Red Bull is notorious for having a large discrepancy between their first and second driver, originating all the way back to 2010.
Mark Webber, the originator
The Red Bull second-seat curse is the joke theory that Mark Webber left a curse on the team after he left in 2013. During Webber’s time with the team he was often put on the backburner as the team favored Sebastian Vettel.
The bias came to the forefront in 2010 when Red Bull brought an updated front wing to a race. Vettel damaged his front wing during Saturday’s Free Practice session, and instead of using the old wing on his car, they took Webber’s updated wing and gave it to Vettel, leaving Webber with the old part. Red Bull’s reasoning for this was that Vettel was leading the championship and therefore needed the upgrade more than Webber did.
Things hit a breaking point a few years later at the 2013 Malaysian Grand Prix. Webber was leading the race, but Vettel was closing in leading Red Bull to call team orders, “Multi map 2-1.” The order called for Webber, car number 2, to stay ahead of Vettel, car number 1. Vettel defied this order and overtook Webber and went on to win the race, and when the pair were in the cool down room, Webber gave one of the most iconic quotes, “Multi 21, Seb!” Webber retired from the sport after the 2013 season and Vettel joined Ferrari for the 2014 season.
Verstappen’s teammates
After Webber left, Daniel Ricciardo joined the team as the second driver to Vettel, until Max Verstappen joined the team. Ricciardo never really was the first driver, as Red Bull quickly began to focus on shaping the car to the young prodigy that Verstappen was. Once Ricciardo realized that he was not going to be the first driver, he decided to leave the team rather than get stuck in the never ending loop.
After Ricciardo left Red Bull, the team went through a string of second drivers, but none could match up to Verstappen’s talent. Pierre Gasly was promoted to the team from Toro Rosso in 2019 but struggled with the car’s balance. Gasly didn’t last long, getting demoted back to Toro Rosso after just 12 races.
Alex Albon was the next to have a go. He was a rookie with Toro Rosso at the time and had to quickly adapt when he was switched to Red Bull mid season. In the last 9 races of the season, Red Bull compared Albon and Gasly’s performances. Albon performed well, scoring 76 points in 9 races. The good performance Albon ended the 2019 season with didn’t carry over well into 2020. His performance began to decline as the season progressed. In the end, he had two podiums and only 105 points, less than half the points Verstappen had.
Albon was demoted to reserve driver for the 2021 season, as Sergio Perez took over his seat. Perez holds the title for Verstappen’s longest-lasting teammate, remaining with the team from 2021-2024. 2021 and 2022 were successful seasons for Perez, who finished fourth in 2021 with 190 points and third in 2022 with 390 points.
2023 was an incredible display from Red Bull, with the team winning all but one race and Perez taking two of them. While it was a successful season, Perez started having problems starting at the Spanish Grand Prix. It was later revealed that there was an issue with the car, but it was ignored due to Verstappen’s success.
Perez’s struggles continued into the 2024 season, and the issues with the car began impacting Verstappen as well. After some podiums and top-5 finishes in the beginning of the season, Perez just couldn’t keep up and ended up DNFing at five races and finished outside the points at two others. Red Bull guaranteed he wouldn’t be dropped mid season, and initially got a contract extension through 2026, but eventually the was rescinded and Liam Lawson was announced to take his seat.
Liam Lawson had the shortest stint with the team, being replaced after just two races in 2025. Yuki Tsunoda, who was racing for Racing Bulls got swapped with Lawson and lasted the season, but had no remarkable moments. He scored 30 points with Red Bull and finished 17th in the drivers championship.
Isack Hadjar replaced Tsunoda for the 2026 season, and it has been said online that he is the driver to break the curse. So far in 2026, Hadjar is 8th in the championship with 68 points, with Verstappen in 6th with 109 points. Hadjar has finished outside the points only 3 times, two being DNFs, and his highest finish was a 4th place finish in Monaco. It will be interesting to see where the rest of the season takes him.
