Alonso doesn't agree: “There is a lack of opportunities for young people” | FP

A young man making his debut

Oliver Bearman's excellent debut in the last Saudi Arabian GP has once again opened the discussion on the talented young peopleand how they find it difficulty accessing Formula 1 as official pilots. Even though they are still linked to the teams' Academies, thanks to which they are able to carry out private tests or only the PL1 of some weekends of the season, the opportunities to be able to make the leap in quality in the Circus remain very limited, if not completely non-existent.

An occasional GP

Bearman himself took to the track in Jeddah exclusively to replace the unavailable Carlos Sainz, as happened in 2022 with Nyck de Vries in Williams (then promoted to AlphaTauri in 2023, with his adventure ending after 10 races), and last year with Liam Lawson, again in AlphaTauri, to replace the injured Ricciardo. However, the New Zealander's good performances have not encouraged Red Bull to focus on him, with the 22-year-old who today maintains the role of third driver in both Red Bull and Racing Bulls while competing in the Super Formula championship in Japan.

Alonso doesn't fit

The space and opportunities for young drivers can therefore be counted on the fingers of one hand, and this is also recognized by the man who, in today's F1, represents the longest-serving driver on the starting grid: Fernando Alonso. He himself, who will turn 43 at the end of July, highlighted this problem that denies young people the possibility of making the big leap, appealing to be able to grant more opportunities to the promises of the Circus: “It would be nice if there were more testing opportunitiesand some top teams can even afford to implement a support program with private testing in an old car for Formula 2 drivers.”declared the two-time world champion.

What discourages teams

“That's the way things are going in this sport at the moment, and we have many race weekends in which to compete. The teams are already working to the maximum, both in terms of budget and workload of the personnel on duty for the 24 races. I think that's why it is it is almost impossible to set up a test team as in the past to prepare the young drivers well – added the Spaniard – also Winter tests are very short; if you put a rookie in the car, he has exactly one and a half days of testing before the start of the season. It is possible that this discourages some team leaders from employing young drivers. There are things that don't go right and sometimes we pilots raise our voices. I hope that these too will be listened to.”