Red Bull encouraged to pair Max Verstappen with world champion driver

With Max Verstappen cycling through team-mates at a rapid pace over the last 18 months, a new name has been suggested for the second Red Bull seat.

The team have a number of high-class alumni, including Sebastian Vettel and Daniel Ricciardo, but have struggled to convert their new class into worthy team-mates for the four-time world champion.

In the past year, the team have had to contend with Sergio Perez, Liam Lawson and Yuki Tsunoda all failing to match Verstappen’s standard. However, 1997 world champion Jacques Villeneuve believes the team needs another driver of championship-contending quality to bolster their efforts.

“It would be good to see a Leclerc next to Max to see how good he really is. Or it'd be good to put Alonso now next to Max, because that's a known quantity,” Villeneuve said to Vision4Sport.

“It'd be good to put Norris next to Max, so we would really see if Norris is exceptional or is he just very good?”

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Should Red Bull aim higher with their driver lineup?

Red Bull have typically hired drivers within their own junior ranks, with Verstappen, Lawson, Tsunoda and Isack Hadjar all emerging into F1 via their driver academy.

However, a Red Bull driver – that isn't Verstappen – has not stepped on the podium since Perez at the Chinese Grand Prix in April 2024.

Villeneuve added that Red Bull need to confront that Tsunoda's current performances are not good enough, claiming his frustrations are only worsening his results.

“That would help to quantify things. We know that Max is exceptional but then the drivers next to him have just not been good enough and there's no point saying, ‘Oh poor them.’ No, they're just not good enough. That's it. They're barely good,” Villeneuve continued.

“And that's what has happened with Tsunoda. He's had four or five years of experience already. He's had his best and clearly, it's not good enough. That's it. So, he's been given this chance and too bad. And he was wanting that chance, he was screaming for it.

“He was put in and he didn't cut it. It's that simple and you can't feel bad for him. He has been given the chance to be in the top team, and he didn’t cut it.

“He was promoted to the big league and you can see the frustration. And it's making him drive even worse because he knows he's not quick enough right now.”

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