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manykinsmen · 6 months

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toro rosso reject to five time world champion, or, welcome to the meat grinder: a complete(ish) history of drivers maligned by the red bull family in f1

okay so with all the red bull propaganda floating around, i wanted to explain why that team in particular rubs me the wrong way in the most objective way that i can (i say most objective because i know it cannot be perfectly objective and also i do not want it to be. how we feel emotionally about things is important and i firmly reject any culture that insists that human suffering should take a backseat to pretty numbers). a lot of research went into this and the typing up of this post alone has taken me several days. i have striven for accuracy in my reporting of information, so please let me know if you spot anything incorrect or any typos surrounding dates/numbers.

i will also preface this by saying that no team in formula 1 is an emotionally healthy environment to be - fundamentally most motor racing shouldn’t be set up to have multiple driver teams (i will make an exception for series where they literally share or swap control of the car like endurance racing or extreme e). it doesn’t make sense and almost always ends badly. formula 1’s set up in this regard is the worst of the worst. i am also deeply critical of the entire concept of junior teams and driver academies, which, with a very small handful of exceptions, have been an unmitigated disaster and a breeding ground for psychological problems. this is across all teams that employ them, red bull, mercedes, mclaren and ferrari in particular. red bull operates the biggest machine in this regard, far eclipsing even mercedes, which creates a situation in which the problems of these systems play out on an industrial scale under their banner.

so let’s have a look in detail at the drivers that have succumbed to the red bull meat grinder, going all the way back to 2005. we'll do this mostly in bullet point form for my own sanity and i am going to give their ages at the time, because i wholeheartedly believe it is relevant, given that many of red bull's victims are very young drivers - all but four of them were under 25 when they raced for the red bull family in f1, and it is now widely understood that the human brain doesn't finish developing until after that age, leaving them particularly vulnerable to psychological and emotional strain. this is gonna be long, so buckle up.

a quick notice that we will only be covering individuals who have driven for red bull or toro rosso/alpha tauri in at least one f1 race, not any purely test or developmental drivers, anyone from exclusively from the feeder series or any other motorsports series. please bear in mind that there will be a whole host of other wronged individuals who exist in this category. we will be excluding david coulthard, mark webber, sebastian vettel, daniel ricciardo, max verstappen, sergio perez and yuki tsunoda as these drivers are either currently with red bull/alpha tauri, and therefore their story with them is not complete, or left/retired from them voluntarily, on (mostly) good terms which is not the norm. these individuals have been excluded as outliers. we will also not be talking about liam lawson as there is not enough information about his circumstances. we will also not be covering any unconfirmed rumours of stress-related alopecia afflicting multiple red bull family drivers.

content warning: some of this stuff is very upsetting and in many instances likely meets the definition of psychological/emotional abuse and workplace bullying. i will highlight which specific sections mention night terrors, eating disorders, suicidal behaviour, and the death of anthoine hubert, but please bear in mind that this entire document is varying degrees of unpleasant to harrowing.

a * indicates that driver holds at least one world championship in some form of motorsport series. ** indicates that they are an f1 race winner.

christian klien, red bull (2005-6), aged 22-23

klien was inherited by red bull from jaguar racing, which they bought out, whom he had raced for in his rookie season. it was a relatively unremarkable rookie season, though klien was noticed for his consistency in finishing, retiring just four times.

red bull replaced him after only three races with vitantonio liuzzi (this was because they had two drivers and only one seat, having signed both, - the other was occupied by veteran racer david coulthard - and couldn't decide which they wanted). they flip-flopped between the two drivers over the course of the '05 season.

despite this, klien scored points in two of his three races (the third being a dns with an electrical issue), and twice more over the season.

red bull subsequently bought out minardi, which they renamed toro rosso, to solve their three-driver problem and klien was confirmed for the red bull seat alongside coulthard for the '06 season.

klien qualified in the top 10 for the opening two races of the '06 season and scored points in bahrain. in malaysia he dnfed after colliding with kimi raikkonen. at this point he was viewed by red bull as failing to live up to the expectations of his much more experienced teammate (coulthard had been racing in f1 for twelve years at this point).

despite two further points finishes, mark webber (also more experienced that klien, racing for five years) was signed from williams for klien's seat in '07 before the end of the season and klien was sacked with three races to go, with reserve driver robert doornbos filling his seat.

klien declined a drive for red bull in the indycar series in the united states because he felt his formula 1 story wasn't yet over.

though he admits, he handled his sacking poorly, he has said in 2023: "there was so much going on behind [closed] doors that I was really, really frustrated with the situation and the way it [was] brought up to me, it wasn’t very nice."

he never raced in f1 again, though he was a reserve driver for honda, bmw sauber and hrt from 2007-10).

he went on to pivot to endurance racing, which he has had a long career in, continuing to present, and has written a monthly column for pitpass.com since 2012.

robert doornbos, red bull (2006), aged 26

doornbos originally raced in f1 for minardi alongside christijan albers in the '05 season.

when minardi was bought out by red bull to become toro rosso, neither driver retained their seat at the end of the '05 season. albers moved to spyker, whilst doornbos was left without a seat.

however, christian horner had been a previous team principal of doornbos in f3000 had been recently appointed sporting director of red bull and found doornbos a seat as red bull test/reserve driver.

he was promoted to the red bull second seat for the final three races of the '06 season following klien being dropped.

although he qualified in the top ten in his first race, he failed to bring home any points and was ultimately passed over for the '07 season in favour of mark webber.

doornbos has been quiet about his time at red bull.

he remained as red bull test driver for the '07 season, and raced in two seasons of champcar/indycar. he has been retired from racing since 2010.

vitantonio liuzzi, red bull (2005), toro rosso (2006-7), aged 25-27

we've covered much of liuzzi's story in covering klien's but here are a few extra details:

in the '06 season, liuzzi was given a seat in the newly created toro rosso team.

he scored the team's first points in an eighth place finish after a long battle with nico rosberg in a williams and david coulthard in a red bull (note that this is the standard that klien was failing to live up to in the same season).

liuzzi was confirmed for the '07 season, which went rather badly for him, including crashing into the "wall of champions" in Canada. liuzzi failed to score at all in the first half of the season and there was constant speculation that he and/or his teammate scott speed would be replaced by sebastian vettel and/or champcar champion sebastian bourdais.

after bourdais was announced to have been given the '08 drive in the mid-season, liuzzi's performances actually improved and in china, he overtook mark webber in the red bull to finish fifth.

liuzzi blames his sacking from toro rosso as a problem of too many people having the ear of didi mateschitz, red bull owner, particularly gerhard berger who owned a 50% stake. in 2023, he said: "actually, I stepped out of toro rosso because of berger. in 2007, for politics, he took me out of red bull. if not, i would have stayed there for a really long time. it was done in a bad way… it was really not a fair situation. it was a big shame." he has also been critical of the lack of clarity and constant changes of which criteria were used to judge the drivers' performances.

liuzzi went on to race for force india and hrt between 2008 and 2012, before moving to the superstars series, gt series and eventually formula e.

liuzzi has been retired from racing since 2017.

scott speed, toro rosso (2006-7), aged 23-4

scott speed was a divisive presence in f1, given that he routinely went on the verbal offensive with other drivers and his own team. much of this was attributed to a brash american attitude, though scott has later come out to say that he regrets his behaviour, which he says was a result of the stress he was under at the time.

speed drove for toro rosso in the '06 season, having been a test driver for red bull in '05 at the canadian grand prix. his early races went poorly, with a 13th place finish in bahrain and a retirement with a clutch failure in malaysia.

in the australian grand prix, it looked briefly like speed had scored his first points before he was given a twenty-five second penalty for overtaking under yellow flags, dropping him out of the points from ninth. he was also fined $5000 for using inappropriate language to david coulthard during a hearing with the FIA.

at the french grand prix, speed suffered back pain and breathing problems as a result of a friday practice accident, but raced regardless.

despite a terrible season in which he scored no points, and which saw wild speculation of his replacement, speed was signed again for the '07 season, despite klien not even being offered the demotion to toro rosso.

speed's '07 season was similarly disappointing, with two separate collisions with alexander wurz (who you might remember as current gdpa chair).

the european grand prix would be his last race with the team. it ended in him spinning off in the wet. there were unconfirmed reports afterwards of a physical altercation with franz tost, toro rosso team principal, which tost has always denied. speed accused the team of wanting to get rid of both himself and liuzzi.

despite things seeming to calm down over mid-season testing, at hungary '07, it was announced that speed would be replaced by sebastian vettel.

speed reportedly said that "no amount of money" would see him work with red bull again, but in 2008 he went on to drive for red bull in nascar (it is unclear if he meant red bull in f1 or red bull more broadly). he has also called his contract with toro rosso "absurd" in an episode of beyond the grid.

he raced in nascar until 2013 and has since raced in both rallycross and formula e. he briefly attempted to raced in the indianapolis 500, before deciding that it was too dangerous following the death of his friend dan wheldon. he has not raced since 2021 and now hosts the red bull podcast.

sébastian bourdais, toro rosso (2008-9), aged 29-30*

bourdais' initial foray into the world of formula 1 came before his champcar success, in 2002, with tests for both arrows (who were on the verge of bankruptcy) and renault, where he was ultimately passed over in favour of franck montagny.

he returned to f1 in 2007, gaining several tests with toro rosso after his fourth consecutive champcar title, which would unify with indycar in 2008.

in 2008, he was announced as teammate to sebastian vettel at toro rosso. in his debut race, despite qualifying seventeenth, he managed to overtake his way into fourth place before his engine failed with three laps remaining. having completed more than 90% distance, he was classified eighth and later inherited seventh after rubens barrichello was disqualified.

bourdais went on to bring home points again at belgium, where he qualified ninth, held onto fifth for most of the race and was briefly third, before toro rosso made an incorrect strategy call to stay on dry weather tyres and he was overtaken by several drivers on wets, leaving him seventh. bourdais was visibly close to tears after the race.

at italy, he qualified fourth, but a grid-box problem saw him forced to start from the pitlane. despite being lapped by his teammate, he set the second-fastest lap of the race. in japan he was the victim of a controversial fia penalty (few commentators agreed with it) for causing a collision with felipe massa and was dropped from sixth to tenth (then out of the points). this was, in fact, so controversial after a string of bad fia calls throughout the season that they were forced to release "stewards only" footage to justify the decision. many, including martin brundle, still believed that massa should have been penalised instead.

bourdais was confirmed for toro rosso in the '09 season alongside rookie sebastien buemi, replacing sebastian vettel moving up to red bull following david coulthard's retirement.

despite two points finishes, buemi outscored bourdais and impressed the team greatly. bourdais later struck buemi's car at the spain gp, taking evasive action from a spinning jarno trulli, forcing the retirement of both cars. he then collided with kovalainen in britain and suffered mechanical failure in german, after qualifying last by over a second.

in july, toro rosso announced that bourdais would be replaced by jaime alguersuari for the hungarian grand prix and onwards, with franz tost saying that bourdais had "not met expectations". bourdais had a viable case to sue toro rosso for breach of contract, who later settled with him for $2.1 million to avoid litigation.

bourdais has largely been quiet on his time as part of the red bull family, but has recently accused the team of "poor sportsmanship" and "dirty tactics" in their use of second-driver sergio perez.

following his retirement from formula 1, bourdais has competed in multiple le mans series races, including winning the 24hrs of le mans in 2016. he also returned to indycar and is currently racing in imsa sports car.

sébastien buemi, toro rosso, 2009-11, aged 20-23*

aka, the tale of three sebastians, none of them spelt the same.

buemi was brought into toro rosso in 2009 from the feeder series and his first season with them went, honestly remarkably well. he scored points on multiple occasions, outscored teammate, and rival seb, bourdais and achieved three top ten qualifying positions in a row. he was named best rookie of the season.

he continued to produce results at this level in the '10 season, in spite of one truly spectacular incident in free practice of the chinese grand prix when his suspension failed and jettisoned his two front wheels while he was travelling at over 300kph. one of the wheels went over the safety fence and almost hit a camera man. fortunately no one was hurt. he even outscored teammate alguersuari, with eight points to alguersuari's five.

in 2011, he again produced good results, scoring a total of fifteen points, almost double the previous year. however, despite this and in a surprise move, both he and alguersuari were dropped in december 2011, despite having verbal confirmation from toro rosso that their seats were safe. according to alguersuari, the reason given was that they "weren't winners". this move came so late in the season that neither alguersuari or buemi were able to negotiate for seats at other teams, which may well have been available to them, as they were already filled.

buemi himself has remained fairly quiet about his time as part of the red bull family.

he was retained as a red bull test driver in 2012 and continued to be included on their list of test drivers as recently as 2022.

since leaving f1, buemi has won the world endurance racing champioship on four occasions and the 24 hours of le mans on three. he is one of the most successful drivers in formula e's history, being crowned world champion in 2016, and still races within that series. he is one of the most decorated drivers currently racing outside of f1.

(a personal aside here, buemi's success has as much meaning to me personally as pierre gasly's win after his demotion. imagine being told that you are not a winner, only to go on and win five world championships).

jaime alguersuari, toro rosso (2009-11), aged 19-21

(serious content warning, this one contains descriptions of night terrors and discusses seeking psychological help)

at the time of his arrival, jaime alguersuari was the youngest person ever to race in f1 and only the seventh teenager. he was also the first f1 driver to be born in the 1990s. he is the son of jaime alguersuari sr., a minor motorcycle racer.

alguersuari had little success in the second half of the '09 season, suffering from mechanical failures and retiring in five of the last eight races.

despite this, he secured the drive for '10. in malaysia, he scored his first ever points with franz tost praising his skills and saying he "drove an incredible race". he scored points on two further occasions, completing the series with five and finishing just behind teammate buemi in the standings.

in the '11 season, alguersuari started out badly in the races, in either finishing outside of the points or retiring, despite qualifying impressively.

by the canadian grand prix there were rumours that he would be replaced by daniel ricciardo, who had completed a race for backmarker team hrt. in canada however, he finished eighth for his best ever result.

alguersuari significantly improved, scoring points in seven of the last thirteen races, bringing home a total points haul of twenty six, more than five times his score from the previous year and outscoring teammate buemi.

despite having impressed across the paddock in general and being tipped as a great racer of the future, alguersuari was dropped alongside his teammate, as covered above. alguersuari has repeatedly insisted that he had multiple verbal confirmations that his seat was safe from toro rosso.

since being dropped, alguersuari has been, and continues to be, vocal about the mistreatment of himself and other drivers by the red bull program. here are a few excerpts:

"none of the drivers that are racing for red bull would have had that chance without them. that is crystal clear. but what is also crystal clear is the way they sacked me and my team was not the way they should have done it [...] it was a very quick phone call lasting just one minute. it was a very tough thing, and i didn’t understand why. i still don’t understand why even today [...] they played their cards, and i wasn’t smart enough to move out at the right time. i did have an opportunity to move in abu dhabi in 2011 – that was the contract I needed to sign – and that was the only opportunity I had to sign that contract. i didn’t sign it because i wanted to be faithful to the people who had helped me since i was 15.” - 2023

"i tell you something – when i sleep, i still have very strange dreams of that time, especially about the impotence and the frustration of never making it, of seeing mr. [helmut] marko always angry, telling us off. as if we were children. [...] i have not been able to erase this.i have done therapy, when i retired several psychologists helped me… now, even so, strange things come to my head. and sometimes wake up, like, crying, having dreamt of having done a great lap only to see the face of mr. marko, angry [...] this has created a trauma – and I am convinced that buemi and many others are also going through it." - 2022

alguersuari was prielli test driver 2012-13. he was later one of the founding drivers of formula e in 2014, alongside former teammate buemi and ex-toro rosso drivers liuzzi and vergne. after only a season, he was forced to suspend racing activities after suffering from unexplained fainting spells, which were later resolved. in 2015 he retired from motor racing entirely, at the age of 25, having "fallen out of love" with it. he is now a professional dj and staged a return to competitive karting in 2021. he continues to be a vocal supporter of buemi and spanish compatriot carlos sainz jr.

jean-éric "jev" vergne, toro rosso (2012-14), aged 21-24*

(serious content warning, this one gets very upsetting and talks about eating disorders, extreme dieting, weight restrictions and hospitalisation).

vergne took part in the goodwood festival of speed, driving an f1 car, in 2010. after this, it was announced that he would test for toro rosso in the young drivers test of the same year. he went on to drive in selected free practies in 2011.

he was confirmed to race for toro rosso ahead of the '12 season, alongside teammate daniel ricciardo. in this season, he scored points on only four occasions and after the european grand prix was ruled by the fia to have caused an avoidable collision with heikki kovalainen, resulting in a ten place, double grid drop penalty and a fine of €25,000. he crashed out on one other occasion and had two retirements due to suspension failure. despite a poor showing in that season, he outscored teammate ricciardo with sitxteen points to ricciardo's ten.

in his second season, despite finishing higher in the standings, vergne scored fewer points on fewer occasions. of his five retirements, three were caused by mechanical failure and one was caused by tyre failure (a problem which plagued the entire grid that season and led to questions about pirelli's suitability as manufacturer). he was outscored by teammate ricciardo who scored twenty points to vergne's thirteen and was subsequently promoted to red bull ahead of vergne for the '14 season.

the '14 season proved to be particularly unlucky for vergne, with five dnfs total, all of which came over the course of eight races. despite this he scored points on seven occasions, giving him his best driver's championship finish with twenty two points, giving him 13th place, more than doubling team mate kvyat's score of eight. all but one of his retirements were from mechanical failure, with the final dnf being caused by collision with pastor maldonado (this was no fault of vergne's and collisions with maldonado were a problem that plagued the entire grid this season).

at the end of the '14 season, vergne was initially to be dropped in favour of max verstappen. sebastian vettel's not-unexpected move to ferrari opened up a space at red bull alongside ricciardo, to which kvyat was promoted, despite vergne reporting that the seat had been promised to him in the event of vettel's departure. this would have left a space for vergne at toro rosso, however, he was ultimately dropped from toro rosso and the seat went to carlos sainz jr. vegrne failed to secure an f1 drive for the '15 season and has not raced in f1 since.

it was reported that in the '14 season, between the australian and malaysian gps, vergne had been hospitalised after starving himself to meet new weight regulations (valtteri bottas, then at williams, has also spoken about the eating/exercise disorder he developed around the same time due to the same regulations). this was particularly a problem for the taller and/or more stockily built drivers - vergne is 6ft, tall for an f1 driver. he weighed 69kg to kvyat's 61kg. mclaren even rejected the idea of signing nico hulkenberg because of his weight. adrian sutil, another tall driver, accused other, smaller drivers of repeatedly blocking rule changes aimed at improving conditions for taller/heavier drives.

jean todt, then president of the fia, dismissed the concerns of the drivers at the time and said, specifically about vergne: "i think normally you can do a good diet and not to have to go to hospital because you have been losing so many kilos. i don't think you go to hospital because you are on a diet."

vergne has said about his time with the red bull family: "i will not attack them, because without them I would not be where I am at the moment, but it is a really difficult story for me. when I started in formula 3, [helmut marko] called me and said: ricciardo has shown you how to do it. if you don’t win the championship, you can leave. [vergne says about a second phone call] i was starting on pole and eventually i won that race, but Marko thought it was unacceptable that i had not also taken the fastest lap. that’s just how he is.” - 2019

"since it was announced mid-year that I would be out of toro rosso it would have looked very bad if, when vettel decided to leave for Ferrari, that he had called me back to go to red bull. during this frank conversation with helmut, i said what if vettel leaves. he told me vettel would not leave. And I said but what if. and he said you’d be the next one to go to red bull. but so yeah… we found out on the saturday or the friday that vettel was going to ferrari and red bull wanted to respond straight away and they announced kyvat in the morning without talking to anyone. it was a tough moment and then of course franz tost wanted to keep him, he wanted an experienced driver together with max but once again red bull could not say we are going to keep vergne and there was another driver coming with carlos sainz so they put him in the car. i wish helmut would have done it as it did with many other drivers and wait until the last race of the season to tell them because if he had waited, with the grands prix i had done before Japan [and vettel’s announcement], i was in a much stronger position to go to red bull racing than kvyat.” - 2021

"i did not smile for three years." - 2019

vergne moved to the newly formed formula e, where he has raced ever since. he is the only driver to have won two formula e world championship titles, which he did back to back in 2018 and 2019. he currently races for ds penske alongside fellow champion stoffel vandoorne.

daniil kvyat, toro rosso (2014), red bull (2015-16), toro rosso/alphatauri (2017, 2019-20), aged 19-25

(serious content warning, this one's really fucking heavy and involves depressive episodes and possible suicidal behaviour. also, sorry if you're a sebastian vettel fan, he's partly to blame here).

kvyat first came to the attention of the red bull junior driver program in 2009, after winning the karting winter cup in the kf3 category. he remained with red bull throught his time in the motorsports feeder series and was given a drive at toro rosso for the '14 season, alongside returning driver vergne.

he had an average rookie season, scoring points on five occasions, with a best finish of ninth, which was significantly outscored (as expected) by his more experienced teammate. all five of his retirements were caused by mechanical failure. depsite this, he was advanced to red bull ahead of vergne, who ultimately failed to secure a drive in f1.

kvyat's '15 season at red bull was impressive for a driver with limited experience. he scored points on all but five occasions and achieved a second-place podium finish, become the second-youngest driver ever to achieve this (at the time). he failed to start on one occasion and dnfed on another due to engine failure. his other dnf, however, came after crashing into teammate ricciardo, whose race was significantly impeded as a result.

despite ricciardo's race win, kvyat outscored his teammate in the '15 season by three points.

in the '16 season, kvyat was demoted to toro rosso after just four races, one of which he failed to start. despite scoring points in bahrain and finishing in third-place in china, red bull opted to swap kvyat and toro rosso driver max verstappen after kvyat's home race of the russian grand prix, in which he finished fifteenth. he struck the ferrari of sebastian vettel at the end of the first lap, retiring vettel's car and severely impeding his own race.

after the chinese gp, vettel slammed kvyat's "suicidal" driving, following his collision with teammate kimi raikkonen on turn one while taking avoiding action around kvyat, despite the stewards taking no action and many suggesting that vettel was in fact to blame. vettel finished second and was in the cool down room ahead of the podium with kvyat when he laid into him on live television. he subsequently dubbed kvyat "the torpedo".

after the russian gp, many news outlets and social media accounts noted that kvyat appeared morose and depressed, as well as reporting that he had removed all information from his social media bio to say "just a human". multiple social media posts from fans described kvyat as looking "suicidal" or stated that red bull/toro rosso must be on "suicide watch".

of the swap, christian horner said: "dany will be able to continue his development at toro rosso, in a team that he is familiar with, giving him the chance to regain his form and show his potential."

kvyat, who many continued to note looked extremely depressed for the rest of the season, score on only three occasions with toro rosso in the '16 season. despite this, and despite speculation that he would be dropped altogether, he was re-signed for the '17 season.

the '17 season went poorly for kvyat, who was plagued with mechanical failures as well as retirements due to driver error. he scored points on only three occasions and was replaced by pierre gasly from the malaysian gp onwards, although he returned for the us gp to replace carlos sainz jr, who had moved to renault, before being replaced again by brendon hartley, with helmut marko confirming that kvyat would not be returning to toro rosso for the '18 season.

despite being considered for williams in the '18 season, kvyat failed to secure a drive and spent the season as ferrari reserve driver.

kvyat rejoined toro rosso ahead of the '19 season, replacing pierre gasly who had been promoted to red bull. he raced alongside rookie teammate alex albon. he put in strong performances, finishing in the points on ten occasions and bringing home a third-place podium at the german gp. however, two of his three retirements were caused by collisions, in one of which kvyat was deemed by the fia to be at fault, adding to his growing, but largely unfair, reputation at "the torpedo" (in the other, ricciardo locked up and collided with kvyat, reversing into him whilst attempting to rejoin the race).

despite his good results, he was outscored in the early part of the season by temmate albon, and kvyat remained at toro rosso whilst albon was promoted mid-season to replace pierre gasly who was demoted.

kvyat continued at toro rosso, now rebranded as alphatauri in the '20 season. despite scoring well, scoring points in seven of the seventeen races (including one shock third place podium, toro rosso’s first since sebastian Vettel in 2008) and retiring only twice (once in a collision, which may have been caused by a tyre puncture rather than driver error, and one with suspension failure), he was outmatched by teammate gasly who claimed the team's first win since sebastian vettel at the italian grand prix. gasly finished the season with more than twice kvyat's total points (seventy-five to kvyat's thirty-two).

alphatauri chose not to renew kvyat's contract for the '21 season, electing instead to give the seat to the rookie yuki tsunoda. kvyat was reserve driver, alongside zhou guanyu, for alpine in the '21 season but has not raced in f1 since.

kvyat has been vocal about his poor treatment by the red bull family, saying: "from toro rosso to red bull, not easy of course. it’s a different f1 team, the top and the midfield has a different mentality. also, very difficult times for the team. everyone was very stressed. It was the opposite of now, now they have a dominant car, at the time, it was one of their worst cars. christan [horner] wasn’t happy. helmut [marko] wasn’t happy. so, they were difficult times at red bull. so to basically help them get through their shittiest times, and then they get rid of you.. but whatever, it was still a great chapter.” - 2023

he also said: "obviously the decision in a way was a bit of a shock also for myself. one week I was standing on the podium and then suddenly there were a few decisions made around. as i said, the bosses make them and I have nothing else but to accept them and do my best job possible now in the team i am with – and it is toro rosso. it should be ok – i think I have done everything correctly until now. and nothing will change from my side [...] i really felt betrayed then, it was a knife in the back, but that’s part of life. sometimes that happens, it’s normal. it is now in the past." - 2023

"the truth is after 2016, i didn’t really want to be there [at toro rosso]. zero motivation. i didn’t like working for them and every time i woke up, i was like, i have to go drive the car again with them. so it wasn’t very enjoyable at the time. in 2017, it was difficult because I had zero motivation and carlos was extremely motivated. and then if you go with this mentality against a motivated carlos, there’s no point. so for me i wish i had a chance with someone else in F1. red bull gave me a lot but since we had our issues, it was very difficult. and I didn’t have a lot of motivation to be there." - 2023

although kvyat entered the world endurance championship in 2022, he was forced to withdraw after the fia introduced limiting conditions to the ability of russian drivers to compete following the russian invasion of ukraine. kvyat called these conditions "unfair and descriminatory." he made three starts in nascar in 2022 and is currently testing in formula e, with a view to gaining a full drive in the '24 season.

carlos sainz jr., toro rosso (2015-17), aged 20-23**

sainz, son of successful rally cross racer carlos sainz sr., joined the red bull junior team in 2010 while racing in formula bmw. he then moved up the feeder series, taking part in the f1 young drivers' test in 2013. he joined the toro rosso team ahead of the '15 season.

in his debut race he qualified inside the top ten and ultimately finished ninth, scoring points. he went on to score points in seven of the ninteen races, only finishing an additional four. all eight of his retirements were caused by technical issues. despite his good results teammate verstappen more than doubled his score and was ultimately advanced to red bull over sainz early in the '16 season.

during his second season at toro rosso, he scored a total of forty six points, two and half times his score of the previous season and more than 2/3 of the teams total points.

in his third season for toro rosso, sainz continued to improve his scores, including a fourth place finish for toro rosso in singapore. despite this, sainz publicly commented that it was "unlikely" that he would stay with toro rosso during the austrian gp. this was refuted by christian horner who insisted that sainz would race for toro rosso in the '18 season.

despite scoring forty eight of toro rosso's fifty two points at that point in the season, sainz was "loaned" to renault from the us grand prix onwards, following the departure of jolyon palmer. he went on to end his relationship with red bull at the end of the season, leaving toro rosso for a full drive at renault.

though sainz has not spoken openly about his relationship with red bull, helmut marko said:

"we did not send sainz away and it is not for nothing that we were once very early to sign him. verstappen and sainz were very well matched, but we had no opportunity to offer him more [than a place at toro rosso]. he was not convinced of the future prospects at toro rosso. he felt he was not moving forward and he did not want to wait any longer. we first loaned him out and then we canceled the contract completely. after all, we did not want to stand in the way of his future." - 2021.

marko has also been critical of the involvement of carlos sainz sr. in his son's career, saying that his father is "one of those motorsports fathers who doesn't look at it objectively, which is understandable, and just always does what he thinks is best for his son." - 2021

sainz's time at renault was regarded as unsuccessful but later moves to mclaren and then ferrari proved fruitful. sainz still races in f1 with ferrari and is now a multiple race-winning driver.

brendon hartley, toro rosso (2017-18), aged 27-30*

hartley arrived in f1 as an fia wec champion, which he had won in 2015.

he had previously worked as a test driver for both red bull (2008-10) and mercedes (2012-13). he was dropped from his role as red bull test driver at the end of 2010, with red bull citing his failure to win a race during that season of formula renault 3.5 (for context, fellow test driver and teammate daniel ricciardo won the series).

he was initially brought in to race in the stead of pierre gasly at the 2017 us gp. gasly was absent in order to compete in the final round of the super formula championship. hartley's qualifying performance was marred by an engine grid drop penalty and he eventually finished the race in thirteenth.

he remained a toro rosso driver for the rest of the season, replacing kvyat. he failed to score any points, and retired in two of the three remaining races with mechanical failure, as well as taking a ten place grid drop penalty for changing power units.

in the '18 season, hartley scored points on only three occasions, finishing the season twenty five points behind teammate pierre gasly. he retired on five occasions, three caused by technical issues. overall his season was marred by a host of car related issues and associated grid drop penalties.

toro rosso announced hartley's replacement with alex albon at the end of the '18 season.

of his time with in the red bull family, hartley has said:

"of course, I would have liked to have stayed longer and kept progressing. i developed a lot during that season and I was doing a very good job at the end of the year. we didn’t have the car to finish in the points all the time. i learnt so much from that season. some things were tough. [...] sometimes some of the questions the media was asking or rumours. Sometimes you are under the microscope. i didn't always enjoy that. but again, it taught me a lot and it made me a lot stronger as a driver coming out the other side of that. i look back really only positively. absolutely no regrets. i gave it my best shot. there are only 20 cars on the grid." - 2023

hartley went on to drive a brief stint in formula e. he has continued in endurance racing and now holds three wec titles and three 24hrs of le mans titles, and like buemi is one of the most decorated drivers racing outside of f1.

pierre gasly, toro rosso (2017), red bull (2018-19), toro rosso/alphatauri (2019-2022), aged 21-26**

(serious content warning, this one covers the death of anthonie hubert).

gasly joined the red bull junior drivers team whilst competing in formula renault 3.5 in 2014. he was named red bull reserve driver in 2015 and made one appearance in formula e at the 2017 new york eprix, racing for renault. gasly made his debut in f1 for toro rosso in 2017 at the malaysian gp, replacing daniil kvyat, however he was forced to miss the us gp as he was racing concurrently in the super formula championship, the final round of which clashed. he failed to score any points in the five races he drove in in the '17 season, but did finish every race.

in the '18 season, he was given the drive at toro rosso alongside brendon hartley. he impressed, bringing home a total of twnty-nine points (compared to hartley's four) and scoring points on five occasions. three of his five dnfs were caused by mechanical failure, and of the two collisions, one was not gasly's fault as grosjean's tyres created a smoke screen eliminating both gasly and hulkenberg who were unable to see.

gasly was promoted to red bull for the '19 season, after daniel ricciardo left the team to go to renault. despite finishing in the points on nine occasions, with only two retirements (one due to mechanical failure, the other crashing into toro rosso driver alex albon), gasly was demoted to toro rosso ahead of the italian gp (the thirteenth round). this was after poor qualifying results, a couple of crashes and being lapped by teammate verstappen at the hungarian gp, who was much outperforming him (surprising no one). both christian horner and helmut marko confirmed that gasly would stay at red bull until the end of the season when rumours that gasly would be demoted began circumlating, but this proved to be false.

christian horner said of the demotion that the team needed to be able to "make an informed decision as to who will drive alongside max [verstappen] in 2020" and that "we desperately need [gasly] realising more of the potential of the car."

an ex-f1 senior systems engineer at red bull, although he professes to have heard this second hand, has also claimed on social media that Gasly got “quite vocal with adrian [newey] over the set-up of the car. it became a bit of a shouting match in the garage and then once that happened you know in front of Marko and that it was back to the sister team you go.” - Dan - EngineMode11 (on social media)

ahead of the belgian gp, his first race since being demoted, gasly's "best mate", anthoine hubert, was killed in the f2 support race. gasly was particularly affected by the death. christian horner sought out gasly ahead of the race and, self-reportedly said: "so all i could do was try to offer some support and say that anthoine was doing exactly what he wanted to do, and 'if he had the opportunity to be racing the formula 1 car that you're in tomorrow, he would have grabbed that opportunity with both hands."

despite the demotion, gasly achieved five more points finishes, including one second-place podium, toro rosso's best finish since sebastian vettel in 2008. he scored thirty two points for toro rosso (and ninty-five overall) compared to teammate kvyat's ten in the same period.

gasly was retained by the team for the '20 season and following the rebrand to alphatauri, again alongside kvyat. he scored points on ten occasions, with three dnfs (twice due to mechanical failure and once in a multi-car pile up). his early success, even before his win at the italian gp, led to widespread speculation that he would be promoted back to red bull after showing much improvement.

at the italian gp, gasly finished first, scoring toro rosso's second ever win. this was made possible through taking advantage of an early safety car and lewis hamilton receiving a penalty. even so, gasly demonstrated skill in overtaking lance stroll and holding off a charging carlos sainz jr. though franz tost praised gasly, he dismissed the possibility of him returning to red bull any time soon. he scored 75 points total that season, outscoring kvyat.

gasly dedicated his win to anthoine hubert, who he revealed had texted him ahead of the '20 belgium gp with the words "prove them wrong", which became a personal mantra.

despite his success, and the firing of alex albon, gasly was passed over for promotion to red bull. instead, the seat went to non-red bull family driver sergio perez.

he continued to impress in the '21 season, scoring a total of one hundred and ten championship points and securing a third place podium, as well as outscoring rookie teammate tsunoda (as expected), and was again passed-over for promotion in favour of retaining perez, who had received mixed reviews.

a visibly frustrated gasly did not score as well in the '22 seson, partly owing to an uncompetitive car. he scored only twenty three points and left alphatauri of his own volition for a drive at alpine in the '23 season. he was replaced by rookie nyck de vries.

gasly has been vocal about his treatement by red bull, even during his time at alphatauri (which many believe to be part of the reason he was repeatedly passed over for promotion).

of his time with the red bull family, gasly has said: " "from the moment I made my first mistake in a car, i felt like people there slowly began to turn on me. i'd had a crash in winter testing and from that moment on the season never really got going. then i had a tough first two races with red bull and the media just ate me up. anything i said in the press was twisted into an excuse for my form, and nobody really stuck up for me. the car wasn’t perfect and i was doing my best to try to improve and learn each week. but here’s what i’ll say about it – it was a difficult time for me at red bull because i didn’t feel like i was really supported and treated the same way as others there have been. And for me, that’s something i just can’t accept. i was working my ass off every day, trying to get results for the team, but i was not being given all the tools i needed to succeed. i would try to offer solutions but my voice wasn’t heard, or it would take weeks to see changes. for whatever reason, i was never going to be a fit in that seat — it was just never going to work. i’m not the type of person to start stuff in the media because i am truly grateful to red bull for the chance, as well as for everything they have done for me in my career. i really am. but i’m allowed to tell my truth.” - 2021

gasly now races at alpine alongside esteban ocon.

(personal aside, i find what christian horner said to pierre after anthoine hubert's death horrifying and morally bankrupt. if someone has lost their best friend in a racing accident on the same track they are due to race in the following day, there should be no form of pressure on them whatsoever to race. staff at red bull have repeatedly referred to, directly or indirectly, drivers wanting to cancel a race or to choose not to race personally following a major accident as some kind of cowardly. this is simply not true and it is my opinion that they should be publicly reprimanded by the fia and their peers for such behaviour).

alex albon, toro rosso (2019), red bull (2019-20), aged 22-24

albon became part of the red bull academy in 2012, but was dropped the same year. initially he was contracted to appear in formula e in the '19 season, racing with nissan, but his contract was cancelled to allow him to race for toro rosso in f1.

in his debut season, albon raced for toro rosso for only twelve races before being promoted to red bull, to replace the demoted gasly. his results had been fair to good, scoring points on five occasions, with a best finish of sixth. he retired only once in a collision that was no fault of his own.

after being promoted ahead of the belgian gp, albon finished in the points on all but one occasion, with a best finish of fourth, though he failed to gain a podium place (the goal for red bull at the time). his fourteenth place finish came after being struck and sent into spin by hamilton.

in the '20 season, albon finished in the points on all but four occasions, gaining two third-place podiums. both dnfs were caused by mechanical failure. he brought home a total of 105 points and finished seventh in the championship. despite these ostensibly good results, especially for someone who had only raced two seasons in f1, albon was dropped ahead of the '21 season after being significantly outperformed by teammate verstappen.

about his time at red bull, albon has said: "this isn’t to throw shade at anyone at red bull racing or max or anything, honestly. but the car is set up in a unique way that is built around the lead driver, and that’s max. and, look, i totally get why. i mean, when all is said and done, he might be the greatest driver of all time. but he has a very distinct style of driving, and he likes the car set up a certain way that’s hard for a lot of drivers to sync up with. of course, you can tinker and tweak your own car, but just the red bull in general is suited to max’s style. i like a lot of front end and nose. I’ve been teammates with george and charles and i've always had way more nose than them. and when i got into the red bull … i mean there was so much nose on the thing that if you blew on the wheel the car would turn. if you play call of duty, or a game like that, turn your sensitivity up to the highest it will go. that’s what it’s like to drive that car." - 2023

he has also said "it was the experience that was missing." - 2022

albon remained at red bull as reserve driver for the '21 season , as well as taking on a coaching role for rookie alphatauri driver yuki tsunoda, before securing a drive at williams for the '22 season. he continues to race there.

nyck de vries, alphatauri (2023), aged 28*

prior to racing in f1, nyck de vries raced in formula e for mercedes, where he was crowned champion in 2021. he also served as a test driver for mercedes f1, williams and aston martin.

he made his debut in f1 racing for williams in 2022 after being called up as reserve driver to race in place of alex albon, who was suffering from appendicitis.

he impressed during his debut, scoring points after finishing in ninth and being awarded driver of the day by fans.

despite much speculation that he would sign for williams in 2023, replacing nicholas latifi, de vries was successfully poached by alphatauri, replacing pierre gasly.

de vries failed to score any points in his races for alphatauri, with his highest finish being twelfth. he retired once due to driver error. after early speculation that he would lose his seat, he was dropped less than half way through the season after the end of the british grand prix, alphatauri forgoing the typical season's grace afforded to rookies. he was replaced by daniel ricciardo.

though de vries has yet to speak in any detail about his time with the red bull family, christian horner has said that the decision was made to replace him after daniel ricciardo performed well in eleven laps of testing. he said: "it all happened a little quicker than expected, bearing in mind we hadn’t completed the test [...] helmut spoke with nyck – you know, he was the one that obviously had recruited him – so he was the one that spoke with nyck about lap 11 of the test it was becoming a difficult situation for nyck, but there was a high expectation on him because, whilst inexperienced in formula 1, he’s obviously a very experienced driver. i think there was a general feeling that nyck wasn’t quite hitting the mark. and then the question was, what are the options if we were to switch things around? the situation was clear. It was a question of, okay, what’s the point in waiting? that would have meant obviously leaving him in the car until after the summer break."

de vries has since returned to formula e with mahindra racing.

so there you have it, the complete(ish) history of red bull crimes against their drivers, going all the way back to the beginning. i hope that you take this information and use it to make an informed decision about whether you personally want to support red bull and/or alphatauri in f1 (as teams, not the drivers individually). i personally cannot support any red bull family team in f1 because of this history of psychological/emotional abuse of their drivers and work place bullying. i am aware that this behaviour is not unique to red bull, but red bull display possibly the most extensive history of it, despite only coming into being in 2005. likewise they have made no effort to correct or acknowledge their wrongdoings.

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