Pierre Gasly, Red Bull, Hockenheimring, 2019

Perez earns patience from Red Bull – but these six others were not so lucky

Formula 1

Posted on

| Written by

As much as Red Bull would insist that their driver line-up is the most secure on the current grid – with world champion Max Verstappen under contract until the end of the 2028 season and Sergio Perez having been given a new deal which includes at least an option for him to be retained for 2026 – the reality is anything but.

Aside from Perez firing the rumour mill into overdrive with repeated disappointing performances virtually every grand prix weekend, even Verstappen has not been immune from speculation over his future.

The internal political struggles that engulfed the team at the start of the season have clearly not been welcomed by their world champion driver, while Toto Wolff appears not to have given up on trying to convince him to jump ship to Mercedes.

But it’s clearly Perez, 146 points behind his team mate at the summer break, whose seat is hottest. Despite only putting pen to paper with him a matter of months ago, rumours were rampant after a sequence of bad weekends leading into the summer break that Red Bull might cut their losses and replace him with either Daniel Ricciardo or Yuki Tsunoda.

That was until yesterday, when team principal Christian Horner sought to cease all speculation by confirming that Perez would remain in his seat for the upcoming Dutch Grand Prix and beyond.

That came as a surprise to many not due to Perez’s performance, but because Red Bull have not hesitated to cut those who didn’t measure up in the past, as these six cases show.

2005-6 – Car swap carousel

Scott Speed, Vitantonio Liuzzi, Red Bull, 2005
Two into one did go – sort of – in Red Bull’s first season

Red Bull Racing’s inaugural season in 2005 was more successful than most might have expected. The team hired veteran David Coulthard after his nine-year tenure at McLaren, but as well as experience, they wanted to offer opportunity for youth too.

Their solution was to hand their second seat to rookie and F3000 champion Vitantonio Liuzzi. And also to its previous occupant, Christian Klien.

For the first seven rounds, Liuzzi and Klien rotated racing duties between them. While Klien competed in the opening three rounds in Melbourne, Sepang and Bahrain, Liuzzi performed Friday practice duties. Then over the following four rounds at Imola, Barcelona, Monaco and the Nurburging, the roles were reversed. Eventually, after the European Grand Prix at the Nurburgring, the team decided that Klien would race out the remainder of the championship, while Liuzzi would share Friday duties with Scott Speed.

Liuzzi was rewarded the following season with a race seat alongside Speed at Red Bull’s new Toro Rosso junior team, while Klien remained alongside Coulthard at the senior team. However, Klien lasted until that year’s Italian Grand Prix. After scoring only two points to Coulthard’s 14 over the first 15 rounds, Klien was replaced by Robert Doornbos for the final three races.

For their third season in 2007, Red Bull decided they needed two experienced drivers, and signed Mark Webber to join Coulthard instead.

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

2007 – So long, Speed

Scott Speed, Toro Rosso, Nurburgring, 2007
Speed lost his seat at mid-season

With two teams came double the opportunities for Red Bull to get aggressive with their driver line-ups. American driver Scott Speed was one half of the first Toro Rosso line up alongside Liuzzi in 2006, but the team only scored a single point all season, courtesy of Liuzzi at Indianapolis.

The following season, the points were no easier to come by. But tension brewed between Speed and team principal Franz Tost as their personalities appeared to clash. Eventually, at that year’s European Grand Prix, things came to a head when the pair got into a heated argument after Speed was one of several drivers to aquaplane off the track when rain hit at the start of the race.

By the next race in Hungary, Speed’s time with the team was over. In his car instead was an exciting Red Bull junior prospect by the name of Sebastian Vettel

2009 – Bye, bye, Bourdais

Sebastien Bourdais, Toro Rosso, Nurburgring, 2009
Bourdais made way for Alguersuari

The prospect of multiple ChampCar champion Sebastien Bourdais entering Formula 1 was an exciting one. Red Bull gave the ChampCar veteran a chance to test his skills in the world championship in 2008, but he was soundly beaten by Vettel over the season, who even went on to record a memorable grand prix victory in the heavy rain that year in Monza.

Bourdais was given a second chance with the team in 2009, with a young rookie and fellow Sebastien joining the team in Sebastien Buemi. Again, Bourdais was outshone by his younger team mate – not quite what was expected of an experienced single-seater champion like Bourdais.

Eventually, after the German Grand Prix, Red Bull took the bold step of replacing Bourdais with 19-year-old Jaime Alguersuari – who became F1’s youngest ever debutant at the next round in Hungary.

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

2016 – Kvyat replaced after round four

Daniil Kvyat, Red Bull, Shanghai International Circuit, 2016
Kvyat lost his Red Bull drive 18 days after standing on the podium for them

After several years of stability at Red Bull with Vettel and Webber, then Daniel Ricciardo replacing his retiring countryman, Vettel would depart for Ferrari for the 2015 season, giving Red Bull their youngest ever driver line up as Daniil Kvyat was promoted over Jean-Eric Vergne into the main team.

But all the focus was on Toro Rosso, who boasted an all-new driver line-up oozing with promise and star potential. First was 20-year-old Carlos Sainz Jnr the son of the multiple World Rally champion. But in a controversial move, Sainz’s team mate was 17-year-old Max Verstappen – the youngest driver ever to be granted a Formula 1 superlicence.

Both drivers impressed in their first season in the sport. But as Red Bull were unable to compete for regular wins and the championship as they wished to, Kvyat’s lack of polish at times did not inspire confidence. As the 2016 season began, prospects began to look up for Kvyat as he took a podium finish in the third round of the championship in China.

However, at his home grand prix in Russia at the very next round, Kvyat had a shocker. He crashed into Vettel’s Ferrari twice in two corners, ending up in 15th place with a damaged car. Before the next round in Spain, Red Bull stunned the motorsport world by announcing that Kvyat and Verstappen would be switched, with Kvyat relegated back to Toro Rosso and Verstappen promoted into his seat at Red Bull.

Those who criticised the move were silenced when Verstappen promptly won his first race with the team after the dominant Mercedes pair crashed out, becoming the youngest ever grand prix winner aged just 18. He remains in that same seat to this day, while Kvyat later lost his Toro Rosso seat before the end of the next season to Pierre Gasly and Brendon Hartley.

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

2019 – Gasly out, Albon in

Pierre Gasly, Red Bull, Silverstone, 2019
Gasly got just 12 races at Red Bull

As Verstappen grew in stature at Red Bull, team mate Ricciardo found himself questioning whether this was the team which would give him the best chance of pursuing his dream of a world championship title. As a result, he decided to leave Red Bull at the end of the 2018 season and commit his future to Renault.

Unsurprisingly, Red Bull opted to look within for Ricciardo’s replacement, rather than sign someone from a rival team. Out of the two Toro Rosso candidates in 2018, Gasly was the clear best choice.

Gasly was therefore promoted into the senior squad alongside Verstappen, while Red Bull junior Alexander Albon was given a Toro Rosso chance alongside Kvyat, who had been brought back to help provide experience to the second team. But unlike Ricciardo, who had been fairly evenly matched with Verstappen, Gasly completely struggled to keep up with him.

Over the first 12 rounds of the championship, Gasly failed to beat Verstappen on merit a single time in qualifying or races. Verstappen fought for victories, won races and took pole positions, while Gasly failed to complete a single lap in the top three positions. Gasly was also lapped by Verstappen on multiple occasions.

While Gasly went into the summer break eager to reset, Red Bull did not give him that chance. Instead, they announced they would be picking Albon to replace him for the rest of the season, rather than Kvyat. While the pair had been reasonably evenly matched, Red Bull assumed Albon provided more upside long term.

It appeared to be the right decision. Over the final nine rounds of the season, Albon amassed 76 points with the team – 11 more than Gasly had scored over the first 12.

2021 – Red Bull picks Perez

Alexander Albon, Sergio Perez, Bahrain International Circuit, 2020
Red Bull hired Perez to replace Albon

Although Albon appeared to show much more promise than Gasly over the final part of the previous season, he failed to build on that level of performance the following year.

While Verstappen was regularly on the podium, Albon only reached it twice. He never out-qualified car number 33 across the entire season and was never the first Red Bull to the chequered flag in races where they both finished. Although Horner recognised that Albon was still closer to Verstappen on average than Gasly had been, Red Bull were starting to threaten Mercedes more regularly and the team needed a driver who they could rely on in the heat of a championship battle.

At the end of the season, they picked Sergio Perez as that driver. Losing his seat at Racing Point ahead of its transition to Aston Martin, Perez had hit the best form of his life and had just celebrated a maiden grand prix victory in his tenth season in Formula 1. Albon was retained as the team’s reserve and simulator driver for 2021, serving a vital role as Red Bull became locked in a fierce championship fight with Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton – which Perez played a crucial part in helping Verstappen to prevail in.

Red Bull were happy to reward Albon for his team work by releasing him to return to the grid with Williams in 2022. Albon has become a key part of Williams’ rebuilding. But while Perez continues to race alongside Verstappen, the gulf between the pair only seems to have widened over time, yet for once Red Bull have stayed their hand.

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

Formula 1

Browse all Formula 1 articles

Author information

Will Wood
Will has been a RaceFans contributor since 2012 during which time he has covered F1 test sessions, launch events and interviewed drivers. He mainly...

Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

15 comments on “Perez earns patience from Red Bull – but these six others were not so lucky”

  1. notagrumpyfan
    30th July 2024, 13:58

    De Vries should be in this list as well as the one with probably the shortest stint in the Red Bull family.

  2. Pre 2009 Red Bull was nowhere as competitive and didn’t really have the pick of the litter in terms of driver line up. Most of those hires (Speed, Klein and Doornbos) were backmarkers in a lower midfield team.

    Post 2009 though.. you’d have to say that most rubbish driver they’ve had in their line up has been Sergio Perez. Its shocking to still see him on the grid after a mediocre season in 2021, followed by two disastrous seasons in 2022 & 23, and ultra disastrous 2024 so far.

    Honestly, I feel Red Bull really dropped the ball by signing him this season. The person who should leave the team before Sergio is the person who made the brain fade decision of signing him for 2 more seasons.

    1. 2021 was ok, not much worse than bottas and some people said he would improve during his second season, I didn’t expect him to get worse though.

    2. Fully agree regarding the fact whoever extended perez’s contract needs to lose his job, because he was on a bad form when they signed him already and they had all the time (as the best team) to evaluate.

    3. @todfod @esploratore1 Not sure ofcourse but it could be Christian Horner who extended Perez’s contract as he thought it brings some Peace for Sergio and could focus on driving.

  3. So I guess this counts as a confirmation of the confirmation of the contract extension. On past form, we should see a Pérez dip after the break. Imagine 2 or more GPs where he’s not getting out of Q1 again, McLaren overtake Red Bull in the constructor’s, Verstappen’s points buffer starts to dwindle. All perfectly plausible. Red Bull already look ridiculous. Pérez is a known quantity in failing to deliver.

    1. It’s the lack of alternatives that is keeping him in place. Red Bull presumably have enough real-world and sim data from both Ricciardo and Tsunoda to know that neither would be a guaranteed upgrade on Perez, and any other option is too much of an unknown quantity.

      1. @red-andy I get that. But that’s why switching last year would have been better. They have a young driver program and Red Bull are the only team with the (absurd?) luxury of having a B-team on the grid, able to promote and demote another two ready-to-go drivers at a day’s notice. So how have they ended up with easily the weakest driver line-up of the top 4?
        Arrogance, basically. The same thing that led them to lose their chief designer, possibly to a rival. They believed they were so far ahead, they could run with one good driver and mess around with all the ‘Succession’ stuff at the start of this season. They’re lucky that McLaren didn’t realize they were in a drivers title fight in 2024.

        1. Yes, with the advantage they have with the 2 teams it’s really bad to have such a weak line up, and losing newey already had a bad effect on their competitiveness, even there they were arrogant and said something along the lines “we can go on without”, doesn’t look like that from what I saw ever since he announced he was leaving.

          1. @esploratore1 Just to point out that we’re obviously talking about one or two individuals only, not the bulk of the team! But it’s what was baffling about all the leaks, attempts to oust Horner, the intrigues – after just one real season of dominance (2023). It seemed like hubris.

        2. Red Andy keeps saying over and over again that they have no better alternatives, but there is zero evidence showing neither RB driver would be an upgrade. They don’t want a closely competitive #2, but they don’t want an utter embarrassment every weekend, which is exactly what they could be getting from either RB driver.

    2. So last year he had “ok results” with such a car 4 races in a row, hungary-monza, so this includes hungary and spa, where he wasn’t impressive this year, but the car was also stronger last year, then he had a decent patch in the end of the year too, with 4 out of 5 races where he got ok results and one he retired, usa, brazil, vegas, abu dhabi.

      That’s plenty of races where, if he follows form, he could do decently, however decently might only be 5th and 6th places if verstappen has to settle for 3rd because the car is no longer that good.

  4. Perez is still the only team mate to occasionally get close to and beat Verstappen since Daniel Ricciardo, so I don’t think he’s a terrible driver. However, he often seems uncomfortable with most of the recent Red Bull cars (so he’s not the most adaptable driver), and given that the top four teams are now so closely matched, we can expect Perez to finish around P8 more often than not.

    1. “Perez is still the only team mate to occasionally get close to and beat Verstappen since Daniel Ricciardo”
      The last time Perez beat Verstappen in the race was Baku 2023, over a year ago, how is that even considered occasionaly. He has finished ahead of Verstappen 5 times since 2021. Not to mention the amounts of time he’s been behind 30 seconds or more. I don’t know how people can defend that.

    2. Perez could win 7 straight and Max DNF for 7 straight races and Checo would be tied with Max. If Max broke his leg tomorrow and was out for the season, the odds of Checo out scoring him by the end of the season would be slim to none. That’s how bad he’s doing.

      The only reason he won any races was because the car had such a margin that he was the only person in a position to pick up a win if Max didn’t most races. So, nearly 60 races in the best car and he’s got what, 5 wins with RBR?

      He hasn’t been pretty good. He’s ranged from decent to awful.

Comments are closed.