Last Updated on March 30 2025, 2:15 pm

The age old troubles at Red Bull surround their inability to find a driver capable of living with the pace of quadruple Formula One champion, Max Verstappen. Daniel Ricciardo was the last Red Bull driver to beat the Dutchman in multiple seasons as Max now is handed his sixth team mate in less than eight seasons.

Sergio Perez fared well for his first three years alongside Verstappen, finishing in the drivers’ title race in P4, P3 and then giving the team their first 1-2 in their record breaking season of 2023.

Come the start of 2024, the decision to retain the Mexican driver looked to be a good one as he followed up his team mates wins in the opening two rounds with a second place. After five rounds of the year, Checo remained in P2 in the drivers’ championship some 27 points ahead of Lando Norris, who would eventually challenge Verstappen in the closing rounds of the year.

 

 

 

Perez offered an ‘apology’ from Red Bull engineers

Yet come round six in Miami, everything was to change for the world champions. Their first big upgrade of the season made the RB20 far more difficult to drive and across the remaining nineteen Grand Prix weekends, Perez was to score just a further 67 points.

Sergio had outlined to the team the difficulties he was facing with the handling of his Red Bull and come Singapore he revealed a number of the engineers had apologised for not hearing him sooner.  

“To be fair, even some of the engineers after Monza came to me and did apologise, in a way, because now it’s a lot clearer, the issues that I was talking about,” the Mexico reported in the paddock to assembled media.

There were flashes that the revised RB20 now suited Sergio better and in Baku but for his penultimate lap collision with Carlos Sainz, the Red Bull driver was set to challenge for a podium finish. Yet the gold between Max and Sergio continued to grow with the inevitable decision being made to terminate the Mexican’s contract a year early.

Surprise driver Horner wished to sign, but Marko insisted on juniors

 

 

 

RB21 minuscule operating window

Of course the Liam Lawson choice to replace Perez has proven a disastrous decision for the Red Bull team. His complete inability to get on top of the RB21 has now forced the team to switch him and Tsunoda for the upcoming Japanese Grand Prix.

Yet if its the car that is so problematic, its difficult to see how Yuki will fair much better than did his Kiwi predecessor. Now Red bull have decided its time to give the team mate of Verstappen a different car to drive than that of the world champion.

The problem with the Red Bull 2025 F1 challenger has been described by both Verstappen and Christian Horner as having an extremely narrow operating window to extract the performance capabilities. Clearly the inexperienced Lawson with just eleven grand prix weekends under his belt prior to joining Red Bull was unable to find that needle in a haystack.

Of course Yuki Tsunoda is far more experienced than Lawson and his 90 Grand Prix starts may well be the difference between the Kiwi and the Japanese driver’s ability to maximise the car’s potential. Yet Red Bull have decided to change their approach to the team mate of Max, stating Yuki will have a different setup to the world champion.

Cadillac hint at Checo F1 return

 

 

 

Setup can fundamentally change an F1 car

Setup is a broad brush description which describes a number of potential ways they base line of the car design can be altered. Its not merely the downforce adjustments made from changing wings and their angle of attack, but it encompasses ride height, stiffness of the suspension, amount of anti dive and roll inputs along with a host of other changes which can be made to the baseline machine.

Many of these setup decisions cannot be adjusted in parc ferme and so come the start of qualifying in Japan, Yuki’s car will be predominantly ‘setup’ for the rest of the weekend. The differences in setup of the same F1 car can be extreme, as though each driver is driving a different car to some extent. So Yuki is set to drive a different version of the RB21 in Japan this weekend to that of his team mate Max Verstappen.

Speaking with Motorsport.com, Dr. Helmut Marko was questioned over the extreme sensitivity of the Red Bull cars, which only Verstappen can handle it seems. “And that’s exactly what makes it so difficult for the second driver. But we’ve already been thinking about setting up the second car differently — with a less aggressive set-up. Something that makes it easier to handle,” revealed the 82 year old Austrian.

Marko given enough rope to hang himself

 

 

 

Lawson will do better with the Racing Bulls

Marko continues explaining the excessive sensitivity of the Red Bull car was the reason the decision was made to exit Lawson “so early,” because the car was “extremely difficult to drive” even for Max Verstappen. The Dutchman told the F1 media in China how tough the RB21 was to maximise, even suggesting Lawson’s results would be better were he racing the more benign Racing Bull machine.

“Max argued that the car is very difficult to drive, and that if the car were better, Lawson’s performance would improve as well. Of course, we’re working on further development, but at the moment, it’s hard to predict how quickly that will come,” Marko adds.

Ex-F1 driver Ralf Schumacher theorised this week, that Formula 2 is doing the young drivers no favours, as it allows them to develop certain driving habits, which are useless if translated into Formula One.

Marko threatens to walk away from Red Bull’s junior academy job

 

 

 

Yuki takes on ‘the most difficult job in F1’

Marko dismisses this theory citing the examples of F2 drivers who are thriving in their first full F1 season. “If we take [Isack] Hadjar as an example — he’s driving the Racing Bulls car — and I’d say he made a very good debut, aside from his mistake on the formation lap [in Melbourne],” noted the Red Bull advisor.

“I don’t see Formula 2 being tailored to any specific Formula 1 style or car. The cars are so different. And this Max-specific set-up — we’ve already discussed that. It’s something only he can handle, and for everyone else, it’s extremely difficult to cope with his kind of car,” Marko concluded.

Red Bull deny year after year their car is designed specifically to suit Max Verstappen’s driving requirements, but are now forced to admit his setup is too extreme for any other driver to cope with. Of course it begs the question why Red Bull could not have recognised this without sacking Lawson and offering him different setup to Verstappen, but that point is not moot and it is Tsunoda’s turn to take on the “most difficult job in F1” as Christian Horner describes it.

Las Vegas F1 U-Turn: Tickets for $50

 

 

 

 

What iff??? the various scenarios for Red Bull in Japan

The Formula One Japanese Grand Prix has never been so eagerly anticipated since its move from the traditional autumn slot on the calendar to springtime with the famous cherry blossom bloom. The Red Bull driver switch, promoting Tsunoda alongside Max Verstappen and the demotion of Lawson to the Racing Bulls will provide a fascinating watch from the very first minute of Friday practice.

A range of scenarios are possible given the VCARB02 has debuted in 2025 in spectacular fashion. For the first time in his career, the Japanese driver has qualified his car in the top ten on three consecutive occasions and each time being way ahead of the number two Red Bull car.

The Racing Bulls should have way more points than their paltry three which is predominantly due to poor tyre strategy choices made by the team in both Australia and China. Despite this, their car looks to have front running pace amongst those outside the top four teams and with rookie Isack Hadjar pulling off a remarkable P7 in qualifying for the Chinese GP, expectations for the season in Faenza are high…. READ MORE