At the start of the 2025 Formula One season, Red Bull driver Max Verstappen claimed that he would be surprised to finish in the top three of any race this season as the Red Bull F1 car was “not the quickest at the moment.” Fast forward to the third race on the F1 calendar, the Suzuka Grand Prix, Verstappen won the whole thing by nearly 1.5 seconds, notably, he qualified a tenth faster than the car behind him and set the track record for the fastest lap. For non-F1 fans this would surely come as a shock, but for the four-time Driver’s World Champion, it’s just another Sunday. 

This weekend was no different, with the race seemingly having no overtakes and very few action spots during the actual broadcast. With just three races under our belt (the first two having a bit of chaos due to rain) Suzuka was déjà vu for a lot of Formula One fans over the past four years, and many have decided that they don’t want to go back. For the past four years, Red Bull Oracle Racing has had a dominance era filled with the wins of one particular driver: Max Verstappen. While understandably seeing the same driver win every race is frustrating, fans have decided to try a new tactic: root for the underdog.

Yuki Tsunoda is the next upcoming driver who is taking the second Red Bull seat and after Suzuka is sadly likely to acquire the same fate as those before him. Much of this frustration centers largely around Red Bull’s fondness for replacing second drivers. Liam Lawson, Verstappen’s 2025 teammate, had only two races with Red Bull before being demoted to its sister team. Daniel Ricciardo, Alex Albon, Pierre Gasly, the list goes on. The theory is that changing the driver in the seat will somehow produce better results in a short amount of time, yet five driver changes later and this idea still has not stuck. 

Every Formula One team is required to have two drivers who score points for the team in what is called the Constructors Championship. To put this into context, Ferrari currently has Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton, the more famous among the grid. While Verstappen has had two different teammates this season, one being Liam Lawson during the Australian and Chinese Grand Prix, and the other being Yuki Tsunoda during this past weekend. The driver who scores the most points is higher in the Drivers’ Standings, yet points scored between two teammates help the team in the Constructors. Out of Red Bull’s current total of 61 points, Verstappen has scored all of those points. Lando Norris is the only other driver close to that. However his team, McLaren has put 111 points on the board. So why is Verstappen the only one scoring points for Red Bull? It’s a question that not even the team can seem to solve.

Max Verstappen is the only Red Bull driver who has survived unscathed and won glory. Suzuka has always been a favorable track for the Red Bull car, so it was a disappointing end to the weekend when Tsunoda finished 15th and outside of the points. If fans and team principals want to be excited about races as well as results, they need to start celebrating the wins with all of the drivers and realizing that world champions are champions for a reason, regardless of who their teammates are and what car they’re in. Verstappen will continue to gain results as a show of his ability and time, much like Tsunoda and other second drivers if given the chance.