[V8 Fireworks]

Originally Posted by Hawkwood

Vettel's never had Verstappen as a team mate, so isn't revelvant, and Verstappen isn't relevant for obvious reasons.

Vettel didn't even need Verstappen to be vanquished out of Red Bull, Ricciardo was already sufficient to defeat Vettel by 3 wins to Vettel's zero.

The point is that it is standard practice for Red Bull to promote young drivers to the team, namely Klien, Vettel, Ricciardo, Kvyat, Verstappen, Gasly, and Albon. Some of which did absolutely fine.

Hulkenberg or Perez would be, on the other hand, only the third experienced driver signed to the team following Coulthard and Webber.

I would prefer Red Bull to sign Russell, as for Russell a guaranteed Red Bull drive right now is surely better then a potential Mercedes "some time in the future", and for Red Bull you don't get many opportunities to sign such a talented future star. Even though it would only be a 1-year-deal to start with, there may be every opportunity for Red Bull to extract Russell from his Mercedes contract.

Given Red Bull have already missed out on other talents like Norris, Red Bull best get a move along!

Originally Posted by Hawkwood

I'm not forgetting them at all, I didn't mention them as the previous conversation was about Red Bull being geared towards Max.

That Ricciardo defeated an incumbent Red Bull 4xWDC by three wins to zero, rather suggests Red Bull is not overly geared towards any particular driver.

Rather it simply shows that while Gasly is talented enough he is perhaps more Fisichella than Alonso (Fisichella had many equally impressive drives with Benetton & Force India after all, just like Gasly at AlphaTauri, but then put Fisico alongside Alonso and Fisico was miles behind), and Albon is perhaps not quite top-shelf either.

Unlike Gasly's Fisichella, Russell is perhaps more in the Alonso-tier IMO, hence why IMO Russell would be excellent signing for Red Bull!

The 2020 Red Bull is obviously a pointy car led by the nose, but they are not going to redesign it just because it's hard to drive both for the lead driver and especially for the second driver -- that would be a waste of time and money because the car is not that uncompetitive. Same goes for Ferrari, whose car is improving. It's up to both Albon and Vettel to look at the data, and duplicate the driving technique of Verstappen and Leclerc respectively.

If Verstappen and Leclerc can feel the grip and balance the car on the limit, it is up to Albon and Vettel to do the same! It is not up to the team to waste money making the car most stable and easier to drive. The notion that either Albon or Vettel are supplied with a deliberately inferior car is just plain silly.