Red Bull announce F2 and F3 seats for junior drivers, with Daruvala set to stay with Carlin for 2021

The Red Bull Junior Team have announced the locations of their Formula 2 and Formula 3 drivers for the 2021 campaign, including an increase in faith in Hitech Grand Prix, with no fewer than four drivers earning a seat with the Silverstone based outfit.

Former F3 title contenders Liam Lawson and Juri Vips will both make the step up to F2 full-time and 2020 race-winner Jehan Daruvala retains his seat with Carlin in F2

15-year-old Jak Crawford and Honda-backed Ayumu Iwasa will enter F3, while Jonny Edgar joins Carlin’s F3 team. Fellow Red Bull prospect Dennis Hauger has already been announced with 2020 champions PREMA in F3.

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Hitech – who are owned by former Red Bull junior Oliver Oakes – led Vips to a fourth-place finish in the 2019 F3 Championship, while Lawson took fifth with them in the third-tier last season.

Vips already has experience in F3, enjoying a three-round stint with DAMS last season, where he scored 16 points, including a podium.

The Estonian tested for Red Bull in the end-of-season young driver test at Abu Dhabi and also served as the team’s reserve driver towards the end of the campaign.

Lawson scored six podiums, including three wins, in F3 last season with Hitech and will make his debut in F2.

Daruvala was snapped up by Red Bull on the back of a title contending season in F3. The Indian was promoted into the top tier of junior motorsport with Carlin, where he claimed two podiums, including a maiden win in the season finale.

Red Bull added Honda-backed Iwasa to their junior programme after he won the French F4 title in 2020, scoring nine wins and 15 podiums overall.

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American racer Crawford will only turn 16 in May but steps up on the back of finishing second in ADAC Formula 4, just two-points off champion, and fellow Red Bull junior, Jonny Edgar.

Crawford will be joined in F3 by his ADAC title rival, with Edgar earning a seat at Carlin for the 2020 campaign. The British racer took six wins and five podiums on his way to the title, dovetailing this with a successful programme in Italian F4, where he clinched a further six podiums and two wins.

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