Where does Max Verstappen rank in the best Red Bull drivers of all time?

2026 will be Red Bull’s 22nd season in Formula 1 and during that time they have had some of the sport’s most impressive drivers.

So while Isack Hadjar prepares to become the latest to drive the Red Bull car, we’ve ranked the 14 who have done it previously.

For clarity, it is drivers who have competed in a race for the team and only judging their time at Red Bull rather than what they achieved elsewhere. It is also not just been based on points and podiums but instead a more overall look at their careers.

Ranking every Red Bull driver in history
14. Robert Doornbos

Before Verstappen, Robert Doornbos was Red Bull’s Dutchman but the latter did not leave as much of an impression as his compatriot did.

He was a survivor from the Minardi team and after working with Christian Horner in F3000, was granted a reserve role with Red Bull following the takeover.

He was given a chance in the seat in the final three races of the 2006 season but failed to finish higher than 12th in what were his final Formula 1 events.

3 races
0 wins
0 podiums
0 points 

13. Liam Lawson

Trying to rate Liam Lawson’s time at Red Bull is like trying to rate a footballer who only came on in the 80th minute, there’s not a lot to go off.

The team’s instinct to not go with the more experienced Tsunoda meant Lawson went from being a substitute rookie to a driver at one of the biggest teams on the grid and up against an absolute teammate killer in Verstappen.

Could he have done better than a DNF and a P12? Of course. Was that enough evidence to kick him out of the team? Definitely not.

Lawson may well get another bite at the cherry down the line but his time at Racing Bulls proved he is more than capable of being on the F1 grid.

2 races
0 wins
0 podiums
0 points

12. Vitantonio Liuzzi

Even before they had raced for the first team, there was a lot of attention paid to Red Bull’s second seat as they seemingly signed two drivers for the spot – Christian Klien and Vitantonio Liuzzi.

Come the opening race, Klien was given the nod meaning Liuzzi had to settle for a reserve role. Red Bull stuck to an agreement in the Italian’s contract stating he would get a chance and he was dropped into the seat for the San Marino Grand Prix, scoring his first Formula 1 point with a P8.

Unfortunately, that would be the end of the good news for Liuzzi at Red Bull as he spun off in the next race in Spain and then crashed in Monaco. A P9 at the Nurburgring was his final outing before Klien was swapped back in.

4 races
0 wins
0 podiums
1 point

11. Christian Klien

If Klien was the winner of the intra-team battle, it was more through a lack of other options than anything the Austrian did.

He did open the year with back-to-back scores but would fail to score in consecutive races again that season. He ended the year 15th with nine points but Red Bull kept him for 2006.

However, a P8 in the opening race in Bahrain would be his only score for the first 11 races and he was dropped after the 15th race of the year.

28 races
0 wins
0 podiums
11 points

10. Yuki Tsunoda

Tsunoda may well have scored more points than the man he replaced but given how much longer he had to do it, that really isn’t saying much.

In fairness to the Japanese driver, the cards were stacked against him. First of all, the team clearly didn’t fancy him as a leading driver which is why they promoted the much more inexperienced Lawson and then he was given almost zero prep time before dropping into one of the harder cars to drive on the grid.

Tsunoda’s performances still though should have been better and he has paid the price with his F1 career over for the time being.

22 races
0 wins
0 podiums
30 points

9. Pierre Gasly

When speaking about Red Bull’s ruthless driver decisions, it is Pierre Gasly that often gets brought up as the prime example.

In a perfect world, academy product Gasly would have made a seamless switch from Toro Rosso to Red Bull but Ricciardo’s sudden departure to Renault expedited the process.

A P17 quali spot in his first race was a sign of the trouble coming ahead and Gasly never seemed to be able to swing momentum back in his favour.

By midseason, there were real question marks over his future and after a P6 in Hungary, the team cut the cord and put Albon in the seat.

Looking back though, Gasly’s results were not all that bad. He scored points in nine of his 12 races in the team including a high of P4 at Silverstone and if given more time, as well as proper backing, he may well have moved even further up the grid.

His subsequent career at AlphaTauri and now Alpine proves he was not completely useless and the subsequent quick dropping of Albon could have been avoided if Horner and co. kept faith with Gasly.

12 races
0 wins
0 podiums
63 points

8. Alex Albon

Another driver to be chewed up and spit out by the Red Bull machine was Albon who replaced Gasly mid-season during 2019. But as the Frenchman found out before him, it was a very hot seat to stay in.

He started strongly with a seven-race run of finishing in the top six and looked to be on for his first podium until that infamous spin by Lewis Hamilton in Brazil.

Even his second year was not too bad but his performances came in comparison to Verstappen’s which is always a harsh light to judge someone on. While the Dutchman finished third in the 2020 season, Albon was down in seventh and given the boot.

Like Gasly, Albon has rebuilt his career elsewhere and is doing well at Williams.

26 races
0 wins
2 podiums
181 points

7. Daniil Kvyat

Daniil Kvyat is a driver whose performances perhaps have a poorer perception than they deserve.

In his defence, he has always had big shoes to fill including Ricciardo at Toro Rosso and then Vettel at Red Bull but his first year saw him score a podium and become the second youngest driver at the time ever to do so.

Kvyat’s downfall though was a penchant for crashes, most notably at Suzuka where he flipped in qualifying but he ended 2015 ahead of Ricciardo by three points.

Come 2016 and Red Bull were itching for an excuse to get their wunderkind Verstappen in the car and a collision with Vettel at his home race was enough for them to pull the trigger.

21 races
0 wins
2 podiums
116 points

6. Sergio Perez

Like a Vincent van Gogh painting, Perez’s work at Red Bull is being appreciated more and more as time goes on.

Given the young drivers Red Bull had burned through in an attempt to replace Daniel Ricciardo, they went outside of the family to sign Perez and it proved a wise decision.

He scored five podiums and a race win in 2021 but more importantly, he was the perfect wingman to Verstappen and did everything he could to secure the Dutchman’s first title.

2022 saw him attempt to move out of Verstappen’s shadow and prevent himself from always being the bridesmaid but the Dutchman was always just a level above Perez.

2023 and the dominance of the car meant even underwhelming performances often resulted in a podium but 2024 saw Perez’s confidence fall off and his results with it.

He finished eighth in the championship while Verstappen won it and Red Bull opted to part ways.

90 races
5 wins
29 podiums
932 points

5. David Coulthard

If we were going off average points scored, Coulthard would be fifth last but that would be a grave injustice to what the Flying Scot brought to the team.

First of all, he brought some respectability to this new team owned by a fizzy drink company and was a guiding hand in the early years. But even more crucially, it was Coulthard whose words convinced Adrian Newey to join.

On track, he never won with the team but did score two podiums – an impressive feat given where Red Bull started and the Scot being near the end of his career.

71 races
0 wins
2 podiums
60 points

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4. Mark Webber

Nowadays, Webber may seem like the second driver to Vettel’s No.1 status but dismissing him as that would be a disservice to him.

The Australian joined in the team’s early years and while he dealt with an unreliable car in 2007, he was able to produce more consistent results in 2008.

After the team took a step up in competitiveness in 2009, Webber rose to the challenge, scoring three podiums in the first eight races and hinting at a title push.

In 2010, he was a genuine title contender but after missing out that year, he moved into the shadow of the emerging German.

Still, nine wins – the third most of a driver in the team’s history – and 41 podiums prove how good Webber was for Red Bull, even if he was never at the level of his team-mate.

129 races
9 wins
41 podiums
978.5 points

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3. Daniel Ricciardo

There will always be a sense of what could have been when it comes to Ricciardo. Whether it was the money or a prediction of what was to come, Ricciardo opted to leave his home for pastures new at Renault and if his time at the French constructor is often harshly underrated, what came next is not.

But at Red Bull, he seemed a genuine world championship contender. A balls-to-the-wall approach combined with an infectious personality made him a fan favourite and he was the best non-Mercedes driver in the 2016 season.

Were world titles in his future? Maybe or maybe not given Mercedes’ supremacy and Verstappen’s rise to one of the best of all-time but his later career should not take anything away from just how good Ricciardo was during his Red Bull stint.

100 races
7 wins
29 podiums
956 points

2. Sebastian Vettel

If Coulthard established the team, Vettel was the one who transformed it into a title-winning outfit.

Perhaps more than any other team, Red Bull has believed in its youth prospects and Vettel proved deserving of that faith early on.

A win with Toro Rosso put him on the map but his first year at the higher-pressure Red Bull did not faze him, finishing second in the 2009 Championship.

Then Vettel turned into a ruthlessly efficient driver. If 2010 was a close battle with Fernando Alonso, 2011 and what came afterwards was a display of dominance that was previously synonymous with his famous countryman.

As with many records, Vettel would later lose them to a man yet to appear on this list but his 2013 victory remains the highlight of a remarkable run.

Many thought Vettel would be the best Red Bull driver for a long time, until a certain Dutchman came along…

113 races
4 World Championships
38 wins
65 podiums
1,577 points

1. Max Verstappen

Where would Red Bull be without Max Verstappen?

If Helmut Marko and Christian Horner could have come up with a perfect story, it would not be too dissimilar from Verstappen’s. A highly rated young prospect wins in his first race with the team and then goes on to become a dominant four-time World Champion. All while doing it with an F-you attitude that is very much on brand.

While seasons like 2023 show how suffocating his consistency can be, the best version of Verstappen often comes in the wet and 2016 and 2024 in Sao Paulo are both examples of when he has operated at a different level to the rest of the field.

The discussion of where Verstappen ranks as a driver has moved past just Red Bull and he is now debated as one of the best of all-time, even still at the young age of 28.

More titles surely lie ahead and the only man who seems capable of stopping that is Verstappen himself.

210* races
4* World Championships
71* wins
127* podiums
3,382.5* points

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