Red Bull dependency can leave drivers broken

It is no secret, or surprise, that Daniil Kvyat is hurting right now. Badly.

The 22-year-old was in the fast lane at Red Bull Racing, at times out-doing race-winning team-mate Daniel Ricciardo and scoring the team's first podium of 2016 after a muscular drive in China. Then he found himself dumped as suddenly as he had been promoted from junior team Toro Rosso to the main Red Bull Racing team at the end of 2014.

His opening lap faux pas on home soil at Sochi were partly blamed, but his fate was sealed long before he twice clumsily clattered into the back of Sebastian Vettel's Ferrari. Such decisions are considered behind closed doors and not simply taken on the hoof, then announced a day or two later.

To compound matters, his replacement, Max Verstappen, sensationally scored victory first time out in what would have been Kvyat's car in Spain, running the alternate strategy that would almost certainly have been imposed on the Russian, all things being equal. As an aside, the strategy imposed on Ricciardo marginalised the Australian's race, a situation that would be compounded in Monaco a fortnight later.

During an exclusive interview before the Spanish Grand Prix weekend Kvyat told Autosport that a lot had been going on behind the scenes, that "Formula 1 is not only what you do on the track," before making clear he had "a long memory".

Strong statements, yes, but given the circumstances such outbursts are totally understandable. Then came Monaco, where Verstappen screwed up royally and Kvyat suffered unreliability. His weekend is best summarised by Autosport grand prix editor Ben Anderson, who had this to say in his driver ratings:

"Kvyat was the faster Toro Rosso driver in qualifying until a 'big underperformance' in Q3. He was furious to find his car stuck at constant speed for the start of the race and lost his cool again when Kevin Magnussen got his elbows out, getting a Canada grid penalty for taking the Renault out at Rascasse.

"Kvyat has had it tough recently, but he needs to stay calm in the car."

Therein lies his problem: aware he has been demoted, aware of the combined fates of his predecessors - a list that features Vitantonio Liuzzi, Scott Speed, Sebastien Bourdais, Jaime Alguersuari, Sebastien Buemi and Jean-Eric Vergne, all of whom bar Liuzzi were consigned to the F1 wilderness post-Red Bull - Kvyat has resorted to overdriving such is his determination to remain in F1, although he realises it will likely be outside of the Red Bull family.

Liuzzi, tellingly, had a full management infrastructure in place in the form of Peter Collins's Allinsport operation, plus had previously driven for Arden (for which he won the 2004 Formula 3000 title) when managed by Christian Horner, who went on to become team principal of Red Bull Racing.

The Italian also did cockpit time for Red Bull under Horner, although that period coincided with the pre-Adrian Newey era, when underperformance was very much the Red Bull way as the team found its feet. So Liuzzi remains very much the exception.

Before Verstappen's elevation, only three drivers - Sebastian Vettel, Ricciardo and Kvyat - stepped up from Toro Rosso to the main team. David Coulthard and Mark Webber were recruited from elsewhere, while Austrian Christian Klien, although a Red Bull-backed driver, was carried over from Jaguar Racing (Red Bull's predecessor).

To date, just four drivers - Vettel, Webber, Ricciardo and Verstappen - have won in Red Bull-backed F1 cars, and, of those, Ricciardo and Verstappen did so only after the dominant Mercedes team hit trouble of some sort or other.

That is not decry the quartet's efforts, for all four are fine drivers whose cars were not always the best, but the record indisputably shows that Red Bull's much-vaunted young driver development programme, one that put literally hundreds of young drivers through the mill over 15 years delivered but a single driver able to win consistently without relying on opportunism: Vettel - himself the subject of a tug-of-love with BMW in his early years.

Further, Verstappen was picked up after having proven his mettle in F3 when offered to Red Bull on a take-it-or-leave-it basis by his management, consisting of father Jos and his suave associate of many years, Raymond Vermeulen, both of whom draw on many years of experience of hustling in F1 paddocks.

How Max came to sit first in a Toro Rosso aged 17, then move to Red Bull Racing and climb the top step at 18 is a lesson in F1 paddock politics, an art they first learned in 1994, as Benetton team-mate (and friend) to the best cockpit politician in the business - Michael Schumacher - then perfected under then-team principal Flavio Briatore.

Spells under Arrows boss Tom Walkinshaw and Minardi hustler Paul Stoddard, plus the odd run-in with Eddie Jordan - to whom Jos unsuccessfully issued an ultimatum - rounded off their skills. Any wonder they were able to bend Red Bull management at will despite their relative late arrival at the team, albeit with a precocious talent?

In the process of shoehorning Max into Toro Rosso they almost scuppered the career of Carlos Sainz Jr, who seemed on the fast track to F1 after winning the 2014 Formula Renault 3.5 championship, and was only accommodated at Toro Rosso when Vettel unexpectedly upped sticks to join Ferrari and Kvyat was promoted to the main team in the German's place.

Consider that this weekend past in Monaco Sainz ran ahead of eventual third-placed finisher Sergio Perez before Toro Rosso fumbled his stops; arguably worse, the Spaniard is nearing the end of his second season with the team - so where to next given that Red Bull now seems locked out by Ricciardo and Verstappen? A third full season at Toro Rosso is extremely rare, only Buemi being given such an opportunity.

Webber is another case in point: managed by Briatore (and his partner Ann Neal), he was able to shrug aside constant jibes from top Red Bull figures and a series of injustices - remember his "Not bad for a number two" outburst after winning the 2010 British GP; the aftermath of a tangle with Vettel in Turkey in the same year; and the "multi 21" controversy in Malaysia 2013? Would he have survived without that management?

Where is this heading? Simply: that F1's equivalent of a P45 handed down by Toro Rosso equals an exit from the top echelon of the sport, unless, that is, a driver has access to a professional management team able to counter the inevitable negativity that accompanies such a sacking or had the foresight to appoint such a team before joining the programme.

Still, it was only slightly surprising to hear Kvyat respond with a curt "yes" when asked in Monaco whether he was considering a future outside of Red Bull for such talk is nothing short of heresy in Red Bull circles. Asked, though, whether he had access to the necessary management infrastructure to navigate him through F1's choppy recruitment waters, his "no" was a lot more subdued.

He mumbled something about finding "someone" when the need arises, and it was clear from his demeanour that he knew he was up against a solid brick wall of the type that made Berlin's erstwhile monstrosity seem permeable. True, the World Endurance Championship likely beckons - as it did for Buemi and others - but this is a driver who just six weeks before had muscled Vettel aside at the start in China and scored Red Bull's first podium of the season.

Asked by Autosport last year at Silverstone whether he had a manager, Ricciardo, without doubt one of the best on today's grid, said: "I've got a small little group around me, just a lawyer and just really myself.

"I get advice from a few people here and there but I've sort of gone back and forth deciding. Obviously I had some approaches as well with managers, management companies and agencies.

"Don't get me wrong, they've all got something to offer, [but] up until this point of my career, Red Bull's dominated a lot of the moves I've made and pretty much picked where I go."

But what now, given that, in Ricciardo's own words, "Two weekends in a row now I've been screwed" out of wins? How do you extricate yourself from your contract (should you wish to do so) without an independent management team able to guide your career going forward? We know what happened to Red Bull's last outspoken Australian.

That, in a nutshell, describes the Red Bull way. Drivers are identified early, then 'schooled' through feeder series, which they are expected to win in order to take the next step. One slip, and they are generally cast aside. Drivers who are dumped early are arguably better off, for they immediately learn to manage their own careers whereas those who grow up within the system become increasingly dependent upon Red Bull.

In this age of pay drivers it is crucial that youngsters learn skills such as sponsor search, PR and media relations, yet these are all aspects that Red Bull takes care of. So when drivers are cut loose, they seldom have ready commercial packages to offer their next team, and therefore lose out. Any wonder ex-Red Bullers too often find that pay drivers with less sparkling CVs gazump them at the post?

On their ways up the ladder drivers are managed by arguably the most vertically integrated marketing operation on the planet - one that owns properties such as two F1 teams, grand prix race circuits, TV stations, publications and media outlets, space jump operation, extreme sports championships and even in-house weather forecasting - in mutually beneficial fashion. Ultimately, though, Red Bull's loyalty lies with Red Bull, and not the driver.

The flipside is, of course, that a raft of youngsters whose familial circumstances did not extend to drives with top line teams were given opportunities by Red Bull, and have subsequently cut it professionally elsewhere. Buemi and Brendon Hartley, WEC champions both, immediately spring to mind, as does Vergne. Still, feelings linger that they, and others, dropped out of the F1 world prematurely due to a lack of career guidance.

All in, then, Red Bull's programme - and similar ones operated by motor manufacturers during the influx of such as BMW, Toyota and Renault during the noughties - can make careers that would usually have stalled through lack of finances or due to circumstance.

Equally, though, it can break them - as Kvyat could soon discover unless he sorts his career management out pretty quickly.