Is it time for young guns to have all 2nd seats in F1 teams?

[John S]

With the performances from Colapinto & Bearman at the Baku GP showing up more seasoned drivers is it time for a drastic shake up of the grid?

We know Toto has seen the light and put Antonelli in the Merc next year & Bearman will remain on the grid at Haas, plus Jack Doohan will be 2nd pilot at Alpine. Is it time for all the teams to free up space for a new recruit?

These young upstarts seem to innately have something that's lacking, or has fallen away, in journeyman F1 seat blockers.
Could it possibly be simple belief that more can be extracted from the cars? 

Sure top teams will argue that they need experienced drivers to get thru a full season at the top level and it's better to bed in rookies in back marker teams until they have mastered the craft. Isn't an alternate reality to this staid way of operating developing though? Take Oscar as an example; he was destined to join no hopers Alpine but instead jumped into the improving McLaren, now he's winning races in a dominant fashion.

Of course there's bound to be the odd failure, however there's a greater number of more mature failures on the grid this year - KMag, Bottas, Guanyu Zhou, Ocon, Danny Ric - to name most. One can also make a case for Perez & Stroll to be ousted.

I see only one choice for Red Bull main team next year alongside Max, and it's Liam Lawson with Issac Hadjar moved up from F2 to Vcarb alongside Tsunoda.

What's anyone else's thoughts on more rookies replacing dead wood on the grid?     

[Jericoke]

I certainly don't envy the decision makers in F1.

It used to be a sport of (for want of a better word) 'Men'.  Drivers had proven themselves in other series would get their shot at Formula One, run for a few years and either win, or move on (alas, many died). 

Then we success with young drivers in Alonso, Hamilton, Kimi and Vettel.  Suddenly F1 wasn't about having proven men, but instead young kids with potential.  Max proved that waiting until a driver had full cabinet of trophies was waiting too long.  We got Norris, LeClerc, Albon and Russell in response.

Then something changed again.  F1 cars were temperamental, the kids weren't beating the established drivers.  It appeared that experience was more important than potential.  Someone with maturity to lead a team instead of a wide eyed risk taker was what F1 needed.

Now in 2024 we've seen that there is no 'right' way to fill the seats in an F1 car.  Norris winning as a veteran, Piastri winning as a young gun, both on the same team in the same machinery.  McLaren split their bets, and... they both won.

As if this wasn't obvious with Hamilton, and Verstappen having success both as young guns and as veterans.  With Alonso constantly being seen as a great driver despite his age and team.  Good drivers are good drivers, no matter their age.  It's up to the teams to decide if someone is developing, like Norris, or ready now, like Piastri.

(And of course there's sponsorship deals.  If you can't find a winner, and have to choose between two pretty good drivers, why not take the one with massive sponsorship deals with entire countries?  If you're not going to win, might as well earn those extra millions)