Inside Red Bull's F1 driver programme as young racers fight to keep their places
Aspiring Formula 1 driver Enzo Fittipaldi has opened up on the fierce competition between himself and his fellow Red Bull starlets.
The Brazilian racer is a member of the team's prestigious academy, from which many F1 drivers past and present have graduated. And Fittipaldi reached another milestone last weekend as he won in Formula 2 for the first time.
But Fittipaldi is far from the only one with the same dream. In Formula 2 alone there are five other drivers currently being supported by Red Bull – the others being his Rodin Carlin team-mate Zane Maloney; Ayumu Iwasa; Dennis Hauger; Jak Crawford and Isack Hadjar.
With so many prospects on the books and so few places in F1 up for grabs, Fittipaldi knows he has to do everything he can to stand out from the crowd. "It's very competitive between us," the 22-year-old told Mirror Sport.
"At the end of the day, all six of us, the Red Bull drivers who are in Formula 2, we all have the same dream and goal. It's very competitive, but competitive is good. It pushes me personally to work harder and to try to improve myself every single day. It's healthy to have this type of competition."
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F2 isn't the only place where Red Bull juniors can be found. All six of them in that series are arguably lower down in the pecking order than Liam Lawson, who is fighting for the title in the Japanese Super Formula series and is believed to be at the front of the queue if an AlphaTauri F1 race seat becomes available at the end of this season.
Enzo Fittipaldi signed as a Red Bull academy driver at the end of last year (Getty Images)And then there are a few others still early in their journeys. Sebastian Montoya races in Formula 3, Arvid Lindblad and Enzo Deligny race in various F4 championships and karting world champion Enzo Tarnvanichkul is the youngest of them all.
Being named Enzo apparently gives you a good chance of being supported by Red Bull. But of course results are what the team is after and, given the expense of supporting young drivers in single-seater racing, it is believed Red Bull wants to cut the size of its junior team after this season.
"I haven't actually seen that," said Fittipaldi when that was put to him. The Brazilian has not been made aware of any such plan internally. And, in any case, he is adamant that he is "just focussed on doing my job in my Formula 2 season and securing great results until the end of the season".
In any case, he is fully aware of what he need to do in order to give himself the best chance of achieving his dream. "When you're in Formula 2 and your goal is to make it to Formula 1, no matter what position you're in or what junior team, if you want to make it then you have to perform.
"That's my ultimate goal and, without performance, there is no Formula 1. If you're performing then you have a shot, so that's the most important thing. You have to stay focused on what you're doing, try to improve every race weekend, always try to make a step forward and learn something and obviously chase those very good results.
"For this year, the title is still open with three race weekends left and a lot of points on the table. But, realistically, my goal is to finish in the top three. That's what I'm focussed on. We've closed the gap a good amount to third in the championship and that's my goal at the moment. The top two are a little bit further ahead.
Honestly, I haven't even thought about next season. I'm just focussed on my last three race weekends, doing my best. And then, more towards the end of the season, we can start to think about what the plans are for next season."
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