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myimaginarywonderland · 9 months

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RedBull and their driver history (An essay by me)

RedBull has been in the sport since 2005 and I should mention that especially in the late 2000s/early 2010s they had a huge pole of talent in their academy. There was bound to be someone left heartbroken. However I think it’s worth talking about the damage the junior academy has cost to many drivers mental and also physical health. The team definitely isn’t good in the sense that they treated their juniors, the ones discussed below especially.

Christian Klien was one of the first drivers for the RedBull team. Just after his first two races he was replaced by Vitantonio Luizzi for 4 races before being put back into his seat again. RedBull didn’t want to lose Luizzi for them apparently while also not knowing which of the two they wanted to race for them. Then in 2006 he had his contract terminated before the end of the season. He refused an offer for an Indy drive because he felt he didn’t finish his F1 career. That was basically it for his RedBull stint.

Vitantonio Luizzi officially got a full season in 2006 with Torro Rosso but well, that was uneventful before he ultimately got dropped after 2007. Part of this was probably Seb performing with just 3 races. Luizzi has also critised RB for seemingly being unclear of the criteria with which they choose drivers, saying they dropped the drivers which brought results. This is understandable as he was the better teammate against Speed.

Scott Speed was Vitantonio’s teammate who in the later half would be replaced by none other than Sebastian Vettel. Now, I will say that Scott Speed himself has admitted he behaved horribly during that time and seems genuinely self-reflective. This horrible time escalated terribly in 2007 when it was even claimed to escalate physically between him and Tost which has been disproven by Scott. He still raced with RB after F1 where he later went to fill a lawsuit against them, a completely different story altogether. There was a lot going on behind the scenes and both he and RedBull seemed unhappy with each other. During his time in F1 he seemed to clash with both Berger and Tost, the former calling him “one of the stupidest drivers” he ever saw and accusing him of having no talent.

Sebastian Buemi is kind of a great driver where you ask what if. He drove in a time where Seb was in his glorious prime meaning there was almost all ressources focused on him. Buemi at that time had pretty average F1 results but was basically dropped because he wasn’t performing as expected. What needs to be noted is that continuously since his start scored points. It was first in 2011 that he was behind a teammate. Funnily enough that was also his last season eventhough it was the first one he did “bad” in. He was then strung along for a few seasons as reserve before he would join FE. Looking at his impressive career now it truly makes you think that he was just another victim of the RedBull family that just never got a chance. He was there when Seb was achieving miracles which meant there was never a potential for a RB seat and his Torro Rosso years were the most he would ever achieve.

Jaime Alguersuari is actually the first true victim for me but in comparison to others he actually had a chance. He openly talked about how he still has dreams/nightmares about his Torro Rosso time, how he was traumatized. He went to therapy and talks about how much Marko still haunts him to this day. He was also apparently notified that RedBull couldn’t help him anymore but didn’t really ever get a follow up to that and just had to connect the dots. While he seemingly retracted these statements I think people like to dismiss this way too much. I do not think he would ever bash a team like this if those things weren’t genuine struggles.

Antonio Felix da Costa is one of the most prominent from this RedBull curse. In 2012 (he was a reserve driver at the time for them I believe) he was notified by Marko after his Macau win that they would be great together. Franz Tost called Antonio also multiple times, told him that he was going to be his driver for 2013. Then he got a dreaded call, saying the seat was no longer his but Daniil Kvyats. During this entire time he gets along great with Seb. So good even that when Seb went to Ferrari he wanted Antonio to support him in the simulator. Helmut did not let this happen. That marked the end of that relationship.

Beitske Visser is maybe not a big example but you know, she was let go after a bad season in ADAC Masters. Not a great season but you know she still was better than her teammates at the end and it just makes you wonder why they let her go after basically one season in a bad car.

Jean Eric Vergne

Oh JEV. This is a long one, so buckle up.

There is a lot of resentment. Just in 2018 he went against them when they went back to get Brendon and stated that this door was firmly closed and he was focused on FE.

It all started when JEV became a Torro Rosso driver in 2012 when he went up against none other than Daniel Ricciardo who he outscored with more DNFs eventhough Daniel had better qualys. In 2013 they both were teammates again but this time Daniel outscored JEV who had more DNFs though. Even though JEV beat Daniel in his rookie season and points wise really wasn’t far off , it was Daniel that got called up to RedBull and he was replaced by none other than Daniil. The russian had less than half of JEVs point but still JEV was the one who was ultimately kicked from the team. Why? Because they needed a space for the underage Verstappen (I say this seeing as he legally should have never been allowed in F1 that early but everyone ignored it.) JEV himself questioned what would happen should Seb leave which Marko didn’t believe to be true. When it turned out true well, instead of renouncing the decision to fire him, JEV, who was having a better season, got kicked and the seat was promised to Kvyat. Franz Tost then wanted to keep JEV as an experienced mentor for May but RedBull were set on their rockie line up with Max/Carlos. Later Marko also went on to say how they just had better talents than Vergne and how he had his years. This stings because not only did JEV risk his mental health but also his physical one just to get a chance at a team that never considered him. What is interesting for me is also that there was never any seeming acknowledgement from RB to his hospitalization. You only find articles where it’s mentionedbut even those are more rare than you would expect considering he probably was there for at least a month during the off-season break.

I think what makes this is worse that looking at JEV’s juniors career already shows his great talent. Just before F1 he drove only 4 races in GP3 where he nearly scored as much as people who were there the whole season. JEV also himself has suspected that with his questioning of Seb’s possible departure he ultimately offended Marko’s ego who then in turn of course would not promote him.

So, bad yeah but what makes JEV so prominent?

Well, the reason why he was able to beat or challenge Daniel was because he starved himself. He was losing time which was due to his weight and he starved himself until he needed to get hospitalized in 2014. He attempted a diet until his body refused to work with him in this case. This was also a weeks-long hospitalization. He talks about how hard it was to fight Daniil because he had to gain weight again, causing him to be overweight and lose time. He also mentioned how he felt like a robot just doing and acting as he was told. He openly talks about this being the lowest point of his career. He dealt with a lot of frustration after this and you can openly see that during his first FE races he couldn’t care less even though he already showed his great talent then.

This hurts me especially because JEV is one of my favorite drivers. And an incredible person for frankly transforming into the champion he is now after what happened to him.

Alex Lynn is not really a victim as much as he proves the golden boy theory in a way. He was up against Max and Carlos for a seat and he knew he didn’t have a chance so he left. Really as simple as that. He was just another driver who got lost to the bigger talents and well nepo babies. I don’t think you can class him as a victim the way you can the others but I still wanted to show him as prove of the sadly “protege” concept that especially nowadays makes it nearly impossible for drivers to get a shot at F1.

Daniil Kvyat

This is going to be another long one.

In 2015 after a year where he was outperformed in Torro Rosso he and Ricciardo both went to the RB team. And while Ricciardo had more podiums , Kvyat ultimately just got a few more points than him.

And while Daniel would perform more consistently in 2016 at first it would be Daniil who got them their first podium but was ultimately dropped after just the next race to go to the sister team TR. In the end, this decision just shows that if they could they should have just put Verstappen in that RB from the start because this was clearly their end goal. The decision looked especially bad when you consider that Daniil seemed to get the hang of the car and had just given them a podium before a bad race. Of course this would be overshadowed by Max's win and the incredible season he went on to have. Meanwhile Daniil was stuck with DNFs and bad results. I should mention that his notorious driving was already present and criticized before his swap. It definitely was one of the main reasons why even though he really didn’t perform badly if you look at points, he obviously wasn’t the first choice. Although I think his driving really only became the bad driving (“Torpedo”) that we know today after the swap and well, you can’t really blame him for sort of being a bit mad after literally getting kicked just after securing the first podium. He himself says they were struggling as a team at that time and feels like RB didn’t appreciate his contributions enough.

I also once again want to point at the fucking asshole that is Helmut Marko and the 0 idea of what his actual role is other than talking shit about pretty much all drivers and looking completly unprofessional. Why you might ask? Because Marko in 2018 for example underline how he thought that Daniil would have overcome his “mental problem” which a. ) does not concern anyone if he truly did struggle, b.) is literally just helping create problems and c.) completely ignoring the huge factor that is the entire seat change that undoubtedly would have caused potential problems. I am trying to keep these short but I truly think Daniil had a doomed seat from the start and was set up to fail.

Pierre Gasly

I should state this by making a personal bias obvious. I don’t like Gasly myself and don’t rate him very highly on the current grid. I am certain that will influence my opinion just like my adoration for JEV did so there’s that. There is also the fact that Pierre eventhough the midseason change clearly affected him seems truly grateful for the opportunity that was given to him from RedBull. With the obvious high placing in his rookie season (a topic for another day) and Ricciardo leaving and Max being the seat No.1 , Pierre was the obvious choice to replace him. And then the second RedBull seat curse apparently hit. His results were fine really if he would have driven for maybe a midfield team or a sort of top/midfield team but for RedBull who were in a fight with the Mercedes via Max and wanted someone to keep the Ferrari duo of Charles/Seb behind, it obviously wasn’t enough. Really anything besides the top 6 was a failure for them. And midseason especially with Alex Albon performing better than him on occasion in a worse car, the decision was really easy.

It was not fair especially because I truly think that his rookie season isn’t truly looked at in a realistic way but rather just the points he got which made him overhyped. I also think he wasn’t a first choice but with Ricciardo leaving and no other midfield driver available the most logical was Pierre.

I do not think we will ever know the full picture of this until Pierre retires and I would say the same for Alex so I am just going to say that the midseason drop was cruel and undeserved but much nicer than other drivers have been treated by ReBull.

Alex Albon

Alex stepped in to fill the role Pierre couldn’t perfectly. He basically was in the top 6 his entire time for 2019 except 1 race. I also think Alex RedBull stint is underrated especially with Racing Point and McLaren oftentimes able to challenge for the top 4. Hell even the Renault was sometimes close enough.

Still the fact that wasn’t in the top 5 at the end of the season was definitely what cost him his seat. In comparison to Pierre for example he did actually get a full season and I truly think yhat while Alex was under immense public pressure and is absolutely right to leave RedBull and never look back, there isn’t enough to talk about his case. In fact it was clearly stated that he was dropped because the results weren’t consistent enough in comparison to other drivers who oftentimes got called much worse. I also think RedBull valued him more than people give them credit for.

I am of the belief that there was behind the scenes stuff that made Alex especially sure in his decision to leave but we won’t know that because he will not talk about that until he leaves the sport. There again were stupid comments by Marko but then again, when are there not?

Yuki Tsunoda

This is going to surprise people but I think Yuki after Kvyat has by far got the worst treatment in recent years. While he wasn’t hyped when coming into the sport and has made mistakes, Yuki has continuously shown flashes of speed and great driving. The racist treatment he got from Marko is horrendous and deserves a far bigger call out. The implication is that he is mentally deranged, his attitude is a problem, he isn’t a typical japanese driver etc. These racist implications and also degrading comments are just further proof of the treatment that is the junior programm drivers. This is only the things that were said in public mind you and I can’t imagine how much worse it was behind closed doors. I truly hope Yuki is able to leave the team besides the treatment he will receive especially after this week will just be so much worse than what Pierre was experiencing or possibly even Alex especially should he beat Ricciardo.

But while I have shown you all the horrible treatment of certain drivers, I feel it is also my duty to show you guys how incredible those mistreated drivers actually are. How successful yhey are and how they have shown great potential and proven that they aren’t some failed driver but that they were mistreated and are now flourishing in environments that support them and series that give them opportunities.

Christian Klien sadly disappeared from the racing world after 2010 (basically) but he managed to place third in the 2008 Le-Mans race.

Scott Speed actually managed a second place finish in the Miami E-Prix (before he was found guilty of doing drugs but that’s another story.)

Sebastian Buemi is Formula E champion (in the 2016 season/second season) after being runner up in the first season. He is also the winner of 2014, 2018 and 2022 WEC season (one he won with Fernando) and came second in the 2017 and 2019 season. In 2013 he finished second at Le-Mans 3 times (2013, 2021 and 2023) before he won it 4 times (2018-2020 and 2022).

Antonio Felix da Costa is Formula E champion and also won a race in DTM + got podiums there.

Beitske Visser was runner up for two W-Series and has also participated in Le Mans.

Jean-Eric Vergne/JEV is the only driver to have won the FE championship two times and has just this season achieved third place on the 6-hour-race in Monza. I need to state here that JEV is arguably one of the greatest FE drivers.

Alex Lynn managed multiple podiums in FE and finished third at the 24-h-Le-Mans race this year. He also won at Sebring two times (2017/2022)

Some other successful drivers that didn’t make it but were RedBull junior/academy drivers (and in one case also drove for RedBull) also include people like Sergio Sette Camera, Neel Jani, Sebastian Bourdaia and others.

So what was the point of my post? While RedBull are definitely horrendous to former drivers and many come out traumatized in one way or another, that does not take away from their talent or their accomplishments and they deserve to be known as more than former RedBull/Alpha Tauri drivers. They often built themselves an entire career after they have been shattered and their ultimate dream (F1) taken from them and that is incredibly admirable.

#f1 #anti redbull #anti rbr #to be safe I guess

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