ENTER THE ROOKIES
Formula 1 has been relatively bereft of new faces over the past few years, thanks in part to tighter superlicence requirements introduced in response to worries that some drivers were just too young. But this season more opportunities have arisen thanks to Red Bull’s ruthlessly up-or-out young driver programme running temporarily dry – and Haas deciding to axe both its pilots.
Outscored and largely outperformed by Pierre Gasly at Alphatauri last season, Daniil Kvyat has been handed his cards by the Red Bull organisation yet again, although he has since bagged the back-up driver role at Alpine. In his place comes
Yuki Tsunoda, a 20-year-old Honda-backed Japanese driver whose progress up the ladder has been truly rapid. Arriving in Europe in 2019 as the Japanese F4 champion, he raced in both Euroformula Open and the FIA F3 championship, winning neither but establishing himself as a frontrunner despite his lack of experience at that level.
Red Bull ‘kingmaker’ Helmut Marko rates Tsunoda highly and publicly set him the target of finishing fourth in F2 last year to stake his claim to an F1 ride. While that seemed unlikely (Mick Schumacher required a second season to gain a proper foothold in F2), Tsunoda eventually claimed third – and showed that he had begun to polish off many of the rough edges, demonstrating greater composure as well as raw speed.
At Haas, both Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen have been deemed surplus to requirements as part of a wider reboot in which the team is aiming to establish closer ties to Ferrari. Grosjean will compete in Indycar, albeit not on oval tracks, while Magnussen has also headed stateside, joining Chip Ganassi Racing’s frontrunning Cadillac team in the IMSA championship before switching to Peugeot’s rebooted sportscar effort in 2022.
Replacing them are Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin, a 22-year-old Russian who will race under a neutral flag owing to sanctions against his country as a result of state-sponsored doping activities relating to the 2014 Winter Olympics.
Mazepin’s father tried to buy the Force India F1 team in 2018 but was thwarted by Lawrence Stroll. As a driver Mazepin has reputation for wayward behaviour, punching an F3 rival and more recently earning penalties in the 2020 F2 finale for two instances of dangerous conduct. He has bridges to build off-track, too, having alienated a large segment of F1 fandom through his role in a sordid video which appeared on social media late last year.