Red Bull Racing has been a top constructor in the Formula One paddock, with its driver Max Verstappen winning the drivers championship in four consecutive years and Red Bull winning two out of the last three Constructors’ Championships.

But each team has two drivers competing in all 24 races of the year, so who occupies that second Red Bull seat?

During Verstappen’s dominance in the last four years, Sergio Perez, a Mexican-born driver, has been his partner. Since Daniel Ricciardo left in 2018, five drivers have suited up for the energy drink brand, but none have lasted longer than one season besides Perez, who remained for four seasons.

Pierre Gasly, Alex Albon, Liam Lawson and Yuki Tsunoda have all fallen victim to poor decision-making from the Red Bull management based on bad short stints.

First, it was Gasly who took the reins from Ricciardo in the 2019 season after being promoted from Red Bull’s sister team, Toro Rosso. His first season seemed promising, earning points in nine of his 12 races and providing a spark to the Red Bull team.

However, Gasly came under increasing pressure at the 2019 Hungarian Grand Prix, where he finished sixth but was lapped by Verstappen. Despite his poor results, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner and advisor Helmut Marko stated that the team intended to keep Gasly until the end of the season.

When the season reached the summer break, Gasly seemed to have time to rewrite the story for the season, but it didn’t last long. Red Bull announced that it sent Gasly back to Toro Rosso and was replaced by Albon. At this stage of the season, Gasly was sitting at No. 6 in the Drivers’ Championship.

Albon performed well for the remaining races of the 2019 season, earning him a seat for the 2020 season, which would be his last in a Red Bull car. Although Albon finished with two podiums in the shortened season, his inconsistent performances compared to Verstappen led to his replacement by Perez.

That’s three drivers in two years, which wasn’t ideal for a team that was pushing to catch up with Mercedes, who had a dominant car every season. Red Bull found a source of consistency in Perez, but his performances declined in his last season.

Despite three poor races in May 2024, finishing fourth in Miami, eighth in Imola and crashing out at Monaco, Red Bull surprisingly handed Perez a two-year contract. The decision sparked criticism and questioning about whether his recent performances warranted a contract.

Speculation about Perez’s future with Red Bull grew heading to the season finale in Abu Dhabi, with Horner admitting there would be talks about Pérez’s future after the race. Perez retired the car for the second straight week and finished the season No. 8 in the championship with 152 points —  35% of Verstappen’s final tally — and lost his seat in Formula One.

After Perez’s departure, the second seat for Red Bulls Racing was open for the first time in four years. There were a lot of names up for the most coveted seat in the 2025 market. Former Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz, Lawson, Tsunoda and Ricciardo were all up for the seat, but eventually, Red Bull went for the inexperienced Lawson for the 2025 season.

But just as quickly as Lawson was selected, he lost his seat.

Lawson was promoted after just 11 races with the junior team, and his first two races in the Red Bull car were a struggle; he qualified last for both the sprint and the race in China and crashed in Australia to open the season. He did, however, finish 12th in the Chinese Grand Prix, but even that race had issues. He was more than a minute off Verstappen, while he was lifted three places thanks to post-race disqualifications by Gasly, Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc.

While Perez had struggled to Verstappen in terms of position, he at least got points while Lawson was barely getting out of the first qualifying session.

Red Bull decided to pull the trigger and demoted Lawson to Visa Cash App Racing Bulls — formerly known as Torro Rosso — and promoted Tsunoda on March 27, a week before Tsunoda’s home Grand Prix in Japan. Lawson ended his Red Bull tenure with fewer hours (173) from the start of the Australian Grand Prix to the end of the Chinese Grand Prix than Max Verstappen has raced in Formula One (188).

While Marko has said that Tsunoda will see out the entire season at Red Bull, like Gasly, Albon and Perez before him, Tsunoda will need to succeed and prove he can consistently deliver top performances if he wants to keep his seat. Otherwise, he risks becoming another casualty of Red Bull’s ruthless decision-making in recent years.