Red Bull musical chairs 🏁
We're two races into the new season of F1 (one fun race in the rain and one dull one in the dry) and we've learned that only two bad performances are enough for Red Bull to drop a new driver. Ouch.
I wrote about the dangers of being team mate to one of the greats.
I didn't cover what happens if you say yes to that, qualify dead last, and make little progress in the race. I didn't cover what happens if you move from Red Bull's B team to their main team and get beaten by the B team. No one expected it to go that badly for Liam Lawson, but it did.
The problem is that Red Bull's car is painful to drive. Verstappen knows how to deal with its vices so he does OK. But Lawson said he couldn't get it "in the window" and he was way off Verstappen's lap time.
This isn't new. Red Bull have eaten through Verstappen team mates: Gasly, Albon and Perez all did pretty badly before Lawson. The team won't admit that their car is the problem. All of those drivers can do a reasonable job with other teams - maybe not championship winning, but easily good enough for a number 2 in a top team.
This year, Tsunoda in the B team has easily beaten Lawson in the main team. Now those two have been swapped, and if I'm right that the problem is the car, the order will simply reverse.
Meanwhile, Perez, who was bought out of his contract for millions, is presumably thinking "I told you so" and enjoying his bank balance.
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