All the “Short Life” Drivers at Red Bull

After Oracle Red Bull Racing officially announced the promotion of Yuki Tsunoda and dropped Liam Lawson back to Racing Bulls, Lawson became the fastest Red Bull driver in history to have his seat taken away after only two races. He couldn’t score any points and didn’t even escape Q1 in both qualifying sessions. Throughout history, Red Bull has had many well-known names, such as David Coulthard, Mark Webber, Sebastian Vettel, Daniel Ricciardo, and Max Verstappen, but many drivers lost their seats due to the strong competitive environment at Red Bull. Now, this article will show you all the Red Bull drivers who lost their seats before Lawson, from the most races started to the fewest.

1. Christian Klien – 30 Races Including Two DNS

Christian Klien started his career with the Jaguar team in 2004, and after Jaguar became Red Bull, he shared a race seat with Vitantonio Liuzzi, but he scored points five times in 2005 to secure his seat in 2006 alongside David Coulthard. However, things went badly for Klien; after scoring in the season debut, he couldn’t score in the following ten races and retired in six of them. He raced in 15 out of 18 races for Red Bull in 2006, achieving only two P8 finishes, bringing home two points, and was removed by Red Bull, with his seat given to the reserve driver Robert Doornbos.

2. Alex Albon – 26 Races

In 2019, Alex Albon started his Formula 1 career with Toro Rosso. He kicked off beautifully by scoring five times and achieving as high as a P6 finish in 12 races, and he quickly got promoted to Red Bull, replacing Pierre Gasly. In the remaining nine races of 2019, Albon managed to score in eight of them and never finished below P6; the only race in which he didn’t score should have been a podium, but Lewis Hamilton hit him into a spin, and he could only finish P15. So Albon earned a new contract for 2020, but the short pandemic season wasn’t the best for him. Albon fell into a cycle of crashing and retiring; he scored in 12 races, including two podium finishes that season, but only got 105 points. Compared to his 2019 season, in which he scored 92 points while spending the majority of the time at Toro Rosso, Albon really had a big step back. As a result, he was demoted to reserve driver and got replaced by Sergio Perez, who shined at the 2020 Shakir Grand Prix and directly beat Albon.

3. Daniil Kvyat – 23 Races Including Two DNS

Daniil Kvyat joined Formula 1 with Toro Rosso in the 2014 season as a 19-year-old kid. He shocked the grid by reaching Q3 in his very first qualifying session and managed a P9 finish in the feature race of Australia, becoming the youngest driver at the time to score a point, and he scored back-to-back at the following Malaysian Grand Prix. With five scored races in 2014, he earned his seat in Red Bull in 2015 to fill the spot left by Sebastian Vettel. With the not-so-fast RB11, Kvyat scored in 14 races and secured one P2 podium, even beating his teammate Daniel Ricciardo in the drivers’ championship at the end of the year. Continuing into 2016, Kvyat earned a P3 in the Chinese Grand Prix, the first podium of the year for Red Bull, but in the following Russian Grand Prix, his ugly crash with Vettel got him demoted back to Toro Rosso, although a bigger reason was the irreparable talent of Max Verstappen.

4. Pierre Gasly – 12 Races

Pierre Gasly replaced Kvyat at Torro Rosso in the late 2017 season because of Kvyat’s consistent struggles. Although he didn’t score anything initially, he still got his full-time seat with Toro Rosso in 2018. He was obviously the number one driver for Toro Rosso that year, with his 29 points and highest P4 finish easily beating his teammate Brendon Hartley. After the big shock and chaotic situation of Ricciardo leaving Red Bull, Gasly got promoted in 2019. The start for Gasly was already a mess, he qualified P17 and didn’t score in Australia, then only P8 in Bahrain and P6 in China, while his teammate Verstappen finished both at P4. After retirement in Azerbaijan, he scored in six races in a row, but in Canada, France, and Austria, he got lapped by Verstappen in the same car. His best finish with Red Bull was P4 in Great Britain, but that was after crashes involving Verstappen and Vettel. In the German Grand Prix, he hit Albon when he tried to pass him for P6, causing him to retire; even though he got P6 in the following Hungarian Grand Prix, it was far from enough for Red Bull, and Gasly was demoted back to Toro Rosso, with Alex Albon taking his seat.

5. Vitantonio Liuzzi – Four Races

As part of the contract between Vitantonio Liuzzi and Red Bull, Liuzzi was able to replace Christian Klien for a few races during the middle of the season. In the fourth race in 2005, Liuzzi stepped into the Red Bull racing car for the first time at Imola, where he scored his first point in his career debut with a P8 finish. Then he retired in the following Spanish and Monaco Grands Prix. He was given another chance in the European Grand Prix at Nürburgring, but with only a P9 finish, his seat was taken back by Christian Klien. Although Liuzzi never had a chance to drive for Red Bull again, he still remained in the Red Bull system and raced for Toro Rosso for the following two seasons.

6. Robert Doornbos – Three Races

Robert Doornbos drove for the Minardi Team in 2005, but after Minardi was bought by Red Bull and changed to Toro Rosso, he had nowhere to go in 2006. However, his former F3000 team boss, Christian Horner, gave him the seat of Red Bull Reserve driver. Doornbos ran most of the practice sessions for Red Bull on Friday and made it into the top ten many times, even reaching the top three on Friday's lap times. After Red Bull decided to drop Christian Klien, Doornbos got the seat for the last three races of 2006. In his first qualifying session in China, he made it into Q3 and out-qualified Coulthard, but he couldn’t find a way to score any points in all three races. That was the end of his F1 career; after this, Doornbos only got the chance to drive the Red Bull car in a few demonstration events. Interesting fact, Doornbos was the last ever driver drive for Minardi since his teammate retired earlier than him in the last race of Minardi.