Marko is staying very very quiet lately LOL -https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/nine-things-we-learned-f1-2025-austrian-grand-prix/ Nine things we learned from F1's Austrian GP Tsunoda is completely lost Image Unavailable, Please Login Yuki Tsunoda has rarely looked as strained as he did after the Austrian GP. He admitted he was at fault for a clumsy clash with Franco Colapinto, was baffled that he was so slow, and came across completely lost after his worst race for Red Bull yet. Qualifying 18th looked worse than it was considering he was a relatively decent 0.26 seconds away from Max Verstappen in Q1, but the miserably uncompetitive race that followed was alarming. Tsunoda finished a twice-lapped 16th and while that was exaggerated by the time lost in the Colapinto incident, the subsequent pitstop for a new front wing, and a 10-second penalty served at a late stop, he was also suffering from terrible degradation. He said the tyres felt like they were "melting" and described the gap between his pace and the level he needs to be at as "massive". Tsunoda has gone four races without finishing in the points and he looks nowhere near changing that situation when things go as badly as they did in Austria. Which means when team-mate Max Verstappen gets eliminated, like he did on lap one in Austria, thanks to Kimi Antonelli's loss of control at the top of the hill, Red Bull's hopes turn completely to dust. Hence its first point-less F1 weekend since the 2022 season opener.
Not entirely fair IMO. Vettel never adapted well to hybrid, which is true...but Max has consistently shown how great his adaptability is. I'm willing to bet that his adaptability is better than ANY driver in F1 currently. I also disagree that Max needs a dominant car to win the title. 2021, 2022 and 2024 case in point. If lets say Gasly and Albon where piloting todays Red Bull as it currently stands, Red Bull would be lucky to have more than 20 or so points. Yet Max is winning races, putting it on pole, more often than not on the podium... IMO if Max doesn't win another title it'll be because he'll switch to another series before long. I think the 2026 regs will be so dreadful and so uninteresting to race, if the car isn't properly competitive he'll take an F1 sabbatical and go play with GTP, GT3 and perhaps the odd NASCAR or indycar car. 2028/9 if the rules are more interesting he'll consider a comeback.
Max still lacks the one thing that MS and LH have over him beyond more wins in the record book. Until Max can win at more than one team he falls into the shadow of it was just the Red Bull car and Newey, not Max. MS and LH showed the world that they could win titles at multiple teams. Max will never be in their league if he can't win a championship outside of one team. MS and LH have rasied the bar. Seems simple but its a test that seperates the truely talented from the rest. Image Unavailable, Please Login
Max has not faced another WDC in his team and has had weaker team mates overall with exception of Ricci. Its not even close. Max is the dive block and run the other guy off the road greatest their ever is. He has cars almost tailor made for him. He has stats but he lacks the change and depth others have faced. He loves the press when it suits him and hates them when he does poorly. He's in the mold of the average dictator when it comes to the press lol. He has no magic when it comes to driving around problems inherent in a car which became apparent last year. He does get a bit more out of a weak car like FA does. Astute with the rules and observant Greatest ever?? Not at all. He's a great with a few caveats just like all the others. Why - NO driver is perfect. Hero worship is a joke. MS also had a team almost built around him. #1 status in contract. Unlimited testing. We have caveats for him as well. He should have never come back and was warned not to given the testing change. LH has good timing and thats part of the game Lauda was not wrong to recruit him for Mercedes and he took the winning capable car and won starting in season 1 with Mclaren. Sorry but thats not his fault. He did what a good driver should do. Take a car capable of winning and provide wins. Is he the greatest?? No as generations should never be compared. Too many races now distort all this and the points and stats pile up. LH should probably take a long look in the mirror and understand he is not the 2nd year Mclaren driver about to win a title - age is winning this game now. Working against him.
Yes, you are right. I shouldn't have said dominant, but competitive car. But I agree that, unlike Vettel, Max is well capable to adapt to different cars and extract the most of them.
That applies ONLY to cars built by RedBull. He has zero time in any other car. The test is a completely different team. He might be amazing or struggle. No one knows........
Yet RedBull are stuck with a Verstappen specific car that drives like a pig unless you are Max. If you want to have a team sport and win both titles and gain the MAXIMUM amount of money at season end, you build a DRIVEABLE car. This should be obvious at this point lol. RedBull need better management and design direction. https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/dunne--mclaren-practice-shows-red-bull-not-changing-drivers/10738607/ --Dunne’s FP1 appearance showed Marko just how much more "plug-and-play" the McLaren car is for a rookie driver compared to the RB21, which is always “on a knife edge”. Compounding this is the fact that the leap from Racing Bulls to Red Bull is enormous. The Racing Bulls car has a wide operating window and is forgiving to drive. According to the drivers, it’s one of the easiest cars on the grid, while the Red Bull is at the complete opposite end of the spectrum.--
It's not a Verstappen specific car. Max can drive it yes, but it's not like it's an enjoyable car for him. It doesn't respond to his inputs. The RB20/21 where new concepts and engineers quite simply do not possess the capability of designing a car for a specific drivers wants and needs, especially from a new concept. Fine tuning is one thing. And when they're this lost on where the car is, and the car not doing what the lead driver (for who the car allegedly is designed for, according to arm chair experts), how does anyone think the car is build specifically for Max. It's pure fantasy. The car is quite simply bad and Red Bull haven't figured the car out at all. Aerodynamically it's pretty decent actually, but it's chassis is a major let down. It's good in high speed corners but it overheats the rears and when there are a variety of speed or low speed corners the car is just crap. This is not even due to loss of Newey but the loss of Rob Marshall is very much felt here. And guess where he ended up...
We've seen him drive other cars and he's immediately on pace. Wouldn't be too worried how he'll perform in another F1 car.
