As who’ll be the next to graduate to Formula 1?
Old news now, but couldn’t carve out a spot in
the No Fenders rotation for this riveting prose, Y’all…
Upon Formula One’s summer break commencing, Red
Bull announced that Gwen Lagrue will join the Milton Keyes operation in 2027.
Arriving from Mercedes to become its next Director of Red bull’s vaunted Junior
Driver Academy.
Lagrue reportedly has spent the last decade at
Mercedes in the same role, instrumental in Shepherding the likes of Curious
George (Russell) and Andrea Kimi Antonelli, the team’s current driver lineup.
Lagrue inherits the role that Der Helmut’, aka
Helmut Marco ran for some two decades before His ouster, err retiring in 2025…
The Red bull Junior Team has enabled the likes
of Christian Klien, Vitantonio Liuzzi, Daniel Ricciardo, Alexander Albon, Daniil
Kvyat, Pierre Gasly, Yuki Tsunoda, Liam Lawson and Isack Hadjar making it to
the Big Bulls’, aka Red Bull Racing.
The likes of Scott Speed, Sebastien Buemi,
Jaime Alguersuari, Brendon Hartley, Jean-Eric Vergne, Carlos Sainz Jr. and
Arvid Lindblad have driven for the various iterations of the ‘ill bullz’, i.e.;
Scuderia Toro Rosso, Scuderia AlphaTauri and Racing bulls.
Obviously the two most successful members of
the Red Bull Junior programme are ‘lil Syd Vidle’ and Circus Maximus, aka
Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen.
As both drivers are four-times Formula 1 World
champions. Verstappen being the sport’s third most successful driver with 73 wins and 50 poles to His credit, following the Singapore GP weekend.
Whilst Vettel currently ranks fourth overall
with 53 wins and 57 poles scored between 2008-2019, before retiring at season’s
end, 2022.
The third most successful Red Bull Junior Team
member is DannyRic’, aka Daniel Ricciardo, with the Aussie scoring seven of His
eventual eight career F1 wins at Red Bull.
While Pierre Gasly gave the junior team Racing
Bulls its second and most recent Grand Prix victory at Monza in 2020.
Thus, Lagrue will have His work cut out for Him
to add to this staggering promotion of Junior Drivers. Although his latest two
Silver Arrows graduates aren’t exactly slouches…
Meanwhile, just announced, was the signing of
somebody named robin Raikkonen to the Red bull Junior Team. With the 11-year-old
son of 2007 formula 1 World champion Kimi Raikkonen set to begin His Junior
programme next year in Karting.