When has fairness ever happened in F1? It is all a factor of who you aligned yourself with.
Pourchaire was in the Sauber academy, Sauber academy is a mess, he pays the price. It has nothing to do with fairness or worth or who won what. How many F2 champions have never even sniffed an F1 seat?
From 2005 (when F2 was re-founded) to 2011, every F2 champion except Giorgo Pantano made it into F1. Valsecchi (2012) and Leimer (2013) didn’t make it, but again from 2014 to 2021 every single champion made it into F1. Drugovich and Pourchaire not so far.
Which is my point. Five out of 19 never made it and this year is looking doubtful (even with all the Audi rumours). Plus, once the driver academies came into being, winning F2 at the wrong time is a problem. Piastri being the clearest example, Alpine screwed up and he only made it to F1 because they are a terribly run team and McL poached him.
And fairness is an irrelevant concept in sports, there is no fairness and there never was. If there was, Jacques Villeneuve would have been kicked out of motorsports once he released his album.
Yeah the academies definitely stopped the idea of “if you win a junior championship you’re on a way to F1”. Nowadays it’s “if you’re in an academy you’re on a way to F1”. And winning a championship might only be a part of enabling you to get into an academy.
