For nearly a decade, the second-driver situation at Red Bull Racing has stopped the team from winning several Constructors’ titles.
The Austrian outfit had started the 2025 Formula One season with Kiwi rookie Liam Lawson as their second driver. However, the 23-year-old driver never looked comfortable in the Red Bull car, registering lap times significantly slower than teammate Max Verstappen.
Fuel loads and different race simulations were used as excuses for Pre-season Testing, but it all came crashing down during the first qualifying session of the season at Albert Park. Knocked out in Q1, Lawson’s lap time of 1:17.094 was more than a second slower than Verstappen’s.
The race wasn’t any different. As Verstappen challenged the McLaren drivers at the front, Lawson struggled to make any in-roads from the back of the field. In a rain-hit Australian Grand Prix, the Kiwi struggled for 46 laps before retiring from the race after hitting the barriers at Turn 2.
The Chinese Grand Prix didn’t bear any fruit either. After qualifying dead-last 20th on the grid, Lawson could only manage a P12 finish—that too after Charles Leclerc, Lewis Hamilton, and Pierre Gasly were disqualified following post-race inspections.
That was the final straw for Red Bull, who demoted the 23-year-old back to Racing Bulls and promoted Japanese driver Yuki Tsunoda in his stead from Round 3.
To be fair to him, Tsunoda has fared much better than either Lawson or Sergio Pérez (in his final races). However, he too has been succumbing to the same mysterious forces. While he was consistently just two to three tenths behind Verstappen during the practice sessions and Q1, one poor sector in his final Q2 run meant he started his home race from 15th, while the Dutchman stuck it on pole. Verstappen would eventually go on to win his fourth successive Japanese Grand Prix, while Tsunoda finished in P12, some 58 seconds behind his teammate.
With Verstappen having raced alongside three different teammates in four races, what is the primary reason for the second driver to keep failing when paired with the four-time World Champion?
Swapping Lawson and Tsunoda reflects poorly on Red Bull. If Tsunoda fails, it would be yet another bad choice that failed to solve a long-standing problem. If he succeeds, however, it would be a damning indictment of the process given he was passed over just a few months ago.
There’s nothing fundamentally wrong with Red Bull’s desire to have one lead driver and a number two. The trouble is, there’s more to being a number two than being slower than the leading driver. In the case of Red Bull, the gap to Verstappen has only widened in recent times, and the number of points the second driver has managed to pick up has hardly made any dent in the Constructors’ Standings.
Regardless of whether or not Tsunoda works out, something must change. Red Bull can continue on their well-established path of picking a solid number two, but this has been done so ineptly in recent years that whoever has taken the second seat has ended up failing to meet expectations.
Since the moment Daniel Ricciardo shocked the world by making a US$25m-per-year move to Renault rather than extending his stay for 2019, Red Bull’s failure has been relentless. Pierre Gasly had a half-season stint before being replaced by Alex Albon, who lasted 18 months. Then, at the end of the 2020 season, Red Bull picked Sergio Pérez—a logical choice at the time given how limited their options were.
In all fairness, Pérez did a fine job as a second driver for the first three seasons, finishing fourth, third, and second in the Drivers’ Standings, respectively, which resulted in Red Bull offering him a two-year extension midway through the 2023 season.
However, following his last podium for Red Bull at the 2024 Chinese Grand Prix, it all went downhill for the veteran Mexican. What started as a promising season for Pérez—with four podium finishes in the first five races of the season—ended with an eighth-place finish in the Drivers’ Standings without another trip to the podium. In the end, he lasted four seasons and had to be paid off at vast expense, only to be replaced by a driver who lasted just two events.
In an ideal world, Red Bull should be well placed when it comes to their drivers. Having a second team uniquely positions them to prepare and polish up-and-coming talent. Instead, most of these drivers fail to meet expectations in one way or another, suggesting that the problem lies not with the drivers themselves, but with the broader organisation responsible for acquiring and developing them.
At a time when teams like Mercedes and Ferrari are being increasingly rigorous and scientific in scouring the world for the next big thing, Red Bull’s hit-and-hope strategy comes off as absurd.
Another criticism levelled at Red Bull is that their car is being developed to exclusively suit Verstappen’s driving style, resulting in others struggling to cope with it.
Since the 2018 season, the Red Bull cars have responded well to the inputs of only one driver who has the skill set to control them and be the quickest without losing confidence and precision, so for a driver like Verstappen—like Michael Schumacher before him—it’s always difficult to find a teammate. Red Bull ought to be aware of how difficult it is to find candidates who can work with such machinery without being megastars in their own right.
The other issue is that Verstappen is a generational talent and exceptionally good at manipulating a difficult car. Give him a car with poor balance or inconsistencies, and he’ll still manage to get plenty out of it, all the while making a driver of Lawson’s quality—a proven points-scorer in VCARB machinery—look out of his depth.
First, Red Bull need to sharpen their young driver programme. Then, they ought to look at the people at the top—those tasked with deciding which driver gets promoted from Racing Bulls.
Red Bull cannot continue leaving this to chance. Their current approach has not only cost them championships but also an incalculable amount of money. Their driver development programme shouldn’t be limited to finding the next superstar—it should also focus on identifying the right seconds-in-command who can help them achieve their broader objectives.
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