Red Bull has announced its full line-up of Formula 1 juniors for 2023 including six drivers who will race in Formula 2.
Dennis Hauger and Ayumu Iwasa remain in the series following their race-winning rookie campaigns last year. Jak Crawford and Isack Hadjar have been promoted together from FIA Formula 3 to race for Hitech GP.Red Bull’s F2 sextet is completed by Enzo Fittipaldi and Zane Maloney, who have been added to the junior team and will be team mates at Carlin. Fittipaldi picked up six podiums as an F2 rookie in 2022 with Charouz Racing System, and now moves to a more competitive team, while Maloney was championship runner-up in FIA F3 with Trident and makes a full-time move up to F2 after making his debut in last year’s finale.
They join the Red Bull Junior Team as F2 race-winner Jehan Daruvala and F3 racer Jonny Edgar are dropped, and it means just three vacant seats remain on the F2 grid for 2023.
Sebastian Montoya, who was announced by Red Bull earlier this month, will be the brand’s only junior in F3 this year. The son of F1 race-winner Juan Pablo Montoya will drive for Hitech, who are running Red Bull juniors further down the single-seater ladder too.
Honda junior Souta Arao will drive for the team in Britain’s GB3 series Arvid Lindblad, currently one of Hitech’s drivers in Formula 4 United Arab Emirates, will switch to Prema for his European racing campaigns in the category.
Liam Lawson takes over the RBJT-sponsored seat in Super Formula, meaning Ren Sato has been shown the exit door Two other departures from Red Bull’s roster are Formula Regional racer Noel Leon and former Honda junior Yuto Nomura.
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The two youngest additions to the RBJT are Enzo Deligny and Enzo Tarnvanichkul, both stars of the international karting scene last year.
Deligny will step up to car racing with Campos Racing in Spanish F4, having been one of the top rookies in senior karting in 2022. The 14-year-old Frenchman was second in the WSK Euro Series and fourth in the CIK-FIA European championship.
Due to his age, 13-year-old Thai driver Tarnvanichkul will remain in karting and will compete for a factory-backed Kart Republic team. He was the CIK-FIA World Karting champion on OK-Junior karts in 2022, was the WSK Final Cup runner-up and fifth in the CIK-FIA European championship.
2023 Formula 2 driver line-up
| Team | Drivers | |
|---|---|---|
| MP | Dennis Hauger | TBC |
| Carlin | Enzo Fittipaldi | Zane Maloney |
| ART | TBC | TBC |
| Prema | Frederik Vesti | Oliver Bearman |
| Hitech | Jak Crawford | Isack Hadjar |
| DAMS | Ayumu Iwasa | Arthur Leclerc |
| Virtuosi | Jack Doohan | Amaury Cordeel |
| PHM by Charouz | Roy Nissany | Brad Benavides |
| Trident | Clement Novalak | Roman Stanek |
| Van Amersfoort | Richard Verschoor | Juan Manuel Correa |
| Campos | Ralph Boschung | Kush Maini |
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Formula 2
- F2 champion Pourchaire to make IndyCar debut for McLaren at Long Beach
- Prema announce move into IndyCar with new two-car team in 2025
- “In my mind I won twice this weekend” says Hadjar after penalty
- Fortune finally favours Hadjar with Melbourne feature race win
- Bearman loses first F2 point of 2024 after penalty
Todfod (@todfod)
18th January 2023, 11:43
Red Bull’s junior program has adopted a quantity, instead of a quality approach. Nissany… Jeez!
BamBoomBots
18th January 2023, 13:40
Where do you see that Nissany is now a member of the RB junior team?
The table below the article is an overview of all confirmed F2 drivers and their teams for 2023, not an overview of all Red Bull Juniors.
Jere (@jerejj)
18th January 2023, 14:10
@BamBoomBots Only an indirect reference to him talent-wise.
Jere (@jerejj)
18th January 2023, 14:14
I thought Daruvala would continue, but apparently, not after all. I guess the plan regarding him changed later.
mmertens (@mmertens)
18th January 2023, 15:23
I wasn’t surprised to be honest. He didn’t perform as expected last year. It wasn’t bad by any means, but when you in Prema at F2, the expectations is to be fighting for the title, and Jehan never looked like a real contender. He has talent, but I am afraid he lost his best opportunity to shine. Let’s see how it goes now.
Minardi (@gitanes)
18th January 2023, 18:00
Geez does this mean all 6 will be in full Red Bull livery? I have to say that takes away from the ability to discern each team on TV; last year it was anyone’s guess who was on screen although Hauger’s car had some turquoise on top. Would rather see each team separate themselves with unique liveries.
For the record, Fittipaldi seems a good pick-up – he’s been very impressive in F2 so far and I have huge expectations now that he’s in the Carlin team.
Dani B. Molina (@esmiz)
18th January 2023, 22:21
So out of the twelve, three are named Enzo. Curious.
Nasir
19th January 2023, 2:00
Will be surprised if Jack Doohan does not win the championship this year. Maloney, Hadjar and Bearman among the rookies to shine.
ruliemaulana (@ruliemaulana)
19th January 2023, 9:04
So half F2 drivers are Red Bulls? Why is that legal? I don’t hear any pressure to make any driver to give special treatment for the team favorite in F2 like Toto did to George before, but one team dominate a competition can’t be a good thing.
Shimks (@shimks)
19th January 2023, 11:22
I am very excited to see what Zane Maloney and especially Isack Hadjar can do in F2. Hadjar was super impressive for most of the 2022 F3 season until his nerves got the better of him towards the end. Hopefully he has learnt some important lessons from this experience.