Shows a pretty consistent picture. Within all these race weekends, Max has accumulated a total of 425 points compared to his teammates’ total of 56.
Not knocking on Max because I’m certain he’s a great driver. I think this is more indicative of red bull building cars that are specifically bespoke to Max’s unique preferences. For almost every other red bull driver, handling the car is probably like wearing pants that are 3 sizes too small and trying your best not to have the ass seam split when bending over.
There are drivers like Albon who found great success when they stopped driving for Red Bull and had a chance to drive a car better suited for them.
It’s probably because that’s the only setup they can build to make the RB fast and Max can drive that setup to the max. The RB is lacking in pure engine power and aero efficiency. If they make a less pointy car that’s more neutral, and more friendly to drivers like Lawson and Yuki, they probably would be competing in the midfield.
Some of it is also that Max has had years driving the car that has a similar philosophy as they are evolutions of that Newey concept while some of his teammates are lucky if they had a full season. Very few drivers can just swap teams and be immediately world class level, see Lewis and Carlos this year, both of whom have masses of experience, some of Max’s teammates have been comparative rookies or never were that fast in the first place (Checo).
Given that Max has struggled with the car over parts of the last year, I don’t think that the car is only “built around him”. I think the car is built in a very specific way that Newey’s team decided years ago, and Max is able to drive with it way better than any other of his teammates.
My thoughts exactly. I’d like to see a similar list for all drivers and teams. To see if there are any other drivers with huge differences in points over a team mate. If the majority are similar in points then surely this is more to do with the RB car being suited to Max and the second driver just not being able to drive the way they would.
