he wants to be an F1 driver, teams other than the big 4 go for pay drivers over talent, he has fk all money backing him so even if he likes it or not he is going to have to go into bed with one of these 4 and it's only RBR that have a junior team.
