Pepe Martí is one of three drivers supported by Red Bull who are competing in Formula 2 in 2025, the feeder category for Formula 1. He is represented by Fernando Alonso‘s management agency and has just started his second campaign on the cusp of the top category, where he achieved his first victory last year.
Pepe Martí is confident of moving up to Formula 1 as early as 2026
The Red Bull Junior Team, of which he is a member, Red Bull’s pool of young drivers, is once again the focus of attention after it was confirmed that Yuki Tsunoda will be Max Verstappen’s teammate in the Red Bull team from this third race in the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka. He will do so in place of Liam Lawson.
The New Zealander has suffered from the enormous limitations on testing that exist in Formula 1 today in his rise to Red Bull, and with the difficulties associated with the RB21. All of this shows the complexity, not only of the top category, but also of the demanding Red Bull universe, which Pepe Martí has been a part of since August 2023, when he made his first races in F2.
Pepe Martí is a 19-year-old driver from Valencia who, with Campos Racing supported by Red Bull this year, is looking to make the definitive leap that will take him to compete with the greats in Formula 1. With the new season already underway in Australia on March 15th, Pepe is fully in the pool of favorites. And he knows he must go for the title.
“The objective is clear. I want to be up front. I feel ready and eager. We have worked well in the preseason and we have already shown our potential from the first race,” said the Campos Racing driver, who finished eighth in the first race.
Pepe Martí is one of the favorites for the 2025 F2 title
After a year of learning, 2025 should be the consolidation of a driver loyal to his origins. Thus, Pepe Martí will continue to rely on the team that has accompanied him since the beginning of his career in single-seaters and therefore, the Barcelona-born driver will compete in his fifth season with Campos Racing.
Together with the Spanish team, Pepe has enjoyed various successes in the lower categories, including two victories in F4 and three in F3.
On this, and as he commented in an interview for the magazine Soymotor, the Spaniard is clear in his aspirations, which are none other than to get to Formula 1 sooner rather than later. Of course, everything must be done with the right amount of patience so as not to exceed the potential and talent that these kinds of drivers have, but on many occasions it is important to know that you must be prepared for any occasion in which F1 may call upon you. And the driver acknowledged this.
“F1 is the best there is in the world, so for me it’s what I’m working towards, it’s what I’m looking for. A lot of weight falls on 2025. In the end, it’s probably going to be my last chance to get into F1, so I have to give 100% right now to prepare for 2025 and give my all in any world,” he explained.
Therefore, and in his second season in F2, Martí definitely wants to make the most of his time with Racing Bulls to become an F1 driver as soon as possible. This is really within the possibilities of the Milton Keynes team and the bosses of the structure.
Well, given Lawson’s poor performance and seeing what Isack Hadjar, who also came up from F2 this year, can do, if the Spaniard has a flawless season, luck is on his side and he regularly stays ahead of Red Bull’s other protégés (the very young and talented Arvid Lindblad, who is making his debut this year, and Oliver Goethe) it is quite likely that he will be chosen to occupy one of the seats in the ‘B’ team of the energy drinks company.
“In the end, it is the academy that has promoted the most drivers to F1, it’s as simple as that. They are the ones that give the most opportunities and for me, the ones that prepare you best”, he said recently on El Larguero. I heard Bellingham say that if you wear a shirt that weighs a lot, you have to know how to carry the weight, and that’s how it is. So I’m trying to adapt to that, and if I keep doing well the goal is to be in F1, which is a much heavier shirt.
All in all, carrying out a good campaign in this decisive 2025 season would lead to achieving that long-awaited goal for the future. For now, and in his racing overalls, he has smiled again and remembered why Alonso noticed him so long ago. The Spanish national anthem that played at Yas Marina in the last race of 2024 may be the change of trend he needed to finish competing with the ‘big boys’ and be the third Spaniard on the grid.