2 weeks Ago By Sam Smith
Red Bull have been warned they are the 10th-fastest team in Formula One if Max Verstappen leaves or has an off day. Former Aston Martin strategy engineer Bernie Collins is concerned by how far a Verstappen-less Red Bull could fall down the grid. The Milton Keynes team have endured a tumultuous start to the season.
Liam Lawson was sacked after only two races. The New Zealand driver has been demoted to Racing Bulls after his disappointing performances in Australia and China. Yuki Tsunoda has been promoted to partner Verstappen for the remainder of the season, with Red Bull 's car not as fast as McLaren 's in the opening weeks of 2025.
Verstappen has been the one highlight in Red Bull ’s campaign so far, finishing second and fourth in both Grands Prix, respectively. Collins believes Red Bull ’s issues transcend Lawson, pointing out that Verstappen also carried them last season when Sergio Perez was their other driver. "If Max leaves or doesn't show up at a race, they are currently the 10th-fastest team,” she told Sky Sports, for whom she now works as a strategy analyst.
“I was criticised last year for saying, when Checo [Perez] was there, that if Max didn't turn up for a race, they were the fourth-fastest team. But at the minute, they’re 10th-fastest.” Collins argued that Red Bull could have been more meticulous in their approach to replacing Perez during the off-season.
The recruitment process was effectively between Lawson and Tsunoda, who ended the season as Racing Bulls’ driver line-up. Collins says Red Bull should have put all their young drivers into an older version of their car so that they could properly test them, with Racing Bulls' car vastly different to the main team. "I think they're in big trouble,” Collins said.
“I think that they should have looked at the younger talent and said, 'Who is the most forward aero balance [driving style]?'. That's what we believe the characteristic of that car is, it's very on-the-nose and very different to the Racing Bulls in characteristic. “So they should have looked [at which] of their young drivers is driving the closest to that spectrum, they are the one who is going to succeed the most.
"They should have maybe put all of them in an old Red Bull for a day and said 'who can get the best lap time out of this car?'. That’s one metric of doing it because the Racing Bulls is fundamentally different.”.
