Can Someone Please Explain Why The Second Red Bull Seat Is Cursed?
Driver Yuki Tsunoda has struggled since being promoted to Red Bull earlier this season
There are only 20 seats in Formula 1 (until next season when Cadillac joins the grid, and that jumps that number jumps to 22), which means that every single one of them is incredibly sought-after and valuable.
However, there is one seat that has a brutal reputation that continues to grow as it did on Saturday in Spain, and that is the second seat at Red Bull alongside Max Verstappen, which is currently occupied by Yuki Tsunoda.
Tsunoda made a stunning early exit from qualifying on Saturday ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix and will start the race in P20. A jaw-dropping disappointment given Verstappen managed to put his car on the second row of the grid in P3.
SIGN UP for The Daily OutKick. New Look, Same Attitude.
The RB21 is known to have its share of issues, and four-time world champ Verstappen is practically a miracle worker putting it in contention for podiums and wins on most weekends, but the team is not going to be happy about seeing Tsunoda so far down the order away from Verstappen, when its nearest competitors like McLaren, Ferrari, and Mercedes all have both of their cars in the top ten for Sunday's Grand Prix, something that provides a massive strategy advantage.
"Whatever I do, every lap, even like a long run was a good example, just whatever I do, nothing happens," Tsunoda said after qualifying, per Associated Press. "It doesn’t really stack up … I don’t know what it is, and I can’t really have any answer to that."
That's concerning. If your driver has a bad outing in qualifying, you want him to hop out of the car knowing what went wrong and knowing how to fix it. Maybe he went into a corner too hot, or took a little too much curb on exit.
The fact that Tsunoda and the team seem to be at a loss would indicate that there could be more of this sort of thing coming.
The Curse of the Second Red Bull continued on Saturday in Barcelona after Yuki Tsunoda qualified last. (Photo by Steven Tee/LAT Images)
The Red Bull Curse Continues
From Daniel Ricciardo to Pierre Gasly to Alex Albon to Sergio Perez to Lawson and now Tsunoda, it has been proven time and time again to be a tough draw, even though all of those guys have proven themselves to be very good drivers.
But since swapping seats with Lawson after two races, Lawson has outqualified Tsunoda 4-3. However, the Racing Bulls car has been regarded as less temperamental than this year's Red Bull.
Still, the Curse of the Second Red Bull is mind-boggling. I mean, at times it seems like it has a voodoo curse placed on it, or that whoever gets the ride wished for it using a severed monkey's paw… y'know, like the one from the WW Jacobs short story, "The Monkey's Paw."
It's just wild, but unfortunately for Tsunoda and Red Bull, the best they can hope for on Sunday in Barcelona is a strong recovery job that might steal a couple of points.