'Poisoned' Red Bull claim denied: 'Max Verstappen is the talent of the century'
Yesterday at 01:05 PM
Max Verstappen has been described as "the talent of the century", and the reason why the second seat at Red Bull alongside the four-time F1 champion cannot be described as 'poisoned'. Since joining Red Bull in 2016, Verstappen has had six team-mates - Daniel Ricciardo, Pierre Gasly, Alex Albon, Sergio Perez, Liam Lawson, and currently, Yuki Tsunoda. It has led to the suggestion the seat is 'poisoned', with no driver fully able to handle being Verstappen's team-mate. Perez came closest, spending four years working with the Dutchman, and was runner-up in the drivers' championship 2023. That was a season, however, when Red Bull developed the most dominant car in F1 history, and Verstappen scored enough points to have won the constructors' championship by himself. After releasing Perez from his contract at the end of last year, Red Bull swiftly promoted Lawson after just 11 grands prix, only for the New Zealander to suffer a disastrous start, leading to Tsunoda being handed his long-awaited opportunity. Asked for his perspective on the second seat alongside Verstappen, particularly after watching his drivers move back and forth to Red Bull, speaking exclusively to RacingNews365, Bayer said: "I'm not sure I agree it is a poisoned seat, to be honest. "I look at Checo a couple of years ago, and he was a vice-world champion. "Helmut [Marko] and Christian [Horner] are probably way more qualified to answer this, but you have the talent of a century [Verstappen], somebody so focused. I don't know of any driver so focused on racing, driving, like Max. "It's all he does. He wakes up and he's thinking about racing. He goes to bed and he's thinking about racing...or he's not going to bed and he's sim racing. "He's been trained his whole life to be ready for this challenge, and, obviously, with the success, the mental strength is coming. "So I don't think you can speak about a poisoned seat. It's just that the cars are so pointy nowadays that either you manage to drive the car, or you don't. "And I think that will be the challenge for Yuki, and I think he can drive that car."
