A very curious fact emerged at the end of qualifying in Shanghai: the gap between Max Verstappen and Isack Hadjar was 0.262 seconds. The joke circulating in the paddock since last weekend in Melbourne (“Maybe Max would be better off in the Racing Bulls”) is actually turning into a serious discussion. Verstappen himself addressed the topic today when asked how it was possible for Liam Lawson to be in last place.
“When Liam was at Racing Bulls, his performances were very close to Yuki’s (Tsunoda),” he explained. “There wasn’t much difference between them, otherwise the team wouldn’t have decided to put him in Red Bull. Now, suddenly, the gap between the two has become very large, and we see that both Yuki and Isack are very close to my lap times. I think that says a lot—when I talk to Liam, he tells me that the Racing Bulls car is definitely easier to drive than ours.”
Helmut Marko dismissed the issue in his usual style (“A very fast car is always difficult to drive”), but the situation is becoming increasingly peculiar. Liam Lawson is certainly not a last-row driver—last November in Brazil, driving the Racing Bulls, he qualified in fifth place. But his Red Bull dream is turning more and more into a nightmare.
“I probably need time,” Liam admitted, “but I know I don’t have much.” Marko later commented on Lawson’s words in an unfriendly manner (“He’s right”), adding: “He was disappointing. Now we need to analyze everything. It all depends on performance, and he hasn’t given his best.”
Same old story, but something has changed. That the Red Bull is a car only Verstappen can drive is now an established fact—just ask Pierre Gasly, Alex Albon, and Sergio Perez—but when Max was sweeping up world titles, the issue was secondary. Now even Verstappen is starting to struggle, and seeing Hadjar’s Racing Bulls within three-tenths of Max is something unprecedented in the Red Bull ecosystem.
Until now, the issue had always been blamed on Max’s teammate, who was inevitably sacrificed. But now, wondering what Max Verstappen would do behind the wheel of a Racing Bulls is no longer just a meaningless joke—some are seriously asking the question.
Perhaps the pursuit of performance at Milton Keynes has pushed the team to an extreme limit. The advantage of having Max Verstappen has been a huge asset for years, but over time, it may have led the team’s engineers to overlook the need to ensure a car with at least some drivability. The hope is that someone at Red Bull is asking this question because, on the “driver management” front—Marko’s domain—the next move is already gaining traction.
“We’ll see what happens with Yuki; he’s driving for his future and is doing very well right now.” Next in line.
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