The 2024 season will see the absence of rookies on the F1 grid. This has seemingly caught the eye of ex-F1 team boss, Eddie Jordan. Jordan, who gave Michael Schumacher his lucky break in the sport at the 1991 Belgian GP, had made a business out of signing young talent and then shipping them off to teams like Ferrari for huge sums of money. In this endeavor, he kept his team afloat, and the drivers got to showcase their talents to be poached by some of the biggest names in the sport.
On the Formula for Success podcast, the 75-year-old Irish businessman slammed the teams for having negative vision and foresight. Jordan blamed the teams for his unprecedented statistic this season.
“I really blame the ten teams. Shame on those teams for not making it their business to give young blood, young talent [a chance].”
Jordan’s initiative gave F1 arguably its greatest driver ever. Back in 1991, after his driver Bertrand Gachot was incarcerated for punching a London taxi driver, Jordan gave Schumacher a seat to make his iconic debut at the Spa Francorchamps circuit for the Belgian GP.
In all honesty, the 2024 grid was ripe for rookies. Certain teams had the opportunity to rotate the drivers around. However, in the end, they chose to go for stability instead. And we ended up with an identical grid from last year’s.
F2 stars who missed out on a 2024 F1 seat
Williams and Red Bull come out as the biggest examples of how rookies could have been accommodated on this year’s grid. Logan Sargeant had an underwhelming season behind the wheel of the FW45, scoring a single point. However, team principal, James Vowles decided to put his faith in the American driver. As a result, Sargeant will suit up for Williams again.
At Red Bull, Sergio Perez struggled to even score half as many points as his teammate, Max Verstappen. That being said, two early season race wins, and P2 in the driver’s standings probably saved Checo’s seat. There were rookies like Liam Lawson waiting in the sidelines, had Red Bull decided to let go of Perez.
️ “The shareholders, when they were resharpening things, they also said, ‘we want you to be competitive'”
AlphaTauri CEO Peter Bayer says the #F1 squad can no longer focus on preparing rookies as it relaunches in 2024 ⬇️https://t.co/wouXvQeMYf
— Motorsport.com (@Motorsport) January 21, 2024
Many promising candidates from F2 and other junior rosters missed out on an F1 seat. Theo Pourchaire, Frederik Vesti, Felipe Drugovich and F1’s super-sub Lawson would have been perfect candidates to round up the rookie class of 2024.
