The Formula 1 edit

Upon Red Bull team principal Christian Horner releasing the statement that junior Red Bull team driver Isack Hadjar could be promoted to the senior team in the near future, we have to talk about the Curse of the Second Seat. For years now, Formula 1 fans have noticed a pattern with the second seat at Formula 1 team Red Bull Racing. Usually, the second driver seems to have a ton of problems with managing their car and not delivering results quickly, compared to Max Verstappen, who has been at Red Bull since entering F1 in 2015.

engineering

We have to start with the mechanical side of the car. Red Bull is known for engineering their cars to fit Verstappen’s aggressive driving habits. Of course, no other driver races like the four-time world champion, so the car tends to fail the second driver. We aren’t sure if this is on purpose, although it wouldn’t make sense for Red Bull to deliberately sabotage their second driver, because that way they would have no chance in the Constructor’s Championship. It may all be because the second drivers are never up to par. Checo Perez was for quite some time, but in his last season (2024) he completely fell off, wrecking in many races.

It is evident that no driver is on the same level as Max Verstappen, so he needs a car to reflect his abilities, but it still isn’t fair to the second driver who may be a very good racer, just in a different car.

Past teammates

Since joining Formula 1 in 2015, Max Verstappen has had 6 teammates at Red Bull. It really puts it into perspective when you think about it this way: Verstappen has been racing for Red Bull for 10 years. In that same time period that he has stayed consistent at the same team, Red Bull has gone through six number two drivers, two of which were this year! Seems a little suspicious, does it not?

The first teammate that Verstappen had at Red Bull was Daniel Ricciardo, who dominated at Red Bull, until Verstappen came in as a rookie. Not long after Verstappen started to make a name for himself, Ricciardo was fired from the team for lack of consistent performance. It’s pretty obvious that once Verstappen came in as a driver for the team, Red Bull decided they wanted to build the car to cater Max’s driving abilities, and since Ricciardo wasn’t an aggressive driver like Verstappen, he was doomed to fail with the new car.

Daniel was then replaced with Frenchman Pierre Gasly, who raced with the team for twelve races before he was replaced midway through the 2019 season. In the exact words of Google “Gasly fell out of place at Red Bull and was never fully supported nor given the tools he needed to succeed.” This pretty much sums it up. Ricciardo was replaced for not performing, then his replacement was replaced only halfway through his first season with the team for not performing. Are you starting to see a pattern?

Pierre Gasly was then replaced with Alexander Albon. The Thai driver spent 18 months with the team before being dropped ahead of the 2021 season.

Alex Albon was replaced with Sergio (Checo) Perez, who stayed at the team for an astounding four seasons, scoring 29 podium finishes. From an outside perspective, it seemed that Checo’s main job at Red Bull was to help Verstappen secure wins. Red Bull secured 14 1-2’s finishes over the span of 3 seasons. Checo was dropped from the team before the 2025 season. Team principal Christian Horner was supposedly disappointed in Perez’s results in the 2024 season, leading to him being fired before the 2025 racing season began.

At the start of this year, Driver Liam Lawson was plucked from the junior Red Bull team (Racing Bulls) and was made Red Bull’s second driver. He only raced for the first two races of the campaign this year before being dropped back to Racing Bulls. What personally bugs me so much about Lawson’s predicament is that Red Bull didn’t even give him time to prove himself. He was thrown into one of the fastest cars on the grid and didn’t perform right away, so he was replaced. It seems that any driver in Lawson’s place would need more than two races to prove themselves, but apparently Christian Horner didn’t think so. Lawson was replaced with his old VCARB teammate, Yuki Tsunoda.

Yuki Tsunoda is the current second driver for Red Bull, and things are already starting to go downhill for him. His first race with the team he landed 12th position, that race was followed with one in Bahrain in which he scored 9th. In Saudi Arabia, he received a DNF after crashing into his former teammate Pierre Gasly. Miami brought a 10th place finish, followed by the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix in which he flipped his car during qualifying the Saturday before the race. Luckily, he recovered the following day and finished 10th. Monaco brought a 17th position to the Japanese driver, and finally a 13th position in the Spanish Grand Prix. It’s safe to say that Tsunoda is also struggling to get used to the Red Bull car. He definitely has the opportunity to gain more control over the vehicle once he becomes more accustomed to it, but he may not have the chance.

Christian Horner has announced that Racing Bulls rookie Isack Hadjar could be receiving a promotion soon, but the Formula 1 fans and Isack Hadjar supporters are deeply worried about what this could mean for him. Knowing all that we know about how every Red Bull second driver is destined to fail, everyone is worried that if Hadjar makes the move to the senior team, he won’t be scoring as well as he is in the junior seat.

Hadjar has issued a statement this week that he feels he’s not ready to take on the roles and responsibilities of a Red Bull racer. “And I’m just curious, it’s the only word I can use, being next to Max is the only thing I can say, but for sure I don’t feel ready, that’s a fact.” Hadjar told media. “I think it’s good to take experience where I’m at. I’m enjoying so much every weekend, learning a lot, it’s a car I enjoy driving so we’ll see in the future, but obviously as a Red Bull junior driver the trajectory is normal to go there.”

Clearly Hadjar is making the right decision. Being a 2025 rookie, he still has a lot of experience and skill that is yet to be mastered. Hadjar is already an amazing driver, but fans can’t help but worry that Red Bull would not accommodate his needs, which is evident with past Red Bull drivers. We shall see what happens in the future.