Red Bull Racing have struggled to replace Daniel Ricciardo as a competitive partner for Formula One world champion Max Verstappen since the Australian left the team for Renault in 2019. In a bizarre irony Christian Horner et al thought they could solve the problem by re-recruiting the Aussie when he was let go from his McLaren contract.

Yet the expected promotion for Ricciardo to replace Sergio Perez never came and it was the Aussie waving tearful farewell to F1 following the 2024 Singapore Grand Prix. Whilst the team briefly flirted with the idea of going externally for Franco Colapinto, the decision over who will partner Max next year came down to Yuki Tsunoda and Liam Lawson.

In an inexplicable decision, Red Bull opted for the New Zealand born driver despite him having been out qualified 6-0 by his Japanese team mate in the six Grand Prix weekends together at the end of the year. Dr. Marko has ale=ready warned Lawson that the challenge ahead is great.

 

 

 

Marko sets out Lawson’s task

“He should be able to stay within three tenths of Max both in qualifying and in the races,” Marko told Sport.de. “That should be enough to accumulate points for the constructors’ championship. Gradually he will have to improve as much as possible, but always keeping in mind that he is driving alongside the best F1 driver at the moment. 

“In doing so, he should not get involved in the technical side of things, such as setups and strategies, for example, something other team-mates have done in the past. Liam will have to accept that Verstappen is the best. We will see how close he can get, but he should not get in the car with the aim of beating Verstappen. That has gone wrong with all his teammates.”

This would not be the messaging had Daniel Ricciardo been appointed and in some way makes Lawson’s task even more difficult. 

RB explain why Ricciardo F1 return failed

 

 

 

Red Bull internal difficulties

The unbreakable bond between Max Verstappen and his Red Bull Formula One family was tested to the limit this season. Such were the internal struggles for power in the vacuum left by founder Didi Mateschitz, the Austrian registered parent company who own the racing divisions were at risk of alienating their star driver.

At the second race of the 2024 season in Qatar, to emerged that Dr. Helmut Marko could be facing suspension and would therefore not be present at round three in Australia. Asked about the possibility of a suspension being imposed from Monday, Marko said: “I’ll put it this way, it’s difficult to judge, or let’s put it this way, ultimately, I’ll decide for myself what I do. The theoretical possibility always exists.”

One week earlier an anonymous email had landed in around 150 of the paddocks most senior personnel propitiating to contain documents pertaining to the hearing which exonerated Christian Horner against allegations of “inappropriate and controlling” behaviour towards a female employee. Dr. Helmut Marko was suspected as being involved.

 

 

 

 

Verstappen and Horner debate parting ways

This drew Max Verstappen into the conversation for the first time and the world champion gave the indication if his mentor and friend was removed from the team, he may have to consider his position.

Of course Max Verstappen holds a long term contract which should see him remain with the Milton Keynes based team until the end of the 2028 campaign. And if there was any doubt the threat was real, Horner himself addressed the issue directly with Sky F1.

“It’s like anything in life, you can’t force somebody to be somewhere just because of a piece of paper,” said the Red Bull team boss. “If somebody didn’t want to be in this team, then we’re not going to force somebody against their will to be here. That applies whether it is a machine operator or a designer or someone in one of the support functions that runs through the business.”

Despite the regular distractions and calls for transparency from the likes of Zak Brown and Toto Wolff who appeared to take high moral ground, Max and Red Bull were winning seven from the first ten Grand Prix and come Austria in June, the Red. Bull internal issues appeared to have calmed down.

Perez switch to Ferrari

 

 

 

Red Bull spoken with Norris twice

Yet with the first chink in the collective front of Verstappen and Red Bull exposed, the speculation turned to where Max might go. Toto Wolff made the biggest amount of noise about recruiting the world champion, but of course Ferrari and McLaren, his only other realistic choices, were committed to the end of 2026 with their current driver rosters.

Given Red Bull’s success since the latest big FIA car design regulation changes, Verstappen was clearly going to remain with Red Bull until after the first year of the team producing its own powertrains in 2026. Then were Mercedes to once again produce the dominant car of the field as they did in 2014, the temptation for Verstappen would possibly be too much to refuse.

In the meantime the paddock talk turned to how Red Bull Racing would replace such a once in a generation driver. It soon became apparent that the team had twice attempted to recruit Lando Norris from McLaren. Team boss Christian Horner admitted to assembled media in Hungary: “We’ve spoken with Lando a couple of times over the years, but every time we’ve had a conversation, the next day he’s signed a contract with McLaren.”

It would not have been an easy call for Norris to refuse given the previous 14 Formula One campaigns have been won by either a Mercedes or a Red Bull driver. Yet maybe inexperience or a wariness of going up against the best driver of this generation was of concern for the young Lando and on each occasion he appeared to quickly high tail it home to find his quill and papaya parchment.

Criticism mounts over Red Bull driver choice

 

 

 

Piastri sub-par qualifying

Today Sky Germany commentator Sascha Roos claims Red Bull “would like to sign Oscar Piastri” in future, particularly if Max Verstappen chooses to leave the team.

Piastri signed a three year contract after impressing during his rookie season, but its termination coincides with when Verstappen may be looking around should Red Bull fail on delivering their first F1 power unit.

Piastri has had his battles this year and was comprehensively beaten in the intra team qualifying battle 21-3 in the Grand Prix and 4-2 in the Sprint. The young Aussie reflected in Abu Dhabi on how he will target his improvement in 2025. “I think, you know, the biggest one has been leaving a few too many positions on the table in qualifying.

“I don’t think I’ve ever really made life easy for myself in the races, in that aspect. So, I think that’s definitely the big focus of the off-season, just trying to get those last hundredths, last tenths.”

Montoya to Verstappen: “I would be seriously concerned”

 

 

 

Aussie better racing than qualifying

Piastri is correct and the data supports hi views. Lando’s average start position this year was 3.38 to Oscar’s 5.42, just over two positions. Yet when we compare the classified race results the numbers are closer with Norris averaging 4.29 and Oscar less than a place behind on 5.13.

Of course Norris is the far more experienced team mate having racked up 128 F1 starts to Piastri’s 46 and this became evident as later in the season Oscar was asked to support his team mate in the chase for the drivers’ championship.

When asked on the grid about the supporting role he’d been asked to play, Piastri played down the fact team orders had been issued, but was clearly never happy with the situation. F1 drivers easily get labeled as a number two as did Rubens Barrichello alongside Michael Schumacher and Felipe Massa when his team mate was Fernando Alonso.

Mark Webber who is Piastri’s manager knows all too well how it turns out when an F1 team falls in behind a single driver. Webber raced against Sebastian Vettel during his four world championship seasons (2010-14) and the German was clearly the quicker of the two drivers and even when the team favoured Webber in Malaysia with the multi-21 call, Vettel ignored it and stole the race from his team mate.

Wolff reveals Mercedes mistake with Antonelli

 

 

 

Piastri a number two at McLaren?

Memories of this may have been the reason that Dr. Helmut Marko claimed back in October that Webber was “intensively seeking a conversation” with Red Bull Racing. This was around the time McLaren decided to issue team orders, after the debacle in Monza which handed Charles Leclerc what should have been a McLaren victory.

Red Bull have two years to be ready for a potential exit of their start driver and are looking to establish quickly which of their young drivers will make the grade. Liam Lawson has been handed the poisoned chalice of the 2025 Red Bull drive where after just 11 Grand Prix weekends, he will face one of the toughest team mates in the history of F1.

Yuki Tsunoda looks to be seeing out his final season with the Red Bull junior team before Honda move on to Aston Martin. And while the Red Bull team are pinning their hopes on young Arvid Lindblad who will debut in F2 this year, the earliest he would be ready to step up could be in 2026.

How Piastri fits into a team which contains Lindbald and Verstappen is unclear, but should Verstappen leave his Red Bull family this would clear the way for Piastri to join Arvid in Milton Keynes for 2027.

FIA “too fussy” says former president

 

 

 

 

Alpine built a whole “new car” late in 2024 season

Alpine have been one of the most ridiculed teams this year in Formula One. The French owned squad began the season with a car vastly overweight and uncompetitive then an internal row in Monaco mid-way threatened to tear the team apart as Esteban Ocon collided with his team mate on the red flagged opening lap of the Monaco Grand Prix.

Team boss Bruno Famin was live on French TV at the time and his response to Ocon’s collision with his team mate left some paddock observers incredulous. “This is exactly what we didn’t want to see. Esteban’s attack was completely inappropriate… We will examine the consequences. We’re going to decide whilst it’s still raw.”

Prior to the restart, Ocon was seen leaving the paddock dressed down in civvies with his rucksack slung over his shoulder, clearly the debrief had been extremely short. The consequences were crystal clear before the next Grand Prix weekend as the team and Ocon announced they would be parting company at the end of the year… READ MORE