Without Max Verstappen, Red Bull will have the slowest car in F1: Insider

F1 pundit Bernie Collins feels Red Bull is in big trouble, as without Max Verstappen, the team would have the slowest car on the grid. The second seat alongside the Dutch driver has been a bone of contention for some time now ever since Daniel Ricciardo left the squad.

Since then, there has been Pierre Gasly, who replaced the Australian in 2019. The French driver could only last half a season. He was then replaced by Alex Albon, who lasted around 18 months only to be replaced by Sergio Perez. The Mexican joined the team arguably at the best time, as Red Bull went on a dominant run.

As things got worse in 2024, Perez found it hard to keep up with Max Verstappen and ultimately lost his seat. He was replaced by Liam Lawson as the Kiwi got promoted after just 11 races for the sister team. Lawson, however, just like his predecessor, struggled to keep up with Verstappen and was hence dropped from the team after just two races.

There is a real crisis in Red Bull at this stage as the team has been unable to find a teammate that is even remotely competitive against Max Verstappen although every driver who has failed against the Dutchman has done a respectable job in the sport.

Talking to Sky F1 about the problem that Red Bull faces, Bernie Collins said that the team finds itself in such a situation where if Max Verstappen leaves, the car would be at the bottom of the timesheets. She said (via Racingnews365):

“[Look at] people who have failed in the Red Bull - [Alex] Albon is a great example. He is driving brilliantly in the Williams and arguably if you offered him the Red Bull seat again he might not go back because that car is not to his liking and has probably got worse in the last few years."

She added:

"If Max leaves or doesn't show up at a race, they are currently the 10th fastest team. I was criticised last year for saying, when Checo was there, that if Max didn't turn up for race, they were the fourth fastest team. But at the minute, they’re 10th fastest.”

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Bernie Collins on possible trick Red Bull could use to evaluate Max Verstappen's next teammate

Bernie Collins shared an out-of-the-box method to evaluate who Max Verstappen's next teammate could be, as she said that Red Bull could have potentially seen which driver's style most suits the car that is the most forward in aero balance. The pundit suggested taking all drivers out to the test on an old Red Bull for a day and evaluating how they're doing as one such metric. She told SkyF1 (via Racingnews365):

"I think they're in big trouble. 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."

She added:

“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.”

Max Verstappen will have Yuki Tsunoda as his teammate for Suzuka. This will be the Dutch driver's 3rd different teammate in four races and even he would be hoping that the Japanese driver is able to perform at a good enough level.