[Artemis]

Originally Posted by M5Rick

The Racing Bull version is easier to drive from what I can see and it now has the similar pull rod front suspension to it's bigger brother car so I agree Yuki should stay where he is as it looks like he'll have his hands full dicing with Hadjar but if it continues to go wrong for Liam then Yuki could be forced into that second 21 seat whether he likes it or not with Liam back in VCARB I would think.

Verstappen told Dutch media the following after the Shangai qualies:

"If you looked at Liam at Racing Bulls, actually he was quite similar to Yuki [on pace]. There was not a whole lot of difference between them, I thought. Otherwise, of course, the team wouldn't make that choice to put Liam in [to Red Bull]. And now suddenly that gap is very big and they are also very close to me. So of course that tells you something. If you would put Liam in the Racing Bulls, he will go quicker."
("What’s going wrong for Liam Lawson at Red Bull?": https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/w...bull/10706032/)

Albon explained the situation in 2023. As a consequence, it's getting increasingly difficult for most RBR drivers to keep up with Verstappen's pace. Ever since Perez collapsed in May 2024, Verstappen is virtually left to his own devices during races: unlike most teams, as good as no help from his wingman. A wingman is supposed to help attacking and defending track positions. If Verstappen would leave RBR to replace Russell or Alonso, or would take a sabbatical for family reasons, RBR will be in shambles.

Lawson is thrown before the lions. So far, he impressed by underwhelming and questionable behavior - it's still early season, but time is ticking. Likely also Tsunoda would struggle with the 2025 RBR car. Trouble is that Tsunoda has a track record of anger management issues and RBR doesn't want expensive repair bills and hysteric onboard messages.

Required to drive the other 2015 RBR car: a seasoned driver with neither a big ego nor anger management issues.

Originally Posted by Artemis

"The Max Factor" consists of the racing skill to extract the maximum of what's practically extractable out of the tools and strategies put at an F1 driver's disposal.

Verstappen's former team mate Alex Albon basically explained (Dec 2023) that it's hard to keep up with Verstappen's evolution during a season - he operates on a different level with increasingly fine-tuned set-ups.

"The first thing is, you know, a lot of people say: "That car is built around him [Max Verstappen]", "He’s kind of like the Michael Schumacher of Ferrari, he’s created this team around him". But truthfully, the car is what it is, he is very quick. So what ends up happening is: he has quite a unique driving style, actually, it’s not that easy to get along with.
Everyone has a driving style. I would say my driving style [Alex Albon] is a bit more on the smooth side, but I like a car that has a good front-end, so quite sharp, quite direct. Max does too, but his level of sharp and direct is a whole different level – it’s eye-wateringly sharp.
To give people kind of maybe an explanation of what that might feel like. If you played computer games: if you bump up the sensitivity [on a computer mouse] completely to the max and you move that mouse and it’s just darting across the screen everywhere, that’s kind of how it feels. It becomes so sharp that it makes you a little bit tense.
So what ended up happening was, especially during my year: you start off being a little bit behind, but not by much. And then as the season goes on, and Max wants this front-end in the car, he wants his car to be sharper, sharper. And as it goes sharper and sharper, he goes quicker and quicker. And for you to catch up you have to start taking a little bit more risk. You might be a couple of tenths behind one session, just try a little bit more, ‘OK, I’ve gone off, I’ve had a crash’, and you’ve got to restart. Then you’ve lost a little bit of confidence, it takes a little bit more time, that gap is growing a little bit, and the next time you try and go out and do another job, [it’s] another spin or another whatever – and it just starts to snowball. And every time the car becomes sharper and sharper, you start to become more tense.
It’s like any sport, if you start to not be in that flow state, and you’re having to really think about it, and every time you go into a corner, you don’t know how it’s going to react, you don’t have that kind of… It’s purely the confidence in the car, the flow. It just doesn’t work, it never works."

See 00:01 - 02:37: