Why Max Verstappen cannot paper over Red Bull’s cracks forever

In the 2023 season, it was not unusual to barely see Max Verstappen on the TV broadcast. Such was his dominance that him being 10 seconds down the road from the rest of the pack was hardly worth talking about.

At the 2025 Chinese Grand Prix, there was a similar feeling when halfway through the race, you could be forgiven for forgetting the Dutchman was even there. He was stuck in P6 having lost two spots to the Ferraris in the opening lap and did not look like he was going anywhere in a hurry.

Red Bull are in trouble and Max Verstappen cannot always bail them out

However, as has so often been the case, Verstappen then dragged the car kicking and screaming to a place it perhaps did not deserve to be on pace alone.

During Verstappen’s dominant years, accusations that it was all the car were aimed at him and yet this race shows why that was never a fair argument.

Team-mates have come and gone in the seat next to him and no one since perhaps Sebastian Vettel has been able to drive a Red Bull car as quickly as Verstappen.

But the continued brilliance of Verstappen makes it easier to ignore a wider problem. A P4 in China, ahead of both the Ferraris, feels like putting a plaster on a water balloon that is fit to burst. It may give you a couple more minutes of being dry, but the problem is coming whether you like it or not.

Red Bull’s balloon has been filling with water for some time now. A team that recently looked set to create a dynasty of dominance now looks decidedly average.

In Shanghai, Liam Lawson finished 16th in a result that will only have the circling piranhas even more hungry but Lawson is the product of ill thought-out planning from the Red Bull hierarchy that goes as far back as the sacking of Pierre Gasly.

Red Bull have supplied more drivers to the grid than any other junior programme and yet very few have found success with the charging bull logo on their car.

An academy is only effective when the final stages are carefully managed. Not giving one young driver enough time to replace him with another raw rookie was always a risk and the cut-throat nature that Red Bull were once praised for has resulted in a driver not ready for the top seat and a lack of obvious alternatives.

Signing Sergio Perez was another move away from the principles with which Red Bull was founded on. An external driver was hired to replace academy product Alex Albon. A few years later and Albon continues to impress with Williams with Perez is watching from home. Sainz and Gasly are also both still performing.

There is also the question that just won’t go away – why was Yuki Tsunoda overlooked? He has far more experience in F1 than Lawson does, has performed well in the second team and has started 2025 on the front foot, even if the team’s strategy has hurt him more than it has helped. And yet, one of the most high-profile seats in the sport was passed to a relative rookie.

And then there is the car which seems a far cry away from the all-conquering RB19. While Red Bull were clearing out space in the trophy cabinet, their rivals were developing better and smarter, which meant that when the Milton Keynes team went down the wrong development path, Mercedes, Ferrari and particularly McLaren were there to pounce.

The task of fixing the problems of 2024’s RB20 fell to Pierre Wache following Adrian Newey’s departure for Aston Martin but after two races, it would seem the RB21 suffers from many of the same issues that its predecessor did. A typically blunt Verstappen said it felt as if the car was the fourth quickest on the grid at the moment and it is hard to argue with him.

McLaren are clearly a step ahead. Mercedes have more points and Ferrari should have scored more in China if not for damage to Charles Leclerc and some indecisiveness when it came to team orders.

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2025 is only two races old but it is already making for grim predictions about the sixth most successful team in F1 history. Verstappen will continue to pull the car up into high-scoring positions but relying on individual brilliance is no way to win a championship.

Christian Horner must now navigate arguably the hardest task of his tenure as Red Bull boss. Harder than when they first joined, harder than when Mercedes were so dominant, harder even than last year during the investigation controversy.

A slow car and a so far underwhelming second driver, new engine regulations coming in which you are becoming a supplier for the first time. These are not easy problems to solve but if no progress is made, the team may face an even bigger problem – losing Max Verstappen.

Read next: Is history about to repeat itself at Red Bull as Liam Lawson endures nightmare start?