Eddie Jordan denounces the absence of rookies in 2024
The 20 drivers on the 2024 grid will be the same as in 2023. There have been no transfers between teams, and no rookies have arrived in F1. For Eddie Jordan, the absence of a young driver promoted this year is "upsetting and scandalous".
For the first time in modern F1 history, the grid for the 2024 season will be exactly the same as in 2023. Except for Daniel Ricciardo who replaced Nyck de Vries after ten races with AlphaTauri, all drivers will be driving for the same teams as the previous season.
However, some young drivers could have had their chance, this is notably the case of Liam Lawson who filled in for Daniel Ricciardo after the Australian’s injury in Zandvoort, during which the rookie scored two points in Singapore. Théo Pourchaire, last year’s F2 champion, could have been in contention for Zhou Guanyu’s seat, especially after the press mentioned delays in payment from the Chinese driver’s sponsors.
Shame on those teams for not doing their job of providing young blood.
While teams have chosen stability by retaining their driver duos, Eddie Jordan, who launched Michael Schumacher in F1 in 1991, criticized the paddock teams in the podcast Formula For Success for not appointing any young drivers.
I am so upset. Honestly, I can’t tell you how upsetting this is. And I’m really mad at the 10 teams. It’s scandalous. The vision and foresight are negative, Eddie Jordan fumes.
I am thinking of all the big teams and all the small teams. Shame on these teams for not doing their job of providing young blood, young talents, and giving us in the media something we can grasp and say who was the best recruit of the year,” the Irishman continues.
One of the people I would really watch is Liam Lawson. I think he did a good job last year. There’s a young name that people probably don’t know, he’s Brazilian, and we need a Brazilian back in F1. That’s Felipe Drugovich. Because Brazil is a big commercial market, we’ve seen what happened with Piquet, Senna, and Fittipaldi, the great champions they were able to produce. There’s a great story in Brazil,” concludes the septuagenarian.
