Is the junior pathway to F1 actually ‘broken’?

A common complaint among fans of Formula 1’s main feeder series, Formula 2 and Formula 3, is that drivers rarely get the chance to progress into race seats in the top tier. Championship-winning talents have often been forced to sit on the sidelines in a reserve capacity and wait until an established name retires.

This was especially evident in the off-season last year, when there were no changes to the F1 grid whatsoever. But fast forward 12 months, and the grid will have a very different look for 2025, with at least four fresh faces set to feature. What those already confirmed – Andrea Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes), Jack Doohan (Alpine), Oliver Bearman (Haas) and Gabriel Bortoleto (Sauber) – all have in common is their time spent climbing the established ladder.

With this in mind, it should be acknowledged that this piece may have looked somewhat different were it written at the same time last term, such is the nature of recency bias. To come to a conclusion on the matter, Autosport spoke to a variety of sources with in-depth experience of the system to consider their opinions.

The boss

As the CEO of F2 and F3, Bruno Michel will always put a positive spin on the topic of whether the system works in its current guise. But a key factor in assessing whether the system is broken is understanding the metric by which success, and equally failure, is measured.

Explaining this, Michel tells Autosport: “At the end of the day, the most important thing for us is to make sure that the drivers that will be in Formula 1 are ready for Formula 1. That’s our job and that is where you can see that the pyramid is working because when drivers are getting to Formula 1, they are ready.”

While it is largely true that drivers making the step up have been ready for F1, it remains the case that not all champions or other top talent are able to make the leap for one reason or another.

One such example was arguably Logan Sargent, who struggled at Williams before being dropped midway through 2024 with Franco Colapinto stepping up from the junior category.

Believing that the difference in car specification and philosophy from F2 to F1 at that point had played a part – F2 having then run the same car since 2019 and F1 shifting to ground effect technology in 2022 – the American told Autosport: “F2 is a great series that has great drivers, but I think the gap between the cars is probably a bit too big for what it should be.