MOTORSPORT: Red light for youngsters in F1

Daniel Ricciardo wouldn't have got his start in Formula One as early as he did under new rules to be introduced next year.

Nor would Sebastian Vettel, Fernando Alonso, Kimi Raikkonen and Jenson Button. Even Ayrton Senna.

Max Verstappen from The Netherlands will become the youngest F1 driver in history when he makes his GP race debut at this season's opening Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne in mid-March at 17.

Verstappen was only 16 when Scuderia Toro Rosso announced last year that it was giving him a race seat this year.

But from next year a driver will have to be 18 to race in F1, to have passed an "exam" on the sport's rules, to have raced cars for at least two years and to have accumulated enough points under a new scoring system being introduced. Then they will still have to have done at least 300km in an F1 car at race speeds over two days at an official test to obtain the required F1 superlicence.

The new rules will mitigate against not only young drivers but also those who have the sponsorship to buy their way into F1 despite modest form in lesser categories.

Motorsport's world governing body, the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), flagged its opposition to drivers it considered too young and inexperienced late last year and this week it has announced the criteria they must meet from the start of the 2016 season.

Ricciardo would have met the minimum age limit if these rules had been in place when he made his F1 debut in 2011 – he had just turned 22 when he first raced in the British GP with now-defunct Spanish team HRT on loan from Red Bull and its junior team Toro Rosso – but his second place in the 2010 Formula Renault 3.5 would not have earned him enough points.

In 2014 he won three GPs with Red Bull Racing – the only driver other than Mercedes factory pair Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg to stand on the top step of the podium in the season.

The FIA has named five championships in which, from next year, young drivers will be able to accumulate points towards F1 eligibility.

One of them does not even exist yet – an FIA-sanctioned Formula Two.

The other four are the existing GP2, the European Formula Three Championship, America's IndyCar and the World Endurance Championship for sports cars.

Drivers will need to accumulate 40 points over up to three seasons.

Winning the Euro F3, IndyCar or WEC will earn a driver 40 points, while becoming GP2 champion will be worth 50, and F2 – if it ever happens – 60.

Winning GP3 or Formula Renault 3.5 will be worth only 30 points.

Points towards F1 eligibility will be awarded down to 10th place in each of what the FIA deems the main seven development categories, down to eighth in Japan's Super Formula, and to fifth in four other categories.

Verstappen, a 2013 world karting champion whose father raced in more than 100 GPs and who at one time was Michael Schumacher's teammate, not only would not meet the age criteria this year under next year's rules but he would have only half the necessary 40 points and would have do another year in a junior formula – and do well in it.

He finished third in Euro F3 last year, which would have earned him only 20 eligibility points.

Verstappen's teammate at Toro Rosso will be 20-year-old Spaniard Carlos Sainz Junior, (pictured together) who does not have what next year will be the required points either.

Despite winning last season's Formula Renault 3.5, Sainz has accumulated only 38 points over the past three years.

Image: Toro Ross Facebook