Photo: Red Bull
The Mercedes-AMG and Red Bull Racing Formula 1 teams have released several of the young talents in their driver development programmes.
At Mercedes there are four departees: Yuanpu Cui, Julia Montlaur, Alex Powell and Noah Stromsted.
Powell joined in 2019, Cui had been a member since 2021 (with both signed while in karting), while Montlaur and Stromsted only spent one year with Mercedes’ backing.
Switching from the dominant Prema team to R-ace GP in Formula 4 last year sapped Powell’s career momentum. Although he started his third year in the category by being F4 Middle East runner-up, winning five races, he had a harder time in Europe. The Jamaican was fifth in E4 with one victory, and ninth in Italian F4 with two wins.
Cui spent one year in F4 before stepping up to Formula Regional, but had a chopped up 2025. He was points-free as a part-timer in FRegional Middle East, also failed to score from two rounds in the European championship and raced for two teams in GB3 where he did five of the eight rounds and two sixth places were his best results en route to 18th in the standings.
Stromsted’s run to sixth in the 2024 FREC season earned him a spot in the Mercedes-AMG F1 Junior Team, and with its backing he came sixth in the FIA Formula 3 Championship as a rookie with Trident. He took a sprint race win and two feature race podiums, and will remain with Trident for 2026.
The 12-year-old Montlaur hails from France, where she had raced in mini karting with little success before being signed by Mercedes. Last year she came 13th in the Champions of the Future Academy Program on OK-N Junior karts, and 21st in the French championship’s junior class.
At the Red Bull Junior Team, there is an exodus of six drivers including Formula E-bound Pepe Marti. Still in junior single-seaters, but no longer with Red Bull, are Jules Caranta, Christopher Feghali, Oliver Goethe, Niklas Schaufler and Tim Tramnitz.
Goethe and Tramnitz both spent two years as RBJT members, and came seventh and ninth respectively in the 2024 FIA F3 season. Tramnitz remained in the championship for 2025, improving to fourth in the points with one win, while Goethe stepped up to Formula 2 and came 15th. He had four top-five finishes but no podiums.
Caranta, Feghali and Schaufler were all 2025 signings. After coming third in French F4 as a single-seater rookie the preceding year, Caranta stepped up to Eurocup-3 with Red Bull’s backing and was seventh in the winter series then sixth in the main championship. Across the two, he netted five podium finishes.
Feghali and Schaufler went up against each other in Spanish F4 last year. It was Feghali who made the podium in both the main and winter championships, but Schaufler who scored more in both, coming seventh in the shorter campaign and 10th in the main one.