Four years ago, I wrote an article about how Red Bull’s special treatment of Verstappen meant they may never win a constructors’ title again. They went on to win back-to-back constructors’ championships in 2022 and 2023. There’s me told.
And yet, four years later, we are still talking of the Red Bull second-seat curse as Sergio Perez languishes six places and 146 points behind his teammate at the mid-season break.
So, where has this “curse” come from, and what is really behind it?
It all started in 2019, when Daniel Ricciardo left Red Bull for pastures anew at Renault. Pierre Gasly was promoted into the seat after comprehensively outscoring his teammate, Brendon Hartley, the season prior.
But Gasly failed to hit the ground running in 2019. In his first race for the team, he finished 11th in a car that should easily have made the top six.
Over the course of the next 11 races, Gasly recorded a best finish of 4th, and only made the top six on five occasions. Red Bull had had enough, and he was demoted back to Torro Rosso, to be replaced by rookie Alex Albon.
Gasly has since claimed the reason for his poor performance was a lack of support he received from the team. Writing on the Player’s Tribune in 2021, he said: “From the moment I made my first mistake in a car, I felt like people there slowly began to turn on me.
“I’d had a crash in winter testing, and from that moment on the season never really got going.
“The car wasn’t perfect, and I was doing my best to try to improve and learn each week.
” I didn’t feel like I was really supported and treated the same way as others there have been. And for me … that’s something that I just can’t accept.
“I was working my ass off every day, trying to get results for the team, but I was not being given all the tools I needed to succeed.
“I would try to offer solutions, but my voice wasn’t heard, or it would take weeks to see changes.”
Under those circumstances, it’s easy to see why Gasly had such a difficult stint at Red Bull. But surely they’d learnt their lesson?
Well, not really. As soon as Albon stepped into the second Red Bull seat, there was an improvement. In his opening race, the Thai driver came from 17th on the grid to 5th, cutting through the field where Gasly couldn’t.
For seven of the remaining eight races, Albon finished inside the top six, with the only exception the Brazilian Grand Prix, in which he was spun round by Lewis Hamilton whilst being on for a podium. Ironically, Pierre Gasly in his Torro Rosso did get on the podium in Brazil.
But in the following season, Albon struggled to kick on. Just seven top six finishes 17 races, including two podiums, meant he was dropped for the following campaign.
For Albon, it again appears that he received a lack of support. Speaking to the official F1 media, he said: “I struggled with the media attention to begin with. I also didn’t have a manager, I didn’t have anyone around me.
“So in terms of my personal support, I had my family but I was just going about it alone. I’d go to the racetrack by myself – I had my trainer to be fair, but it was just us two going around.”
With such an inexperienced driver (Albon was a rookie when he first joined, don’t forget) this seems like a huge failure from the Red Bull side.
As a team it is their job to protect their driver from the media, and support them when they’re trying to improve. Red Bull were unwilling to do that, so unsurprisingly they faltered.
Having decided they didn’t want to have to babysit their drivers, Red Bull turned to the experienced Sergio Perez for 2021.
And Perez’s first season at the team was a success. The Mexican finished the year fourth in the standings, picking up one win and four podiums along the way. It wasn’t enough for Red Bull to beat Mercedes in the Constructors Title, but they weren’t far behind.
His second season at the team was a little less impressive. Despite having comfortably the quickest car, he finished third in the standings, behind Charles Leclerc. He did, however, help the team to the Constructors title, so Red Bull would have had few complaints.
Last year was less impressive still. In a year where Red Bull won every race bar one, Perez won just two races and made the podium a further six times. Verstappen won constructors title by himself.
His poor performances and frustration from the fans that he wasn’t quick enough to stop Verstappen dominating, meant his seat was being called into question going into this year.
With the other teams rapidly closing the development gap, Perez currently sits in seventh position in the championship, with a best result of 7th from his last 8 races.
The driver market has been awash with rumour suggesting Perez could lose his seat over the break, though these have been denied by the team.
With McLaren snapping at their coattails, both Red Bull and Perez are under pressure to improve performances. But until the culture at the team changes, it’s hard to see how any second driver could perform to the levels the team expect.
image courtesy of ExtremeE
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