Red Bull F1 Team Faces “Big Trouble” as Performance Drops to 10th Fastest

Red Bull might be “10th fastest” without Verstappen, says former F1 strategist

Max Verstappen is making Red Bull look good right now – really good. Without him, they’d be dead last on the grid, according to former Aston Martin strategist Bernie Collins.

The Dutch champion has somehow managed to squeeze impressive results from his car despite its problems, grabbing second place in Australia and the Chinese sprint, plus fourth in the main Shanghai race.

Meanwhile, his teammate Sergio Perez is struggling badly. The Mexican hasn’t scored a single point and is expected to be replaced by Yuki Tsunoda for the upcoming Japanese Grand Prix after qualifying last for both the sprint and main race in China.

Collins didn’t mince words when discussing Red Bull’s situation on the Sky Sports F1 Show.

“I think they are in big trouble,” she said.

The problem? It’s all about the car’s handling characteristics.

“They should have looked at the younger talent and said who has the most forward aero balance – that’s what we believe the characteristic of that car is. It’s very on the nose, we would call it,” Collins explained.

This driving style is completely different from what Red Bull cars typically demand.

“They should have put all of them in an old Red Bull for a day and said ‘who can get the best laptime out of this car’ because the RB is fundamentally different.”

But the most shocking statement came when Collins assessed what would happen if Verstappen wasn’t around.

“If Max leaves or doesn’t show up at a race, they are currently the 10th fastest team.”

That’s dead last in F1 terms.

She noted how her previous assessment had already raised eyebrows. “I was criticised last year for saying when Checo was there that if Max didn’t turn up for a race, they were the fourth fastest team but at the minute they’re 10th fastest.”

This isn’t just about pride – it hits the team’s finances too.

“Your championship position is based on both cars – the constructors’ – that’s how your employees are paid their bonuses,” Collins pointed out. “It will start to become very detrimental to that team that people are starting to look at being fourth or fifth or wherever they end up in the constructors’ if they can’t get that second seat working.”

While Verstappen’s individual success matters to him and team leadership, the regular team members care more about the constructors’ championship.

“Max’s championship’s really important to Max and maybe Christian and maybe others in the leadership team at Red Bull, but not so much to the people on the ground because the people on the ground are paid by a different metric.”