Why is Max Verstappen the only driver able to get results for Red Bull – and what can the team do about it?

Max Verstappen’s early retirement from the Austrian Grand Prix put the give attention to Yuki Tsunoda’s poor kind within the second Pink Bull. With Max out, the remainder of the Pink Bull workforce’s sole focus was the automobile struggling on the reverse finish of the grid. Winding up final on the finish of a combative 70 laps, it was one other day to neglect for the Japanese racer.

The stark actuality for Red Bull is that with out Verstappen’s appreciable haul of factors, they’d be final within the Groups’ championship.

After Liam Lawson’s disappointing two-race stint for the senior workforce, issues appeared briefly higher for Tsunoda at Pink Bull, however he’s now slumping again to a kind worse than Sergio Perez and no higher than Lawson’s couple of races. The reality is, with out Verstappen, Pink Bull aren’t even midfielders, they’re tail-enders in System 1 and even a good distance adrift of Racing Bulls.

It’s been effectively documented that the automobile is difficult to drive, however you sensed the frustration from Christian Horner in his publish Grand Prix feedback – “it isn’t a simple automobile to drive, however it’s not that tough both”.

It should have been a troublesome actuality test for the pit wall who didn’t have their star driver in play, and who appears the one man able to driving Pink Bull’s vehicles over the past seven years.

So why is the Dutchman the one driver seemingly in a position to extract respectable tempo from the Pink Bull?

Max has a really particular model and an unbelievable really feel for the automobile. He likes a constructive entrance finish and a automobile that may be sharp on entry. He can even take care of the same old compromise of oversteer higher than anybody within the discipline. The issue then appears to be discovering another person who can deal with related traits to Verstappen.

Within the first races of 2025, it was clear that Lawson couldn’t drive the automobile persistently close to the restrict even round a single lap. He may do an occasional fast nook, however would then lose a heap by making a mistake on the subsequent.

Making an attempt to drive this automobile on the restrict for a whole lap isn’t simple, except you make adjustments to settle it down. However when you settle it down and discover a extra drivable steadiness, you are taking away the pure energy of the design philosophy and choose up an excessive amount of understeer, which makes you plain gradual. This appears to be the place Tsunoda is at now.

Yuki’s Qualifying laps just lately, there aren’t any apparent errors in there. He’s not hanging on to the automobile, or shedding chunks of time in any specific nook.

If something, as a driver it’s nicer to return again from a disappointing session and see {that a} mistake right here or there value you, as a result of it’s one thing tangible. You may put your finger on it, see what you probably did fallacious and work out how a lot it value. You too can work out adjustments to your driving model to appropriate it.

In Yuki’s case in the mean time, there aren’t any apparent errors to level at, which is why each he and the workforce are left bamboozled at his lack of tempo. His crash at first of Imola Qualifying (see the clip beneath) appeared like a case of a driver making an attempt to reset heading into a vital session after a tough run of practices. He’d appeared by the info and was decided to assault from the primary lap.

Sadly in attacking he tried to do the unimaginable, lumped over the kerbs at excessive pace and was pitched into his dramatic crash. The automobile is so tough to drive that in desperation for efficiency, it’s simple to over-drive and crash. However the various is then what occurred in Barcelona and Austria – to under-drive, or have the automobile be too sedate and be gradual.

Tsunoda has mentioned he’ll delve into the info along with his engineers and attempt to perceive what’s going on, however historical past says it’s not going to be simple to repair. In any case, this is a matter that has impacted a number of drivers in a number of Pink Bull vehicles over a number of units of rules.

When requested if he was assured about his probabilities at Pink Bull, Yuki was bullish at first of the season, however now 9 races into his tenure within the sport’s hardest seat, I feel the understanding of the fates of many earlier than him has hit.

He hoped that as a result of his driving model was nearer to that of Max he can be higher off, however it seems that no person can drive a automobile just like how Max can function at his peak.

I’ve by no means recognized one driver to drive so in another way to so many others, however it’s the solely rationalization and it’s a full head scratcher for Pink Bull – and anybody else who might want to hire probably the most formidable expertise within the discipline.

It’s that very same unbelievable pure model and really feel that makes Max the expertise he’s, however in creating a automobile in a manner that optimises their star driver, will that make any workforce with Max in it naturally a one-car workforce?

And what about Pink Bull? Logic would say they need to focus their growth on making the automobile extra drivable for the ‘common’ F1 driver, moderately than their famous person, however is that simply shackling their best asset?

Yuki finds himself in a troublesome spot. The one factor he can do is mud himself off and go once more, making an attempt one other reset at Silverstone this weekend. In contrast to Lawson, he has the good thing about just a few years’ value of CV to fall again on, so we all know what he’s able to in the best equipment.

The query is, can he extract something extra out of the second half of the season in Pink Bull colors and eventually discover a stream, or will he find yourself heading the way in which of his more and more lengthy line of predecessors – Alex Albon, Pierre Gasly and so forth – and maybe needing to rebuild a life exterior of Pink Bull on the finish of the yr.