Red Bull has felt like a one-car – or at least one-driver – team for several years now as the second seat has been occupied by a rotating cast of individuals, who are granted a vanishingly small window to prove themselves before being fired or demoted. Four-time world champion Max Verstappen is clearly a once-in-a-generation talent, but it is difficult to measure anyone against him when they don’t have an equivalent car spec – especially one so tricky as the RB21.
Yuki Tsunoda, belatedly promoted from Racing Bulls to fill the seat when Liam Lawson – who had leapfrogged him in the Red Bull Junior Team queue – was dropped after two rounds, has finished in the top 10 just three times since his elevation. His part-season with Red Bull has been punctuated by high-profile mishaps such as his shunt in qualifying at Imola, in which he broke a brand-new floor.
