Max Verstappen’s run of four titles without his team-mate having a look in isn’t the first time that one Red Bull driver has claimed four on the trot, Sebastian Vettel winning the title from 2010 to 2013.

It has former Aston Martin strategist Bernie Collins declaring Red Bull need to do something to get that “second seat working”.

What’s gone wrong with Red Bull’s second seat?

Red Bull have a new driver pairing this season having said farewell to Sergio Perez after a wretched F1 2024 campaign in which the Mexican driver struggled with performance.

Early-season promise with four podiums in five races petered out and he scored just 67 points after China with only nine coming in the final eight races.

While Verstappen celebrated a fourth successive Drivers’ Championship title, Perez endured a barrage of rumours claiming he would be dropped by the team. That came to pass after the season, Red Bull announcing in mid-December that they’d parted ways with Perez.

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It brought an end to Perez’s four-year stay with Red Bull, one that was in doubt even in 2023 when he struggled to hang onto Verstappen’s rear wing, winning two races to his team-mate’s 19.

He held onto his race seat by virtue of his runner-up result in the Drivers’ standings but his 285 points were well short of Verstappen’s 575. His deficit was again shy of 300 points in 2024, 152 to 437, but this time it cost Red Bull in the Constructors’ standings as they fell to third.

Collins, who knows Perez from his days at Force India/Racing Point, said it was all a “bit frustrating” watching it play out and questioned whether Red Bull are doing enough to make the second seat work. After all, it’s not the first time one driver has won four titles while his team-mate has won nothing.

“I’d worked with Checo previously in McLaren, I’d worked with him all of his time at Force India,” she told the Red Flag podcast.

“He made a lot of strategies really work, and as for Red Bull, I can’t really comment on what’s exactly going wrong there, but, it’s a bit frustrating in that he’s been in that car for so long against Verstappen – I think he’s Verstappen and his longest-running teammate.

“Obviously in the past, we’ve given Red Bull a lot of flak for getting rid of team-mates too quickly, so, they worked with Checo for a long time.

“But, from a whole package, be it does the car need to be substantially changed from what Vettel drives and everyone that we’ve put against Vettel, that would appear to be the case. So did that not happen?

“Did they not work together as a group? Surely they could have improved the performance year on year, race on race.

“There’s been real glimmers of it going well. For me, Checo has this really good mental strength. He’s lots of family with him at races, often quite hectic, but he’s got a lot of support there.

“He’s the first person to come into the into, like, the office and say, ‘Oh, that was a crap qualifying because we were like, whatever, whatever, how are we going to win the race?’ He’s the first person to turn that around even before I’ve done that.

“So, I find that Red Bull as a team potentially need to really look at that second seat.

“How do they get whoever is in that second seat working? What changes need to be made to the car, the people around like, nobody has come close to Verstappen.”

She added: “Red Bull really need to get that second seat working to continue winning Constructors’ whoever is in it. Not quite sure how it’s gone wrong, but it’s a pity to see Chaco go.”

This season Liam Lawson will be in the Red Bull alongside Verstappen with Helmut Marko making it clear his mandate is to “help” Verstappen win the titles.

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