One thing, Kvyat wasn't really in "that other seat" he was in Max's seat and was a victim of circumstance, Red Bull wanted to get Max in the main team as quickly as possible in case they lost him and despite beating Danny the previous season, Kvyat was the one sacrificed
I feel like some Need for Speed quotes fit well with F1. Like here's another example: "Not all races are won on the track." - Jean Todt to Frank Williams and Ron Dennis in 2003 (line was said by Darius from NFS Carbon and the quote is used by me as a reference to the tyre related shenanigans of 2003).
I'm more interested in what the Red Bull driver situation says about the management of the team. Giving Checo the contract extension in the summer was weird: contrary to all expectation at the time and seemingly out of character with the Christian Horner of old. So was bringing Daniel back, tbh. Either Horner is losing his touch, or he is being overruled, neither of which is ideal.
Exactly, given his form last year and at the start of this year I can't imagine why RB accepted that deal without huge "if you don't improve by YYYYMMDD date goodbye, no ifs ands or buts" written in a way that left no wiggle room or interpretation. As a Mexican I've seen a lot of deluded fans saying unbelievably unrealistic things, to put it very charitably but also reasonable and good points lost in the noise.Something I think everyone can agree on: he was not performing and the Mexican GP where he was a non participant drove the point home to anybody who was watching, the good ambiance when Ferrari won, and the historically close ties with the Scuderia, should clue you in on how they're going to be received in 2025, and how the Foro Sol would react to a Hamilton or Leclerc podium/win next year. But in any case for Checo, he did well enough in 2021, 2022 and saved face in 2023, even if the car went in a direction where he didn't like it, and the team admitted as much this year, saying they where essentially ignoring his feedback for a while (I do wonder if this point was critical in him getting the afforementioned extension). And to your point, I also wonder what's going on with the team. Dispassionately, even assuming Checo was in better form and stayed, I'm concerned for RB going forward if the complications faced in 2024 are a sign of what's to come next year, and crucially, for 26. I guess we'll have to wait and see.
@@zeroelus I know Sergio has Mega Fans in Mexico, but they can't be that impressed with what they've seen the last two years in Mexico City. Don't be surprised if Daniel Suárez, his amigos and the NASCAR boys outdraw the F1 crowd next year. I predict a certain Kiwi to beat them all at El Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez. Who knows, the fans might get to see some passing in the old baseball stadium.
@@GregBrownsWorldORacing I had friends go to both last year and this years race, last year the atmosphere was insane....until he crashed and turned a party into a funeral, and those where the pretty much exact words 2 different friends viewing the race from different parts of the track said of it. This year another friend went, through great trouble, and he loudly complained why he'd gone to so much trouble to go "for that". Having said that, I can at least respect Checo for really going for it on 2023's race. That move was the definition of high risk high reward and, in hindsight I think he can at least feel comfortable saying he tried to go for it in what was a race winning car, instead of just going for another podium...that said I'm sure my views would be different if I hadn't experienced that from the comfort of my living room lol. NASCAR can have it's detractors but something everyone has to give them is the fact that they know how to put on a show, I have no doubts it will be a much nicer experience overall than the upcoming Mexican GP. Now if only Indycar got their heads out of their asses and gave Pato a home race announcing it NOW would be a huge coup for them. That said, I wouldn't be surprised if in a few years Noel Leon gives Mexican F1 fans something to smile about again.
@@zeroelus Based on how you could hear the fans roar when Pato took the lead at Indy, I can imagine how much bigger the roar would be down Mexico way. This sounds like an easy win for Indycar, but instead they're going back to that stupid Thermal Club that had terrible racing and the general public are not invited.
@@GregBrownsWorldORacing He drew insane crowds for McLaren in the build up to this years Mex GP, it's so obvious what Indycar needs to do, well, at least for everyone except Indycar owners.
It's 100% understandable that Checo was replaced, but that doesn't mean he wasn't deserving of that seat back in 2020 and he did what was asked of him. He even stepped up and won races when Max crashed out or had an off race As far as I'm concerned, Checo did his time and was honorably discharged
I hoped that Checo would be able to challenge Max when he came into the team. Checo at Racing Point and Force India was able to make those cars punch above their weight, while being smooth enough to save his tires and finish in the points. It's tough to be a #2 driver in a team that is focused on getting their #1 a championship. The car is designed and setup to suit the #1.
@@andyharman3022It doesn't help that Max prefers a car with an absurdly sharp front end, almost to the point of uncontrollability. Checo probably would've done far better in literally any other team after 2022, when Red Bull really got the car to rotate like Max liked. It also doesn't help that Max kinda broke Checo at Miami 2023, he never really recovered from that smackdown.
I can't help but think there's some backroom Red Bull politics involved here. There are rumours (no idea how valid) that Marko wanted to promote Yuki but others (possibly Horner, possibly other RB execs like Minztlaf) were against it. The whole thing of extending Perez then dropping him AND extending Tsunoda to stop other teams from signing him THEN not promoting him and saying he'll probably not have a long term future at RB doesn't make sense at face value -- but it's a case of the organization is literally at odds with itself about how to proceed, this is the kind of CFK you might get.
@@JohnSmithShields it’s not often I get to use the AT stuff. I need to ask The Race where they’ve been getting it from cos they never told me where they got the 2020 stuff when they gave me it.
@@AidanMillward- I mean, it's the Race. They could possibly be filming it themselves. It wouldn't be shocking. With their budget etc., they'd be silly not to get their own video and then they can use it and sell it.
Perez and Kovalainen serve as testaments to the gap between good mid-field drivers and great top-tier driver. A top-team driver is expected to perform every weekend.
Yuki will be gone after next year; Honda is paying part of his salary and with that gone, they'll look for a promising rookie/cheap driver at Cash App. Perez leaving also means that Carlos Slim's money goes, too.-which leaves a substantial gap in the budget. Not to mention however much of a "retirement bonus" Checo got for agreeing to leave. There's talk of Checo taking a holiday for a year then becoming Cadillac's other driver beside Colton Herta, but with Bottas being Mercedes' backup driver, and a reputation as a solid development driver, he would be a better option
About Tsunoda - "Hot Lap Merchant" is bang on. This has been a problem since his Japanese F4 days. He struggles with tire management and always has, not likely to change. I like the guy though and wish he got the seat. Lawson is a fast and adaptable driver. I hope he does well.
Red Bull's problem is that it can't successfully run two cars. It's entire ethos is to find a driver who's super quick, build the entire team around him, leave the other guy to flounder and hope that just by dint of the car being fast he can manage to scrape enough points together to secure the constructor's championship. If by the middle of the season it's not happening, kick him out and replace him with some other poor sod who can be thrown to the wolves. A cornerstone of that strategy was Newey; with Newey on staff they knew they would have a race winning car most years, even if only in the hands of one of their drivers, and the rest could sort of sort itself out. Newey is gone now. If they can't keep providing Max with equipment good enough to win titles, he'll sod off too. Then what are they left with?
Is it the wrong thing to do though? Did Ferrari moving the aerodynamic balance rearwards to make Sainz more comfortable, just make Leclerc slower and therefore the optimal peak potential of the Ferrari slower? Leclerc *loved* the strong front end on the Ferrari at the start of 2022, he is on the record saying so, he was out in the front gapping the field while Sainz was spinning and crashing (even if was too much even for Leclerc sometimes and he lost the rear himself like in France), I don't see how moving the aero more rearwards over time helped Leclerc, who is supposed to be the lead driver, to excel? All it did (IMO) was make Leclerc slower and Sainz faster relative to Leclerc. But potentially the ultimate peak performance was lower? Good for the WCC perhaps, but not good news at all for Leclerc's WDC ambitions, especially the points lost any time Sainz beat Leclerc.
Besides you've got the McLaren where neither of them like how it handles (though perhaps it was not as bad with the understeer anymore with the flexi-frontwing). They just get on it with and adapt to the strengths of the car of straight-line braking and straight-line traction -- very different to Red Bull which is strong in combined braking and turn-in according to Lawson. As Lawson says, if you're not confident in the rear of the car when doing that you'll be slow -- but you've *got to* take advantage of what the car is good at, surely, be it what the McLaren is good at or what the Red Bull is good at? That is a racing driver's job. With how tight the field is and the development restrictions, taking two steps back to try to "fix" these characteristics is not really feasible compared to the easy route of just adding more performance while keeping existing traits!
Vettel and Webber were a very good duo. But any team would be crazy not to favour a generational talent like Max, just as Ferrari did with great success with Schumacher
@@Lewythefly And Webber got screwed for years by Horner and Marko just to benefit Vettel. Read Webber's book, he tells the whole story of how they operate...
@@deerlord2363 I'm aware mate, as an Australian I really wanted Webber to get a WDC. But they favoured Vettel. But that's F1 as I was trying to explain above
First: Perez was not the only available option for 2021. Hülkenberg was also, but Red Bull was unsure if he remained fast after a season out of the car.
Second: Schumacher/Irvine of 1997 is the closest example to Verstappen/Perez 2024. Where Michael fought for the title, Irvine got just 5 podiums and finished 8th in WDC (before MSC was stripped out of his points). Of course, Michael was not a champion, but it still the most similar to Verstappen/Perez. Kovalainen had at least qualifying pace starting from the 1st row on multiple occasions.
And then thrid: Yuki had no chance to succeed Perez because he's a Honda driver. And Honda people sit apart at Red Bull. If Honda was committed to Red Bull, thing would be different. But now he's considered a temporary driver like Kvyat in 2019: "Whatever happens, we'll promote someone else. If Lawson fails, we'll promote Hadjar. If Hadjar fails, we'll ask Ricciardo to come back. And if Ricciardo fails, we'll ask Perez. But we'll never promote Yuki."
@@stanny_polyglotatleast Irvine almost won the wdc in 99’, the closest example I can think of is schumacher and Jos verstappen in the benetton days where they had a huge gap between them always
@@srthebox4946 he still was far from Schumacher. 1:9 in qualifyings, all victories either gifted by teammates either by retirements of 2 or more rivals. In the last qualifyings (Sepang and Suzuka) he was 0.9 and 1.5s behind Schumacher. Schumacher and Jos had at least different cars and Jos was a complete rookie.
As mentioned Checo was somewhat solid at the beginning of the season but what wasn't mentioned is that his performance started to drop when the upgrades started to come. And I do remember seeing on Tech Talk that at some stage the upgrades made the cars so different they looked like they were from 2 different teams.
I don't the bar is THAT high for Lawson. If Perez could have stayed within 100 points of Max like every other #2 at the top teams, Red Bull would have both titles this year. It shows how bad Perez's season went being something like 260 points behind Max and still getting 3rd in the Constructors.
Would have liked to see yuki have gotten a year in the RB. I also didnt know all those stats either. The decision was understandable before and even more so now. Lawson gonna have an uphill battle but we will see how he does. Great video
Sainz would have made Red Bull's driver lineup the best on the grid. But maybe he is too good for what Red Bull wants. Max is still in his prime, so maybe Red Bull wants a driver who is fast but will be a clear #2 while he learns to work within the team. They can bring in Lawson, who has performed well in pressure situations in the Red Bull, and if he flops in the first half of 2025, give Tsunoda a shot. I think Tsunoda's career may very well stall at the junior team. He hasn't been consistently fast, or able to charge to the front, or crash-free enough to merit going to the senior team.
Sainz's work ethic is unquestioned! I think Red Bull were however concerned about Sainz's ambition of being number one driver and willingness to play politics to this end (as they had already observed at Toro Rosso). Would Sainz accept that Verstappen has car development priority, or would he raise a fuss in the Spanish press?
Sainz to red bull was never going to happen , it would have led to the same issues that brought perez to the seat, ie , A lack of junior drivers available when a seat needs to be filled.
Max and Carlos as team mates would be a bit like Webber and Vettel days of Red Bull or Hamilton and Rosberg at Mercedes. Entertaining for fans but not something Red Bull would consider unfortunately.
Hold on, how did you not notice the "Perez pattern" before 2024? 2022 and 2023 were almost the same thing, with 2023 being the worse of the two seasons despite him getting a better WDC result. This is why I was yelling from the rooftops at the start of the 2024 season that Perez had no business staying at Red Bull. The car consistently progressed away from him, which drastically amplified the difference between him and Max. This was a pattern.
People forget that in 2013, Vettel won 13 races and Webber won none. Seb could've won the constructors championship on his own. What we are seeing now is not anything new. But, what surprises me is that in 23, verstappen got all the plaudits for dominating in probably the best car in f1 history while his teammate was nowhere but, in 2013, Seb was maligned with people saying it was just the car.
Honestly this should've been done during the season, Sergio Perez is a good driver but he's washed, and lost Red Bull the constructors championship, they probably would have performed better with Liam Lawson in the car, he couldn't have been any worse!
If yuki went to Aston Martin I think he would have a few incidents with stroll, he is a better and faster driver but they both have licks of that window every so often, stroll just does it all the time
Great video. Going to be interesting to see what happens, I'd like to see Lawson do well, would be cool for example to see him win a race as it would be the first time in my life time that a New Zelander has one a race. Personally i thin Red Bull are too harsh of their drivers.
I find this whole situation with Liam Lawson fascinating more so as a Kiwi is how dismissive people are of Liam Lawson largely because he is a New Zealander. Oscar Piastri coming from this part of the world got the same treatment until the natural talent he always had became a threat to his British teammate. All of a sudden people were talking about team orders within McLaren and who the number one driver was and most of us in this part of the world, were like, thats the natural talent we witnessed when Oscar Piastri won the Australian Karting championship or when we witnessed him driving in the Toyota Racing Series in New Zealand a series Max Verstappen competed in as a 17 year old when he raced in New Zealand along with Liam Lawson as he come through the New Zealand motorsports development system. If Liam Lawson was born in London or Italy or any other country in the world he would be spoken about as a future world champion. I expect Jack Doohan as Australian to receive the same treatment at some point as well, as he along with Oscar Piastri and Liam Lawson have operated under the radar... There is some pretty lazy journalism around since the announcement of Liam Lawson being Max Verstappens teammate and a general lack of understanding of the Kiwi mindset and more importantly the natural motorsports talent that New Zealand is producing with limited resources including funding as rugby as the national sport takes up all the coporate financial sponsorship available in New Zealand. Unfortunately the lack of understanding of the Kiwi mindset leads most to think it's arrogance when it's actually people that have confidence in their natural abilities as that's all they have in the back pocket compared to a few million dollars. If people actually took the time to educate themselves, Liam Lawson displays the same mentality and attributes as the following: Scott Dixon - 6 time Indycar champion, indy 500 winner and considered to the greatest Indycar driver of his generation. Scott McLaughlin - 3 time Australian supercars championship and Indycar race winner Shane Van Gisbergen - 3 time Australian supercars championship, Nascar race winner due to compete in the Nascar cup series full time in 2025 as a foreigner. Liam Lawson will thrive as Max Verstappens teammate but it's easy to be dismissive of something people know little about.... The difference between us Kiwis and the rest of the world is, if things don't work out for Liam Lawson, he walks away thankful for the opportunity he was given, he would have paid off the family home that his parents mortgaged twice to financially support their son and he would head to race in the Australian supercars championship against his two beat mates and instead of living in Monaco he would be at the local go kart track in Auckland, wearing his shorts and jandals helping the next generation of Liam Lawsons, Scott Dixons and Shane Van Gisbergens I actually expect Liam Lawson a Red Bull F1 driver to be sitting amongst us average people on a concrete terrace at Aucklands Western Springs Speedway on boxing day watching dirt cars going around and around.
I never thought of it that way. I just thought people were expecting him to get ruined by Verstappen like what happened with Gasly and Albon. Like all he needs to do is finish 1 or 2 places behind Verstappen and to take charge whenever Verstappen DNFs (I think Verstappen's last DNF was at Australia in March of this year, almost 9 months ago).
I don't think him being from New Zealand is the main issue here. I think some of the negativity comes from Riccardo fans who saw their favourite driver being replaced, and Perez fans, because Lawson will replace him, and there are many people who think that Yuki should have been given a chance with the main Red Bull team before now. This might have been his last chance before the Honda engines are gone. All these things have come together at the same time, and Lawson is a much easier target for their anger than anonymous people at a Red Bull shareholder meeting.
@@HKSFangirl Agreed! The trouble is Lawson's inferior junior series record compared to Piastri (or even Antonelli or Bortoleto). THAT is why Lawson is rated lower than Piastri before debut, or arguably lower than Antonelli or Bortoleto now (even though Lawson has a little bit more F1 experience). I personally rate Lawson's speed in DTM and Super Formula, but many do not, and say it is not relevant.
de Vries was similar to Perez though as was not part of the RB academy, having spent time at McLaren then Audi, and by the time he signed with RB to driver the AlphaTauri, he was associated with Mercedes (not quite a junior driver). After the Perez signing, RB signing de Vries really was a sign they had no confidence in their juniors.
IIRC it was mainly they didn't want to promote Lawson that season due to him going off and doing Super Formula, and The Helmut having a senior moment when he became obsessed with NDV despite everyone else in the team casting doubt on him
Lawson, fast, aggressive, got supersub points, full Red Bull backing. Tsunoda, inconsistent, prone to radio tantrums, Honda backing. No way they're giving it to Honda when Honda goes green in '26. See Lance Stroll magically disappear in '27.
Honda have apparently said something along the lines that they'll be hands off when it comes to driver choices for Aston Martin. Unlikely that'll be going Tsunoda's way, which is a shame cause I like Yuki.
when talking about Yuki not getting the RB drive it's not mentioned him nearly taking out Danny Ric after the end in first race of season, to me that would of raised a massive red flag over his mentality
Whoever takes that 2nd seat in that team will always have to compare themselves to a guy who's just won his 4th straight drivers title...it'll take someone with a strong mental game to keep the challenge up all season long. Good look to the lad I say 👍🏻
Red Bull just wants their own Bottas. Which would probably explain why Mercedes rehired Bottas: to stop him from helping their rivals to win another Constructor's Championship.
@@CyanRooper Bottas, despite he claims to the contrary, knew his place, was a bloody good teammate to Lewis and they clicked too. Sochi 2018 when he moved over for Lewis to win, but also in Hungary 2017 when he let Lewis pass to chase down Raikkonen, Lewis couldn't and gave place (and 3rd) back on final corner and nearly had his 4th place nabbed by Max. Mercedes will be glad to have Valtteri back in the car even if he isn't racing. RedBull do not have any solid reliable point scoring drivers other than Max, it must have been a tough call. They mustn't let Max be too much of a prima donna about beating him every race (if he isn't), he is bound to be ahead of Liam at the start but they must also protect Liam to an extent. It will certainly be interesting.
The fact they give him an *extension* when Carlos was still available was an utterly deranged move. Moving Lawson up is also a dumb, bad, stupid move, when Yuki is right there
RB have managed to ditch talents rather than grow them. If I was Lawson, I would have insisted on Jos and Helmut being removed: these 2 vipers have not been of any help.
@@TassieLorenzo Red Bull (ex-Jaguar, ex Stewart) is a comparatively recent sponsor / owner of a team. Teams change and REB represent only 1/12 of the paddock. LL and AA have F1 level talent and would have arrived imho. RB has also lost the main reasons why RB won championships: a works engine (Honda) and Adrian Newey. If the FIA change the rules to stop "fair ground go-kart" driving by MV, matters will change further.
I think Red Bull kept Checo for all of 24 because they didn't care if they dropped down the constructors championship because they need the extra aero development in 2025 or they'd struggle to keep Max's no.1
Sainz should have been signed, absolute no brainer. I don’t see why Yuki wasn’t given the nod ahead of Lawson. He’s managed to iron out most of his inconsistencies over the last couple of seasons, and if it doesn’t work, just swap him with Lawson halfway through the season. Lawson will have doubled his F1 experience by then.
Chico should count his blessings that the team gave him a NEW 2 year contract in the summer. He won the lottery with that one despite all the evidence of his suckage.
If I had to guess, RB is uncertain of Max staying with them / F1 and is in a panic to find the next prodigy. More than a vote of confidence, I think shuffeling up Lawson and Hadjar is more of a desperate move to weed out the next Grosjean, rather than thinking either would be the next Max Verstappen.
@@deerlord2363 That kinda was the point. Grosjean (when he came into F1) was fast, but just couldn't keep it together, quite similar to Max. But Max eventually got stable without getting slower, while Grosjean did have to slow down.
It's odd because he performed well in 2020 with the pink Mercedes and in 2021 he defended so well against Hamilton that people nicknamed him the "Mexican Minister of Defence" but then the new regulations came into effect in 2022 and he basically dropped off a cliff. He still had wins and podiums but he just was not able to drag that car to the places it should have been like what Verstappen was doing. All he needed to do was finish 1 or 2 places behind Verstappen but he couldn't even do that. And I hate how people kept saying "ah the car is built to suit Verstappen only" and whatnot like no, people still praise drivers like Clark, Andretti, Schumacher etc to this day for their ability to adapt to whatever car they were put in. So why do people keep coming up with excuses for Perez not being able to adapt to the ground effect Red Bulls instead of accepting that he simply wasn't as good as Verstappen?
The brainrot is real. Perez got 2nd in 2023. 2 wins and 9 podiums. He had 4 podiums in the first 5 races in 2024, then the car became not very good and he finished mid pack while even Verstappen struggled to get on the podium with it many times. Checo's only bad performances really started in the last 5 races of the season if you actually take into account the performance degradation of the RB. People HAVE to say Perez has been absolute garbage for years in order to not admit Verstappen is so Godly and won this year in a shtbox.
@@johnnycab8986 what “brainrot”? I know he was 2nd in points last year, I was referring to how he was after Miami. He performed we well earlier this year but then struggled. Never said anything about Checo being bad. That’s brainrot.
They suited the car to Max and admittedly didn’t listen to Sergio for car development. Liam will underperform too and people are gonna go through the cycle again.
well, Max is having children of his own making now, so maybe if Lawson finds an Alonso Suzuka 2005 opportunity, he may be in with a shot to not be left behind by Max. Will have to be seen
I think Mercedes signing Andrea Kimi Antonelli to the seat vacated by Hamilton could've played a role in Red Bull consider really seriously the prospect of signing Lawson as Perez's replacement. They saw what Toto Wolff did - he could've signed Sainz or anyone else to be a placeholder and have Antonelli develop at Williams, but Toto decided that he has enough faith in him to give him one of the most coveted seats in F1 today. And to me both Horner and Marko wanted to replicate the same with Lawson - a driver held with high regard by management (especially Herr Marko) he gets rewarded by getting the second Red Bull Racing seat next to a 4-time world champion in Max Verstappen. As much as people are gutted to see Yuki Tsunoda shafted, they also forget that he's not 100% Red Bull prospect - he's been a Honda prospect long before the relationship with Red Bull began in 2018. And when Honda announced their real return for 2026 with Aston Martin it became clear that Yuki does not have a long-term future in the team - his usefulness to serve as a tool to keep a manufacturer happy has expired. And perhaps it was for the best as the expectations in Team Faenza wouldn't be as high as in the main team. His main yardstick would be Stroll, because if he beats him regularly (the impact would be greater if Yuki is in an inferior to the AMR car) then Honda can pressure Papa Lawrence to do the right thing and replace his son with a driver who will be an upgrade (though that's easy said than done)
It had nothing to do with Mercedes. Their only hope to replace Perez: Ricciardo. Failed miserably. Yuki was not an option, they never considered him for the main team. They hired Perez because none of their juniors was ready to be promoted for 2021. And now that he's done, they're facing the same problem. Lawson, while hasn't won any junior series championship, is probably their most experienced junior, so it's their only hope now. Max said he won't stay long in F1 and is now becoming a father and that can also affect his future decisions. Still has contract until 2028, but might want to leave by then or maybe even earlier depending on how things go for the team in 2026, so they need to train his future replacement and they need to start ASAP. So promoting Lawson was just logical. Just my two cents.😊
Verstappen's domination in Red Bull is like Casey Stoner at Ducati and then Honda. In both cases the machine built for the driver/rider's ability to the detriment of others.
I never understood the "Red Bull has the data" argument. Sure they got the data but they clearly can't make a right decision with it, the way they screwed Gasly and Albon, the fact they threw in De Vries in, the "He was doing competitive lap times" Danny Ric who got destroyed by Yuki, and keeping Perez for 2024 and even giving him a 2 year deal when everyone saw it as a suicidal move. It's clear by this point that RB doesn't know how to make good driver choices anymore, only thing keeping them somewhat competent is Max, but it's clear he won't be sticking around for much longer, be it in RB or F1 all together, what happens after he leaves? Who knows, but I feel like we will soon see massive downfall for Red Bull.
Albon did OK, especially in races! He just tended to start FP ok, but then became tentative after the car spat him off the road. But in the Grand Prix where the limit is lower, he was generally able to push the car hard again.
Isn't it interesting that half the Grid at this point just can't seem to drive that second Red Bull? At what point does Red Bull stop being the embodiment of the Skinner meme "no! It's the kids that are wrong"
@@flopre9213 or half the grid isn’t Max so they kick them to the kerb. As soon as someone comes along that’s better than Max, he’ll be gone. It’s survival of the fittest over there.
I really don't think drivers like Leclerc or Russell would have problems with the second Red Bull. Gasly got into arguments with RBR engineers like Newey because he wanted the car tailored to him, and that's obviously unacceptable, "the other car is already doing the laptimes, we are NOT going to make wild changes for your car" -- Gasly did just fine at AlphaTauri and Alpine where he can himself be the lead driver and have the car built to his preferences. You didn't see Piastri demanding wild changes to the McLaren, he adjusted his driving style to make best use of the car's strengths!
Completely bizarre to put Lawson in. He was outscored by Yuki in the same races they were in, and also Perez, who had 2 retirements to boot in those races and Lawson had none.
@@russotusso1695I genuinely do not believe that Yuki wasn’t promoted for any race-related reasons, but if you think for a second that Helmut Marko isn’t a racist, you’re delusional.
I honestly think it's 6 of 1 and half-dozen of the other when it comes to the 2nd Red Bull seat. Max has proven more than cabale of being competitive even when the team's effectively a 1 car operation, so they could realistically put anyone who isn't so slow as to be unsafe in the other car. Putting someone fast in is more of an optics play than anything. That said, that was based on Newey and his proteges building the cars.
It's not so much the teammate has to compete against max. They have to drive a car, set up for max. Okay, you can argue that's the same thing, and I'd say it's related, but it's also quite different. No one is expecting max levels of performance.Just normal levels of performance with a twitchy car. I remember adrian saying max makes it hard to design a good car, because he can get the best out of every car design, so it's hard to tell what would make it better or not, because Max still drove the most out of it.
@@GregBrownsWorldORacing the UK be weird like that. Petrol sold by the litre but consumed at a rate of miles per gallon. The American brain cannot comprehend this.
Lance Stroll would be competent as a WEC Aston Martin driver where the level is a little lower, as long as he improved his situational awareness amongst traffic by a lot!
I'd like to see him in WEC or IMSA. I haven't been keeping any eye on f1. In fact, I deliberately avoided it. I only found out because I happened to tune in to sky news as they were reporting it.
Gasly WON the 2020 Monza Grand Prix, Yuki does not even have a podium You forget that Hulkenberg would have been Max teammate, but Perez won a Grand Prix for Racing Point Perez career was over but he won that crucial GP
Redbull just should’ve signed sainz, it’s the ego’s within the team that are costing them things like the constructors. It’s way to soon to put lawson up there
Another victim of Max Teammate Syndrome, what are the odds on Liam lasting out a whole season. I fear it could be the usual Horner and Doc Kiss of Death! In The German Touring Car Series as Albon’s teammate, Lawson came out well on top and I reckon he is a real F1 prospect but on that one horse town at Red Bull, who knows?
It's crazy how Checo had a pretty good 2021 season and played a big role in helping Max win the title in Abu Dhabi. Where did that guy go? What a fall from grace he's had. Not sure about Lawson getting the promotion though. It feels too early for him. Hopefully Red Bull will at least be patient and give him time to settle in unlike Gasly and Albon. Personally I think they should have Yuki the seat for one year at least but hey, maybe I'll be wrong and Lawson will hit the ground running at Red Bull but I guess we'll see!
Checo wasn't that fast in 2021! He was still often 3-4 tenths behind Max in qualifying, which is obviously up to 10 positions in Q1 in the much tighter 2024 field.
@@TassieLorenzo I dunno he was competitive enough from what I remember. I agree he wasn't as fast as Max but Red Bull didn't need him to be. Checo's role at Red Bull has always been to regularly score points and be Max's wingman which he mostly did in 2021. 2023 and 2024 however... Not so much.
I think Pérez' potential is greater than Lawson's or Tsunoda's. This according to data in possession of Red Bull. Due to probably mental pressure applied mainly by the press and the home front Pérez buckled and cracked. In 2021 there were no expectations for him. In '22 and '23 he got hoisted on the parade shield as the main WDC protaganist against Max. Red Bull is intending to do things different now. Max' data witch always was available to his team mate gets shielded now. Seeing that data and experiencing if you try you crash is devastating for the team mate. I hope for the best.
If Perez had potential, we would have seen it by now, he is 34! In 11 race weekends, Lawson in a Vcarb as a rookie outqualified Perez 6 times! That is all you need to know to understand the potential difference. Add in Perez having the most crash damage to virtually none for Lawson and Perez making rookie mistakes most weekends, it was an easy decision to make. Perez is the past, Lawson is Red Bulls future.
@Matt04108 I guess you misinterpret the word potential. Pérez more often than not doesn't reach his maximum potential as be did more often in his Force India/Racing point days. In other words this is called underperforming. The pressure put on him by himself, his surroundings, national media, international/British media kept him from reaching his full potential. For Lawson it is important to perform well in the first few races to get the British media off his back. That is the pressure he has to deal with. Him being put through the mental wringer of Dr. Marko and Horner gives confidence he is able to pull that off.
I think that RB doesn't handle their drivers well at all. The Torpedo might be the worst of the drivers that RB dropped. JEV and Buemi are both Formula E Champions and Buemi has won LeMans several times. They have plenty of talent but what they do in the senior team just eats drivers up. Sad to say, but I think Liam will be the next on that list. As a super sub he was awesome but IMHO when he was in the seat full time for the VCARB team he wasn't quite as good at the team politics. I think either Max will destroy him on performance or the team politics will.........or both. For the record we know the team politics would never have allowed Sainz back into the team with Max, at least not will Marko is still in the team.
To be fair, if JEV and Buemi were solid F1-grade drivers, surely another F1 team would pick them up? F1 teams are IMO *always* looking for either fast upper midfield drivers (like Hulkenberg, Bottas etc) or the next Hamilton/Alonso.
I think he'll try his hand at WEC or IMSA, he used to be called the tyre whisperer after all and that would benefit him massively in endurance racing. I don't think he's going to retire from racing altogether yet. I also think he's preparing his son to start his junior motorsports career in the hopes that he might do what Jos Verstappen did: train his son to win the Championship that he never got to.
I love Checo. Just wish it hadn't ended like this.... maybe Checo would of done better had he not had a contract extension. Like showing off his stuff lol. Like in 2020. Idk I don't care for Liam, but I REALLY don't care for Isak Hadjar🤢🤮
Also puts in perspective of how poorly run Red Bull is as a team, once upon a time they were the dream team to drive for now nobody wants to go anywhere near them..... feel sorry for Lawson
Lawson will be destroyed by Max just like Gasly and Albon before him despite them both proving subsequently that they are talented drivers. Red Bull would have been better served getting someone like Bottas, well actually Bottas, in who is a proven wing man who will harvest a bucket load of points without threatening Max and therefore there being no need to destroy him.
Anyone who thinks Liam is hot headed for flipping the bird at Mexico, has never driven in nz or Australia. Being offended by that is the same as Americans getting offended when a brit or aussie/kiwi saying the c word
Complete mismanagement from Red Bull over several years. I think we might see Lawson and Hadjar both sacked by mid season, dont rate them at all. Hadjar especially seems to crack under pressure and is more volatile over team radio than even Yuki. A recipe than means he wont last long in F1.
I think I need to start doing F1 journalism. Whilst this take is closer, it still fails to mention why Red Bull signed Perez in the first place (Not going to explain that for the millionth time) and that based on that reason, it has proven what they wanted to find out but they failed to act on that evidence e.g. develop the car in a different direction and keep Perez. This failure to improve the car cost Red Bull the consttructors championship. Also with the "giving him a contract extension to give him confidence". That is complete BS because they still had Ricciardo lurking in the junior team plus they kept talking about his "performances" even after extending the contract, so hardly reducing pressure.
Why would they develop the car away from Max? Max hates understeer and complains at the slightest hint of it! It's only logical for the number one driver to have priority over the number two driver.
@@TassieLorenzo That's the point though. If they are developing the car for one driver then they have to expect that the other driver might struggle. Why do I have to keep explaining this?
@@barnigranero5882 The second driver is not important and the WCC is not important to Red Bull. "they have to expect that the other driver might struggle" I guess but the engineers will point to the data and say "well the other car can do it, just duplicate the number one driver's technique!" (Said duplication may result in a crash if the talent is not there to do that, but oh well!) This applies the other way too, where the McLaren understeered too much for Ricciardo's liking (just as the Red Bull oversteers too much for Perez's liking). If the other car is already doing the laptime, why should McLaren change the car for Ricciardo? I am always consistent on this view (it being the number two driver's job to duplicate the number one driver's telemetry trace!). Eventually they found Piastri who is more adaptable than Ricciardo and followed the engineer's instructions to change his technique, in a way Ricciardo was unable to.
"it still fails to mention why Red Bull signed Perez in the first place (Not going to explain that for the millionth time)" Are you suggesting Red Bull erred? I don't think they did, they won 4 WDCs. Maybe the 2020 Red Bull was too tricky even for Max, but the 2020 Honda PU was still down on power too so it's hard to judge how much was the car being more driveable in 2021 and how much was the all-new 2021 Honda power unit being more powerful.
Heikki got a third podium at Monza. Either way that’s horrendous.
Yes and he really should've challenged Vettel hard at Monza in that McLaren and didn't .
I think it's been forgotten just how awful he was that season. Probably an idea for a future video Aidan!
Kovalainen was crap
@@kevinprior3549 Temu Bottas
@AidanMilward He cost 2008 WCC literally when Ferrari setting stage for Alonso by ousting Raikkonen via underperforming aka sabotage
One thing, Kvyat wasn't really in "that other seat" he was in Max's seat and was a victim of circumstance, Red Bull wanted to get Max in the main team as quickly as possible in case they lost him and despite beating Danny the previous season, Kvyat was the one sacrificed
"First I'm going to take your ride, then I'm going to take your girl. Get ready for that!" - Verstappen to Kvyat (2016, colourised)
I feel like some Need for Speed quotes fit well with F1. Like here's another example:
"Not all races are won on the track." - Jean Todt to Frank Williams and Ron Dennis in 2003 (line was said by Darius from NFS Carbon and the quote is used by me as a reference to the tyre related shenanigans of 2003).
@@CyanRooperbetter get that pink slip ready
@@CyanRooper sounds like a NFS MW plot
@MrSniperfox29 you are realy a big nonsens guy...
Let me gues: British pasport?
I'm more interested in what the Red Bull driver situation says about the management of the team.
Giving Checo the contract extension in the summer was weird: contrary to all expectation at the time and seemingly out of character with the Christian Horner of old.
So was bringing Daniel back, tbh.
Either Horner is losing his touch, or he is being overruled, neither of which is ideal.
Exactly, given his form last year and at the start of this year I can't imagine why RB accepted that deal without huge "if you don't improve by YYYYMMDD date goodbye, no ifs ands or buts" written in a way that left no wiggle room or interpretation. As a Mexican I've seen a lot of deluded fans saying unbelievably unrealistic things, to put it very charitably but also reasonable and good points lost in the noise.Something I think everyone can agree on: he was not performing and the Mexican GP where he was a non participant drove the point home to anybody who was watching, the good ambiance when Ferrari won, and the historically close ties with the Scuderia, should clue you in on how they're going to be received in 2025, and how the Foro Sol would react to a Hamilton or Leclerc podium/win next year. But in any case for Checo, he did well enough in 2021, 2022 and saved face in 2023, even if the car went in a direction where he didn't like it, and the team admitted as much this year, saying they where essentially ignoring his feedback for a while (I do wonder if this point was critical in him getting the afforementioned extension).
And to your point, I also wonder what's going on with the team. Dispassionately, even assuming Checo was in better form and stayed, I'm concerned for RB going forward if the complications faced in 2024 are a sign of what's to come next year, and crucially, for 26. I guess we'll have to wait and see.
@@zeroelus I know Sergio has Mega Fans in Mexico, but they can't be that impressed with what they've seen the last two years in Mexico City.
Don't be surprised if Daniel Suárez, his amigos and the NASCAR boys outdraw the F1 crowd next year. I predict a certain Kiwi to beat them all at El Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez. Who knows, the fans might get to see some passing in the old baseball stadium.
@@GregBrownsWorldORacing I had friends go to both last year and this years race, last year the atmosphere was insane....until he crashed and turned a party into a funeral, and those where the pretty much exact words 2 different friends viewing the race from different parts of the track said of it. This year another friend went, through great trouble, and he loudly complained why he'd gone to so much trouble to go "for that". Having said that, I can at least respect Checo for really going for it on 2023's race. That move was the definition of high risk high reward and, in hindsight I think he can at least feel comfortable saying he tried to go for it in what was a race winning car, instead of just going for another podium...that said I'm sure my views would be different if I hadn't experienced that from the comfort of my living room lol.
NASCAR can have it's detractors but something everyone has to give them is the fact that they know how to put on a show, I have no doubts it will be a much nicer experience overall than the upcoming Mexican GP. Now if only Indycar got their heads out of their asses and gave Pato a home race announcing it NOW would be a huge coup for them. That said, I wouldn't be surprised if in a few years Noel Leon gives Mexican F1 fans something to smile about again.
@@zeroelus Based on how you could hear the fans roar when Pato took the lead at Indy, I can imagine how much bigger the roar would be down Mexico way. This sounds like an easy win for Indycar, but instead they're going back to that stupid Thermal Club that had terrible racing and the general public are not invited.
@@GregBrownsWorldORacing He drew insane crowds for McLaren in the build up to this years Mex GP, it's so obvious what Indycar needs to do, well, at least for everyone except Indycar owners.
Clearly Checcos copy of the Horndog files wasnt enough to keep him at RB. At least Perez gets a retirement payoff!
Still, getting sacked just before Christmas sucks. Doesn't matter how much money you make.
I'd rather have a bowl of Coco Pops
@@LuminalSpoon they’ve not been the same since they took all the sugar out
@@AidanMillward aye maybe RB could have handled this in the New Year.
@@zeberto1986going to laugh so hard when everything about this soap opera comes out...
It's 100% understandable that Checo was replaced, but that doesn't mean he wasn't deserving of that seat back in 2020 and he did what was asked of him. He even stepped up and won races when Max crashed out or had an off race
As far as I'm concerned, Checo did his time and was honorably discharged
I hoped that Checo would be able to challenge Max when he came into the team. Checo at Racing Point and Force India was able to make those cars punch above their weight, while being smooth enough to save his tires and finish in the points. It's tough to be a #2 driver in a team that is focused on getting their #1 a championship. The car is designed and setup to suit the #1.
If he had done better in 2021 they would have won the constructors too
@@andyharman3022It doesn't help that Max prefers a car with an absurdly sharp front end, almost to the point of uncontrollability. Checo probably would've done far better in literally any other team after 2022, when Red Bull really got the car to rotate like Max liked. It also doesn't help that Max kinda broke Checo at Miami 2023, he never really recovered from that smackdown.
I can't help but think there's some backroom Red Bull politics involved here. There are rumours (no idea how valid) that Marko wanted to promote Yuki but others (possibly Horner, possibly other RB execs like Minztlaf) were against it. The whole thing of extending Perez then dropping him AND extending Tsunoda to stop other teams from signing him THEN not promoting him and saying he'll probably not have a long term future at RB doesn't make sense at face value -- but it's a case of the organization is literally at odds with itself about how to proceed, this is the kind of CFK you might get.
Tsunoda has no future with RedBull because he's a Honda driver, not RedBull junior. He's there at request of Honda in exchange for their power unit.
Ayyyy we got clips now instead of photos!
Great to see!
@@tescopepsi9679 the same clips I’ve been using since 2021?
A good proportion are Alpha Tauri so looks planned.
@@JohnSmithShields it’s not often I get to use the AT stuff.
I need to ask The Race where they’ve been getting it from cos they never told me where they got the 2020 stuff when they gave me it.
@@AidanMillward- I mean, it's the Race. They could possibly be filming it themselves. It wouldn't be shocking. With their budget etc., they'd be silly not to get their own video and then they can use it and sell it.
The Checo Tweet from September getting "Community Notes" so quickly was savage!
That 2020 Alpha Tauri really is one of the slickest cars ever made, those slow motion shots are wonderful
Perez and Kovalainen serve as testaments to the gap between good mid-field drivers and great top-tier driver. A top-team driver is expected to perform every weekend.
Mark Webber would like a word.
Yuki will be gone after next year; Honda is paying part of his salary and with that gone, they'll look for a promising rookie/cheap driver at Cash App. Perez leaving also means that Carlos Slim's money goes, too.-which leaves a substantial gap in the budget. Not to mention however much of a "retirement bonus" Checo got for agreeing to leave. There's talk of Checo taking a holiday for a year then becoming Cadillac's other driver beside Colton Herta, but with Bottas being Mercedes' backup driver, and a reputation as a solid development driver, he would be a better option
About Tsunoda - "Hot Lap Merchant" is bang on. This has been a problem since his Japanese F4 days. He struggles with tire management and always has, not likely to change. I like the guy though and wish he got the seat.
Lawson is a fast and adaptable driver. I hope he does well.
I wanna see how funny Lawson can be while overtaking other cars. That one passing Perez was fire.
Red Bull's problem is that it can't successfully run two cars. It's entire ethos is to find a driver who's super quick, build the entire team around him, leave the other guy to flounder and hope that just by dint of the car being fast he can manage to scrape enough points together to secure the constructor's championship. If by the middle of the season it's not happening, kick him out and replace him with some other poor sod who can be thrown to the wolves.
A cornerstone of that strategy was Newey; with Newey on staff they knew they would have a race winning car most years, even if only in the hands of one of their drivers, and the rest could sort of sort itself out. Newey is gone now. If they can't keep providing Max with equipment good enough to win titles, he'll sod off too. Then what are they left with?
Is it the wrong thing to do though? Did Ferrari moving the aerodynamic balance rearwards to make Sainz more comfortable, just make Leclerc slower and therefore the optimal peak potential of the Ferrari slower?
Leclerc *loved* the strong front end on the Ferrari at the start of 2022, he is on the record saying so, he was out in the front gapping the field while Sainz was spinning and crashing (even if was too much even for Leclerc sometimes and he lost the rear himself like in France), I don't see how moving the aero more rearwards over time helped Leclerc, who is supposed to be the lead driver, to excel?
All it did (IMO) was make Leclerc slower and Sainz faster relative to Leclerc. But potentially the ultimate peak performance was lower? Good for the WCC perhaps, but not good news at all for Leclerc's WDC ambitions, especially the points lost any time Sainz beat Leclerc.
Besides you've got the McLaren where neither of them like how it handles (though perhaps it was not as bad with the understeer anymore with the flexi-frontwing). They just get on it with and adapt to the strengths of the car of straight-line braking and straight-line traction -- very different to Red Bull which is strong in combined braking and turn-in according to Lawson.
As Lawson says, if you're not confident in the rear of the car when doing that you'll be slow -- but you've *got to* take advantage of what the car is good at, surely, be it what the McLaren is good at or what the Red Bull is good at? That is a racing driver's job.
With how tight the field is and the development restrictions, taking two steps back to try to "fix" these characteristics is not really feasible compared to the easy route of just adding more performance while keeping existing traits!
Vettel and Webber were a very good duo. But any team would be crazy not to favour a generational talent like Max, just as Ferrari did with great success with Schumacher
@@Lewythefly And Webber got screwed for years by Horner and Marko just to benefit Vettel.
Read Webber's book, he tells the whole story of how they operate...
@@deerlord2363 I'm aware mate, as an Australian I really wanted Webber to get a WDC. But they favoured Vettel. But that's F1 as I was trying to explain above
Redbull wasn’t the only area where Kvyat got replaced…
First: Perez was not the only available option for 2021. Hülkenberg was also, but Red Bull was unsure if he remained fast after a season out of the car.
@@stanny_polyglot I know Hulk was available.
Second: Schumacher/Irvine of 1997 is the closest example to Verstappen/Perez 2024. Where Michael fought for the title, Irvine got just 5 podiums and finished 8th in WDC (before MSC was stripped out of his points). Of course, Michael was not a champion, but it still the most similar to Verstappen/Perez. Kovalainen had at least qualifying pace starting from the 1st row on multiple occasions.
And then thrid: Yuki had no chance to succeed Perez because he's a Honda driver. And Honda people sit apart at Red Bull. If Honda was committed to Red Bull, thing would be different. But now he's considered a temporary driver like Kvyat in 2019: "Whatever happens, we'll promote someone else. If Lawson fails, we'll promote Hadjar. If Hadjar fails, we'll ask Ricciardo to come back. And if Ricciardo fails, we'll ask Perez. But we'll never promote Yuki."
@@stanny_polyglotatleast Irvine almost won the wdc in 99’, the closest example I can think of is schumacher and Jos verstappen in the benetton days where they had a huge gap between them always
@@srthebox4946 he still was far from Schumacher. 1:9 in qualifyings, all victories either gifted by teammates either by retirements of 2 or more rivals. In the last qualifyings (Sepang and Suzuka) he was 0.9 and 1.5s behind Schumacher.
Schumacher and Jos had at least different cars and Jos was a complete rookie.
As mentioned Checo was somewhat solid at the beginning of the season but what wasn't mentioned is that his performance started to drop when the upgrades started to come.
And I do remember seeing on Tech Talk that at some stage the upgrades made the cars so different they looked like they were from 2 different teams.
I don't the bar is THAT high for Lawson. If Perez could have stayed within 100 points of Max like every other #2 at the top teams, Red Bull would have both titles this year. It shows how bad Perez's season went being something like 260 points behind Max and still getting 3rd in the Constructors.
Would have liked to see yuki have gotten a year in the RB. I also didnt know all those stats either. The decision was understandable before and even more so now. Lawson gonna have an uphill battle but we will see how he does. Great video
Sainz would have made Red Bull's driver lineup the best on the grid. But maybe he is too good for what Red Bull wants.
Max is still in his prime, so maybe Red Bull wants a driver who is fast but will be a clear #2 while he learns to work within the team.
They can bring in Lawson, who has performed well in pressure situations in the Red Bull, and if he flops in the first half of 2025, give Tsunoda a shot. I think Tsunoda's career may very well stall at the junior team. He hasn't been consistently fast, or able to charge to the front, or crash-free enough to merit going to the senior team.
Sainz's work ethic is unquestioned! I think Red Bull were however concerned about Sainz's ambition of being number one driver and willingness to play politics to this end (as they had already observed at Toro Rosso). Would Sainz accept that Verstappen has car development priority, or would he raise a fuss in the Spanish press?
@@TassieLorenzo I'm thinking that Sainz merits a better seat, but Williams seems to be on the upswing. Maybe he'll have some good runs in 2025.
Sainz to red bull was never going to happen , it would have led to the same issues that brought perez to the seat, ie , A lack of junior drivers available when a seat needs to be filled.
Max and Carlos as team mates would be a bit like Webber and Vettel days of Red Bull or Hamilton and Rosberg at Mercedes. Entertaining for fans but not something Red Bull would consider unfortunately.
Bearman had 1 race for ferrari with almost zero prep, and the gap between him and leclerc was only 50ish points worse than pères to verstappen...
Hold on, how did you not notice the "Perez pattern" before 2024? 2022 and 2023 were almost the same thing, with 2023 being the worse of the two seasons despite him getting a better WDC result. This is why I was yelling from the rooftops at the start of the 2024 season that Perez had no business staying at Red Bull. The car consistently progressed away from him, which drastically amplified the difference between him and Max. This was a pattern.
People forget that in 2013, Vettel won 13 races and Webber won none. Seb could've won the constructors championship on his own. What we are seeing now is not anything new. But, what surprises me is that in 23, verstappen got all the plaudits for dominating in probably the best car in f1 history while his teammate was nowhere but, in 2013, Seb was maligned with people saying it was just the car.
Read Mark Webber's book to understand how that happened and how much he got screwed over the years by Horner and Marko to benefit Vettel...😂
No way Alonso retires any time soon. Best rookie on the grid.
"Like a Little Kiwi Hermit Crab". Full on spit out my drink at that line.
Put "Kiwi Hermit Crab" into one of those AI Image generators.
Honestly this should've been done during the season, Sergio Perez is a good driver but he's washed, and lost Red Bull the constructors championship, they probably would have performed better with Liam Lawson in the car, he couldn't have been any worse!
If yuki went to Aston Martin I think he would have a few incidents with stroll, he is a better and faster driver but they both have licks of that window every so often, stroll just does it all the time
Stroll doesn't lick windows, he flat out tries to eat them.
RB is burning bridges with ex drivers left right centre up down and inside out.
@@willyhwang1059 Alonso doing it just by himself.
Great video. Going to be interesting to see what happens, I'd like to see Lawson do well, would be cool for example to see him win a race as it would be the first time in my life time that a New Zelander has one a race. Personally i thin Red Bull are too harsh of their drivers.
I find this whole situation with Liam Lawson fascinating more so as a Kiwi is how dismissive people are of Liam Lawson largely because he is a New Zealander.
Oscar Piastri coming from this part of the world got the same treatment until the natural talent he always had became a threat to his British teammate. All of a sudden people were talking about team orders within McLaren and who the number one driver was and most of us in this part of the world, were like, thats the natural talent we witnessed when Oscar Piastri won the Australian Karting championship or when we witnessed him driving in the Toyota Racing Series in New Zealand a series Max Verstappen competed in as a 17 year old when he raced in New Zealand along with Liam Lawson as he come through the New Zealand motorsports development system.
If Liam Lawson was born in London or Italy or any other country in the world he would be spoken about as a future world champion.
I expect Jack Doohan as Australian to receive the same treatment at some point as well, as he along with Oscar Piastri and Liam Lawson have operated under the radar...
There is some pretty lazy journalism around since the announcement of Liam Lawson being Max Verstappens teammate and a general lack of understanding of the Kiwi mindset and more importantly the natural motorsports talent that New Zealand is producing with limited resources including funding as rugby as the national sport takes up all the coporate financial sponsorship available in New Zealand.
Unfortunately the lack of understanding of the Kiwi mindset leads most to think it's arrogance when it's actually people that have confidence in their natural abilities as that's all they have in the back pocket compared to a few million dollars.
If people actually took the time to educate themselves, Liam Lawson displays the same mentality and attributes as the following:
Scott Dixon - 6 time Indycar champion, indy 500 winner and considered to the greatest Indycar driver of his generation.
Scott McLaughlin - 3 time Australian supercars championship and Indycar race winner
Shane Van Gisbergen - 3 time Australian supercars championship, Nascar race winner due to compete in the Nascar cup series full time in 2025 as a foreigner.
Liam Lawson will thrive as Max Verstappens teammate but it's easy to be dismissive of something people know little about....
The difference between us Kiwis and the rest of the world is, if things don't work out for Liam Lawson, he walks away thankful for the opportunity he was given, he would have paid off the family home that his parents mortgaged twice to financially support their son and he would head to race in the Australian supercars championship against his two beat mates and instead of living in Monaco he would be at the local go kart track in Auckland, wearing his shorts and jandals helping the next generation of Liam Lawsons, Scott Dixons and Shane Van Gisbergens
I actually expect Liam Lawson a Red Bull F1 driver to be sitting amongst us average people on a concrete terrace at Aucklands Western Springs Speedway on boxing day watching dirt cars going around and around.
I never thought of it that way. I just thought people were expecting him to get ruined by Verstappen like what happened with Gasly and Albon. Like all he needs to do is finish 1 or 2 places behind Verstappen and to take charge whenever Verstappen DNFs (I think Verstappen's last DNF was at Australia in March of this year, almost 9 months ago).
Absolutely nobody has dismissed him because of his nationality.
I don't think him being from New Zealand is the main issue here. I think some of the negativity comes from Riccardo fans who saw their favourite driver being replaced, and Perez fans, because Lawson will replace him, and there are many people who think that Yuki should have been given a chance with the main Red Bull team before now. This might have been his last chance before the Honda engines are gone. All these things have come together at the same time, and Lawson is a much easier target for their anger than anonymous people at a Red Bull shareholder meeting.
@@HKSFangirl Agreed! The trouble is Lawson's inferior junior series record compared to Piastri (or even Antonelli or Bortoleto). THAT is why Lawson is rated lower than Piastri before debut, or arguably lower than Antonelli or Bortoleto now (even though Lawson has a little bit more F1 experience).
I personally rate Lawson's speed in DTM and Super Formula, but many do not, and say it is not relevant.
Not exactly a shock, no, but we've been waiting for the Aidan Millward report on it. Now all is well.👍
Yes, I think this was a good summary of the current situation.
Do you remember that DTS episode when Sergio said "One day it will be me"... Guess that day has arrived.
@@GregBrownsWorldORacing I watched one episode. Never again
de Vries was similar to Perez though as was not part of the RB academy, having spent time at McLaren then Audi, and by the time he signed with RB to driver the AlphaTauri, he was associated with Mercedes (not quite a junior driver). After the Perez signing, RB signing de Vries really was a sign they had no confidence in their juniors.
IIRC it was mainly they didn't want to promote Lawson that season due to him going off and doing Super Formula, and The Helmut having a senior moment when he became obsessed with NDV despite everyone else in the team casting doubt on him
Lawson, fast, aggressive, got supersub points, full Red Bull backing. Tsunoda, inconsistent, prone to radio tantrums, Honda backing. No way they're giving it to Honda when Honda goes green in '26. See Lance Stroll magically disappear in '27.
Only if Lawrence Stroll disapears too.
Honda have apparently said something along the lines that they'll be hands off when it comes to driver choices for Aston Martin. Unlikely that'll be going Tsunoda's way, which is a shame cause I like Yuki.
I swear, the treatment Yuki is getting just HAS to be a middle finger to Honda for leaving Red Bull behind
He needs to get out of that system, asap
Don't worry Tsunoda will be fired by Red Bull in 2026 anyway! That might be partly why they don't want to promote and train him in 2025 at RBR.
when talking about Yuki not getting the RB drive it's not mentioned him nearly taking out Danny Ric after the end in first race of season, to me that would of raised a massive red flag over his mentality
Going to Mexico at the height of Sergio Perez was insane
He was everywhere like how gringos think Sante Muerte is
Whoever takes that 2nd seat in that team will always have to compare themselves to a guy who's just won his 4th straight drivers title...it'll take someone with a strong mental game to keep the challenge up all season long. Good look to the lad I say 👍🏻
It's already been confirmed to be Lawson.
Red Bull just wants their own Bottas. Which would probably explain why Mercedes rehired Bottas: to stop him from helping their rivals to win another Constructor's Championship.
@Kuromori-v9z
I know it has, it counts for any future signings too
@@CyanRooper Bottas, despite he claims to the contrary, knew his place, was a bloody good teammate to Lewis and they clicked too. Sochi 2018 when he moved over for Lewis to win, but also in Hungary 2017 when he let Lewis pass to chase down Raikkonen, Lewis couldn't and gave place (and 3rd) back on final corner and nearly had his 4th place nabbed by Max. Mercedes will be glad to have Valtteri back in the car even if he isn't racing. RedBull do not have any solid reliable point scoring drivers other than Max, it must have been a tough call. They mustn't let Max be too much of a prima donna about beating him every race (if he isn't), he is bound to be ahead of Liam at the start but they must also protect Liam to an extent. It will certainly be interesting.
I feel really bad for Yuki. He deserved a shot in the main seat at last. That would give Lawson a full season to settle properly
The fact they give him an *extension* when Carlos was still available was an utterly deranged move. Moving Lawson up is also a dumb, bad, stupid move, when Yuki is right there
I feel RB is willing to gamble on Lawson's future potential vs Yuki's developing career. Or there is lot of BTS details with the Honda deal. Or Both.
RB have managed to ditch talents rather than grow them.
If I was Lawson, I would have insisted on Jos and Helmut being removed: these 2 vipers have not been of any help.
And if you were Lawson, you'd be told to piss off. Helmut isn't going anywhere until he decides to.
@@redfruit1968 This is a poisoned chalice for Lawson. Adrian Newey will not be around to save the performance for RB....
If not for Red Bull, would Liam Lawson have EVER raced in Formula One? Same for Alex Albon, he had his Formula E drive all lined up, after all.
@@TassieLorenzo Red Bull (ex-Jaguar, ex Stewart) is a comparatively recent sponsor / owner of a team. Teams change and REB represent only 1/12 of the paddock.
LL and AA have F1 level talent and would have arrived imho.
RB has also lost the main reasons why RB won championships: a works engine (Honda) and Adrian Newey.
If the FIA change the rules to stop "fair ground go-kart" driving by MV, matters will change further.
I think Red Bull kept Checo for all of 24 because they didn't care if they dropped down the constructors championship because they need the extra aero development in 2025 or they'd struggle to keep Max's no.1
Sainz should have been signed, absolute no brainer. I don’t see why Yuki wasn’t given the nod ahead of Lawson. He’s managed to iron out most of his inconsistencies over the last couple of seasons, and if it doesn’t work, just swap him with Lawson halfway through the season. Lawson will have doubled his F1 experience by then.
Chico should count his blessings that the team gave him a NEW 2 year contract in the summer. He won the lottery with that one despite all the evidence of his suckage.
Absolutely😂
Didn’t kovaleinen also get a podium at monza in 2008?
Get well soon Aidan. The allergies/ flu looks like it’s kicking you.
❤
@@Jimi90210 it’s not as bad as it was during the week, but because of my asthma, colds tend to mess me RIGHT up.
If I had to guess, RB is uncertain of Max staying with them / F1 and is in a panic to find the next prodigy.
More than a vote of confidence, I think shuffeling up Lawson and Hadjar is more of a desperate move to weed out the next Grosjean, rather than thinking either would be the next Max Verstappen.
Weed out the next Latifi, Stroll or Sergeant. Grosjean was a much better driver, don't disrespect him like that.😂
@@deerlord2363 That kinda was the point. Grosjean (when he came into F1) was fast, but just couldn't keep it together, quite similar to Max.
But Max eventually got stable without getting slower, while Grosjean did have to slow down.
Yes!! Tsunoda? Why the f**** not? It would be an either-or, a binary answer at least.
Happy Christmas.
Cheers from the Pacific West Coast of Canada.
Yuki test driver for Aston in 2026 as surely Alonso would retire by 2027.
Alonso might consider staying longer if Aston Martin provide him with a competitive car.
@ Might, but he’s getting on a bit.
The hulk was also available at the end of 2020
I miss Checo doing well. I wonder why he fell off in 2023-2024
It's odd because he performed well in 2020 with the pink Mercedes and in 2021 he defended so well against Hamilton that people nicknamed him the "Mexican Minister of Defence" but then the new regulations came into effect in 2022 and he basically dropped off a cliff. He still had wins and podiums but he just was not able to drag that car to the places it should have been like what Verstappen was doing. All he needed to do was finish 1 or 2 places behind Verstappen but he couldn't even do that. And I hate how people kept saying "ah the car is built to suit Verstappen only" and whatnot like no, people still praise drivers like Clark, Andretti, Schumacher etc to this day for their ability to adapt to whatever car they were put in. So why do people keep coming up with excuses for Perez not being able to adapt to the ground effect Red Bulls instead of accepting that he simply wasn't as good as Verstappen?
The brainrot is real. Perez got 2nd in 2023. 2 wins and 9 podiums. He had 4 podiums in the first 5 races in 2024, then the car became not very good and he finished mid pack while even Verstappen struggled to get on the podium with it many times. Checo's only bad performances really started in the last 5 races of the season if you actually take into account the performance degradation of the RB. People HAVE to say Perez has been absolute garbage for years in order to not admit Verstappen is so Godly and won this year in a shtbox.
@@johnnycab8986 what “brainrot”?
I know he was 2nd in points last year, I was referring to how he was after Miami.
He performed we well earlier this year but then struggled. Never said anything about Checo being bad. That’s brainrot.
@@johnnycab8986 Perez got 9 podiums in the most dominant car in F1 history while Verstappen finished on the podium in 21 of the 22 races that season.
They suited the car to Max and admittedly didn’t listen to Sergio for car development. Liam will underperform too and people are gonna go through the cycle again.
well, Max is having children of his own making now, so maybe if Lawson finds an Alonso Suzuka 2005 opportunity, he may be in with a shot to not be left behind by Max. Will have to be seen
I think Mercedes signing Andrea Kimi Antonelli to the seat vacated by Hamilton could've played a role in Red Bull consider really seriously the prospect of signing Lawson as Perez's replacement. They saw what Toto Wolff did - he could've signed Sainz or anyone else to be a placeholder and have Antonelli develop at Williams, but Toto decided that he has enough faith in him to give him one of the most coveted seats in F1 today. And to me both Horner and Marko wanted to replicate the same with Lawson - a driver held with high regard by management (especially Herr Marko) he gets rewarded by getting the second Red Bull Racing seat next to a 4-time world champion in Max Verstappen.
As much as people are gutted to see Yuki Tsunoda shafted, they also forget that he's not 100% Red Bull prospect - he's been a Honda prospect long before the relationship with Red Bull began in 2018. And when Honda announced their real return for 2026 with Aston Martin it became clear that Yuki does not have a long-term future in the team - his usefulness to serve as a tool to keep a manufacturer happy has expired. And perhaps it was for the best as the expectations in Team Faenza wouldn't be as high as in the main team. His main yardstick would be Stroll, because if he beats him regularly (the impact would be greater if Yuki is in an inferior to the AMR car) then Honda can pressure Papa Lawrence to do the right thing and replace his son with a driver who will be an upgrade (though that's easy said than done)
It had nothing to do with Mercedes.
Their only hope to replace Perez: Ricciardo. Failed miserably.
Yuki was not an option, they never considered him for the main team.
They hired Perez because none of their juniors was ready to be promoted for 2021. And now that he's done, they're facing the same problem.
Lawson, while hasn't won any junior series championship, is probably their most experienced junior, so it's their only hope now.
Max said he won't stay long in F1 and is now becoming a father and that can also affect his future decisions.
Still has contract until 2028, but might want to leave by then or maybe even earlier depending on how things go for the team in 2026, so they need to train his future replacement and they need to start ASAP.
So promoting Lawson was just logical.
Just my two cents.😊
I think it's gonna be 2019 all over again, unless Liam proves us wrong and be a solid team-mate for Max
Verstappen's domination in Red Bull is like Casey Stoner at Ducati and then Honda. In both cases the machine built for the driver/rider's ability to the detriment of others.
I never understood the "Red Bull has the data" argument.
Sure they got the data but they clearly can't make a right decision with it, the way they screwed Gasly and Albon, the fact they threw in De Vries in, the "He was doing competitive lap times" Danny Ric who got destroyed by Yuki, and keeping Perez for 2024 and even giving him a 2 year deal when everyone saw it as a suicidal move.
It's clear by this point that RB doesn't know how to make good driver choices anymore, only thing keeping them somewhat competent is Max, but it's clear he won't be sticking around for much longer, be it in RB or F1 all together, what happens after he leaves?
Who knows, but I feel like we will soon see massive downfall for Red Bull.
Albon did OK, especially in races! He just tended to start FP ok, but then became tentative after the car spat him off the road. But in the Grand Prix where the limit is lower, he was generally able to push the car hard again.
Yuki is the Val Venus of Red Bull, a jobber to the stars, and a sort of gatekeeper to the main team.
Isn't it interesting that half the Grid at this point just can't seem to drive that second Red Bull? At what point does Red Bull stop being the embodiment of the Skinner meme "no! It's the kids that are wrong"
half the grid isnt good enough at wheeling to be champions apparently
@@flopre9213 or half the grid isn’t Max so they kick them to the kerb.
As soon as someone comes along that’s better than Max, he’ll be gone. It’s survival of the fittest over there.
@@AidanMillward survival of the fittest at redbull after they gave checo 4 seasons?
Red Bull have never really wanted to run two cars. I remember in the hazy past Horner arguing for single car teams
I really don't think drivers like Leclerc or Russell would have problems with the second Red Bull. Gasly got into arguments with RBR engineers like Newey because he wanted the car tailored to him, and that's obviously unacceptable, "the other car is already doing the laptimes, we are NOT going to make wild changes for your car" -- Gasly did just fine at AlphaTauri and Alpine where he can himself be the lead driver and have the car built to his preferences. You didn't see Piastri demanding wild changes to the McLaren, he adjusted his driving style to make best use of the car's strengths!
Completely bizarre to put Lawson in. He was outscored by Yuki in the same races they were in, and also Perez, who had 2 retirements to boot in those races and Lawson had none.
Not bizzare at all 🤦
I am not kind of person to start thinking racism is at play, but unironaclly I wouldn't be surprised if it's some racism at play here.
@@russotusso1695 🤦 what a joke....
@@russotusso1695I genuinely do not believe that Yuki wasn’t promoted for any race-related reasons, but if you think for a second that Helmut Marko isn’t a racist, you’re delusional.
What you're missing is that this is peak Yuki, 4 seasons in and barely beating a rookie, Lawson has potential to improve, Yuki doesn't.
Oh, Sergio....
Perhaps Checo's contract was tied into one of the sponsorship deals, that kept him tied in until the end of the year.
I honestly think it's 6 of 1 and half-dozen of the other when it comes to the 2nd Red Bull seat. Max has proven more than cabale of being competitive even when the team's effectively a 1 car operation, so they could realistically put anyone who isn't so slow as to be unsafe in the other car. Putting someone fast in is more of an optics play than anything. That said, that was based on Newey and his proteges building the cars.
It's not so much the teammate has to compete against max. They have to drive a car, set up for max. Okay, you can argue that's the same thing, and I'd say it's related, but it's also quite different. No one is expecting max levels of performance.Just normal levels of performance with a twitchy car. I remember adrian saying max makes it hard to design a good car, because he can get the best out of every car design, so it's hard to tell what would make it better or not, because Max still drove the most out of it.
Ending on a Yardstick and a Mile. had you kept going, I was expecting degrees Fahrenheit.
@@GregBrownsWorldORacing the UK be weird like that.
Petrol sold by the litre but consumed at a rate of miles per gallon. The American brain cannot comprehend this.
@@AidanMillward LOL, WTF is petrol? Do you mean gas? Which is technically a liquid when you buy it 😎
@ no I mean petrol.
English (traditional) 🇬🇧
English (simplified) 🇺🇸
Lance Stroll needs to retire!
And Aston would separate themselves of such world championship material (2023 Alonso's words)? Certainly not!
Lance Stroll would be competent as a WEC Aston Martin driver where the level is a little lower, as long as he improved his situational awareness amongst traffic by a lot!
@@TassieLorenzo Stroll definitely belongs in the 24 Hours of Lemons.😂
Look it up if you don't know what it is.
@deerlord2363 I have a diecast from it, he's also perfect for the demolition derby
Kvyat Vs Verstappen would've been more entertaining than Ricciardo v Maxipad
Maxipad? You a Rocket Powered Mohawk fan?
@PaperBanjo64 Lol it's a Reddit originator. But yes, who's not a fan of that lunatic?
@PaperBanjo64 My reply got YT censored. How very apt.
@@Jesus_H._Tap-DancingChrist darn it!
I'd like to see him in WEC or IMSA. I haven't been keeping any eye on f1. In fact, I deliberately avoided it. I only found out because I happened to tune in to sky news as they were reporting it.
It'll all work out fine. Checo needed to step aside.
You forgot one of the biggest underperformers who coincidentally is from Mexico and he was Max's father in-law teammate at Bernie's team
Who?
@deerlord2363 Hector Rebqque. He was Perez before Perez
Gasly WON the 2020 Monza Grand Prix, Yuki does not even have a podium
You forget that Hulkenberg would have been Max teammate, but Perez won a Grand Prix for Racing Point
Perez career was over but he won that crucial GP
I didn’t forget anything
I don't think there's anything Yuki could do. I think there's something about him that Horner just DOES NOT WANT.
Yes, his Honda ties. Why give the driver of Honda a chance when they backstabbed the team.😅
Redbull just should’ve signed sainz, it’s the ego’s within the team that are costing them things like the constructors. It’s way to soon to put lawson up there
They should have gotten Carlos as soon as he was available.
F1 is Sink or swim,unless you have huge sponsorship,,Go Kiwi,,,
Another victim of Max Teammate Syndrome, what are the odds on Liam lasting out a whole season. I fear it could be the usual Horner and Doc Kiss of Death! In The German Touring Car Series as Albon’s teammate, Lawson came out well on top and I reckon he is a real F1 prospect but on that one horse town at Red Bull, who knows?
Red Bull gives you wings, as they kick you out the door…
It's crazy how Checo had a pretty good 2021 season and played a big role in helping Max win the title in Abu Dhabi. Where did that guy go? What a fall from grace he's had. Not sure about Lawson getting the promotion though. It feels too early for him. Hopefully Red Bull will at least be patient and give him time to settle in unlike Gasly and Albon. Personally I think they should have Yuki the seat for one year at least but hey, maybe I'll be wrong and Lawson will hit the ground running at Red Bull but I guess we'll see!
Checo wasn't that fast in 2021! He was still often 3-4 tenths behind Max in qualifying, which is obviously up to 10 positions in Q1 in the much tighter 2024 field.
@@TassieLorenzo I dunno he was competitive enough from what I remember. I agree he wasn't as fast as Max but Red Bull didn't need him to be. Checo's role at Red Bull has always been to regularly score points and be Max's wingman which he mostly did in 2021. 2023 and 2024 however... Not so much.
I think Pérez' potential is greater than Lawson's or Tsunoda's. This according to data in possession of Red Bull. Due to probably mental pressure applied mainly by the press and the home front Pérez buckled and cracked. In 2021 there were no expectations for him. In '22 and '23 he got hoisted on the parade shield as the main WDC protaganist against Max.
Red Bull is intending to do things different now. Max' data witch always was available to his team mate gets shielded now. Seeing that data and experiencing if you try you crash is devastating for the team mate. I hope for the best.
If Perez had potential, we would have seen it by now, he is 34! In 11 race weekends, Lawson in a Vcarb as a rookie outqualified Perez 6 times! That is all you need to know to understand the potential difference. Add in Perez having the most crash damage to virtually none for Lawson and Perez making rookie mistakes most weekends, it was an easy decision to make. Perez is the past, Lawson is Red Bulls future.
@Matt04108
I guess you misinterpret the word potential. Pérez more often than not doesn't reach his maximum potential as be did more often in his Force India/Racing point days. In other words this is called underperforming. The pressure put on him by himself, his surroundings, national media, international/British media kept him from reaching his full potential. For Lawson it is important to perform well in the first few races to get the British media off his back. That is the pressure he has to deal with. Him being put through the mental wringer of Dr. Marko and Horner gives confidence he is able to pull that off.
This will be the end of Lawson. Its a totally cursed seat.
Adrian Mailman should have got that second seat.
@@julienaltena before I get 997hrs community service for calling someone a bellend.
I think that RB doesn't handle their drivers well at all. The Torpedo might be the worst of the drivers that RB dropped. JEV and Buemi are both Formula E Champions and Buemi has won LeMans several times. They have plenty of talent but what they do in the senior team just eats drivers up. Sad to say, but I think Liam will be the next on that list. As a super sub he was awesome but IMHO when he was in the seat full time for the VCARB team he wasn't quite as good at the team politics. I think either Max will destroy him on performance or the team politics will.........or both. For the record we know the team politics would never have allowed Sainz back into the team with Max, at least not will Marko is still in the team.
To be fair, if JEV and Buemi were solid F1-grade drivers, surely another F1 team would pick them up? F1 teams are IMO *always* looking for either fast upper midfield drivers (like Hulkenberg, Bottas etc) or the next Hamilton/Alonso.
I always wondered about Perez and long Covid…
In all fairness to Verstappen, that RB20 WAS at the third-best car for more than half of the season.
Back fire on RB
So what happens to Perez now? If he's not around it'll have a huge effect on the Mexican To gate.
I think he'll try his hand at WEC or IMSA, he used to be called the tyre whisperer after all and that would benefit him massively in endurance racing. I don't think he's going to retire from racing altogether yet. I also think he's preparing his son to start his junior motorsports career in the hopes that he might do what Jos Verstappen did: train his son to win the Championship that he never got to.
@CyanRooper WEC would be a good move, the main thing is to get back the enjoyment again.
I feel sorry for Yuki
I love Checo. Just wish it hadn't ended like this.... maybe Checo would of done better had he not had a contract extension. Like showing off his stuff lol. Like in 2020. Idk I don't care for Liam, but I REALLY don't care for Isak Hadjar🤢🤮
Will Honda take Yuki to Aston to replace Alonso in 26.
By the time they leave Red Bull, second drivers look as though they haven't slept for weeks.
Red Bull's car is not fast or cornering well. Max will not be WC next year.
Also puts in perspective of how poorly run Red Bull is as a team, once upon a time they were the dream team to drive for now nobody wants to go anywhere near them..... feel sorry for Lawson
Lawson will be destroyed by Max just like Gasly and Albon before him despite them both proving subsequently that they are talented drivers. Red Bull would have been better served getting someone like Bottas, well actually Bottas, in who is a proven wing man who will harvest a bucket load of points without threatening Max and therefore there being no need to destroy him.
Anyone who thinks Liam is hot headed for flipping the bird at Mexico, has never driven in nz or Australia. Being offended by that is the same as Americans getting offended when a brit or aussie/kiwi saying the c word
Lawson; the new Checo in race standings for 2025....
except he can qualify well, doesnt make rookie errors, can keep faster cars behind him and doesnt crash all the time.
@AidanMillward As your Colombian “GOAT” would say; *If you didn’t see that coming you’d have to be blind or stupid!*
"I have one question for Juan."
The most unsurprising news in F1. Well, next to Lance Stroll getting his contract renewed...
Complete mismanagement from Red Bull over several years. I think we might see Lawson and Hadjar both sacked by mid season, dont rate them at all. Hadjar especially seems to crack under pressure and is more volatile over team radio than even Yuki. A recipe than means he wont last long in F1.
If I was Yuki, I’d leave RB and maybe even F1 all together.
Jump ship to Indycar and follow Takuma Satos footsteps.
Sato is an underrated driver.
I think I need to start doing F1 journalism.
Whilst this take is closer, it still fails to mention why Red Bull signed Perez in the first place (Not going to explain that for the millionth time) and that based on that reason, it has proven what they wanted to find out but they failed to act on that evidence e.g. develop the car in a different direction and keep Perez.
This failure to improve the car cost Red Bull the consttructors championship.
Also with the "giving him a contract extension to give him confidence". That is complete BS because they still had Ricciardo lurking in the junior team plus they kept talking about his "performances" even after extending the contract, so hardly reducing pressure.
Why would they develop the car away from Max? Max hates understeer and complains at the slightest hint of it! It's only logical for the number one driver to have priority over the number two driver.
@@TassieLorenzo That's the point though. If they are developing the car for one driver then they have to expect that the other driver might struggle.
Why do I have to keep explaining this?
@@barnigranero5882 The second driver is not important and the WCC is not important to Red Bull.
"they have to expect that the other driver might struggle" I guess but the engineers will point to the data and say "well the other car can do it, just duplicate the number one driver's technique!" (Said duplication may result in a crash if the talent is not there to do that, but oh well!)
This applies the other way too, where the McLaren understeered too much for Ricciardo's liking (just as the Red Bull oversteers too much for Perez's liking). If the other car is already doing the laptime, why should McLaren change the car for Ricciardo?
I am always consistent on this view (it being the number two driver's job to duplicate the number one driver's telemetry trace!). Eventually they found Piastri who is more adaptable than Ricciardo and followed the engineer's instructions to change his technique, in a way Ricciardo was unable to.
"it still fails to mention why Red Bull signed Perez in the first place (Not going to explain that for the millionth time)" Are you suggesting Red Bull erred? I don't think they did, they won 4 WDCs. Maybe the 2020 Red Bull was too tricky even for Max, but the 2020 Honda PU was still down on power too so it's hard to judge how much was the car being more driveable in 2021 and how much was the all-new 2021 Honda power unit being more powerful.
@@TassieLorenzo Your point completely forgets why they signed Perez in the first place.
By the way, Ricciardo should not have been dropped by McLaren.