Liam Lawson’s career at Red Bull could be over before it’s even started, after suffering back-to-back weekends finishing outside of the top ten.
The 23-year-old arrived at the Shanghai International Circuit wanting to put his tough race in Melbourne behind him, having dropped out in Q1 and later crashed in the race. Lawson’s hopes were soon dashed when he struggled to get to grips with the RB21, with the New Zealander qualifying in 20th in both Sprint and main qualifying.
Red Bull opted to make changes to his setup in a bid to salvage a result from Lawson, but the race proved to be too critical on tyres and he could only place as high as P15 on track before being promoted to P12 after Pierre Gasly and both Ferrari’s were disqualified for a technical infringement.
After incurring the worst start to a Red Bull career in the history of the team, it looks like he could be on the brink of losing his seat as talk turns to whether Lawson will be replaced by Yuki Tsunoda for the Japanese Grand Prix.
Red Bull has not made any decision yet, but Lawson could still salvage his career and avoid becoming one of the shortest drivers in the history of the team.
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Robert Doornbos – 3 Grands Prix
Robert Doornbos’ career lasted just three Grands Prix, largely because he was acting as the stand-in for the axed Christian Klien at the end of the 2006 season.
Klien was due to be replaced by Mark Webber for the 2007 season after underperforming but parted ways early with the team having turned down their offer to race in Champ Car.
Doornbos would go on to take up his seat for the Chinese, Japanese and Brazilian Grands Prix at the end of the season. With points only going down to P6 at the time, Doornbos would only manage to finish as high as P12 in Brazil before returning to his test/reserve driver role.
Vitantonio Liuzzi – 4 Grands Prix
Vitantonio Liuzzi was supposed to be the main driver at Red Bull alongside David Coulthard in 2005, before the team opted to sign Klien instead.
However, team principal Christian Horner had promised Liuzzi he would get a chance to drive one of their cars, so he abided by this agreement by giving him a run of trace between the San Marino, Spanish and Monaco Grands Prix.
Liuzzi would have a mega start in San Marino, overtaking Michael Schumacher on the opening lap and finishing in P8 just outside of the points.
Despite subsequently retiring from the next two races, he was given one more outing at the European Grand Prix before handing his seat back to Klien for the Canadian Grand Prix. Red Bull would keep him at Toro Rosso for 2006 and 2007, before dropping him in favour of Sebastian Bourdais for 2008.
Nyck de Vries – 10 Grands Prix
After impressing on his F1 debut with Williams substituting the injured Alex Albon at Monza 2022, Nyck de Vries would go on to earn a seat at Alpha Tauri in 2023.
Red Bull initially wanted to put American Colton Herta into the car, but he did not have enough FIA super licence points. When the governing body did not budge after being asked for special dispensation, they turned to De Vries who also recently won the Formula E championship with Mercedes.
It would turn into a disastrous run for the Dutchman, with him only finishing as high as 12th at the Monaco GP and failing to out-qualify teammate Yuki Tsunoda. He would be replaced at the Hungarian GP in favour of Daniel Ricciardo.
Pierre Gasly – 12 Grands Prix
Pierre Gasly had an impressive run of races in Toro Rosso and after Ricciardo announced he was leaving, he was promoted to Red Bull alongside Verstappen.
It would prove to be a difficult period for the Frenchman, as he struggled to keep up with Verstappen and focused too much on specific areas of the car setup.
Gasly would regularly be fighting in the midfield while Verstappen was finishing on the podium, and after just half the races in 2019 Red Bull made the decision to swap him back to Toro Rosso with Alex Albon.
