Red Bull's Formula 1 sackings ranked

Every Formula 1 team lets drivers go sometimes, but exits from the Red Bull system tend to be more attention-grabbing than most - given that they often happen mid-season, involve demotions between teams, or affect drivers whose whole careers up to that point have been steered by the energy drinks giant.

Ahead of Pierre Gasly making his step back to Toro Rosso at this weekend's Belgian Grand Prix, we attempted to rank every Red Bull F1 'sacking' - from the most clearly justified to the most seemingly harsh and out-of-order.

Under the rules of this challenge, any time a driver was dropped completely by either Red Bull or Toro Rosso, or demoted from Red Bull to Toro Rosso, either in the middle of a season or at the end, was considered. Yes, Daniil Kvyat does appear twice.

Drivers leaving the Red Bull world of their own volition either to race for a rival (Sebastian Vettel/Daniel Ricciardo) or to retire from F1 (David Coulthard/Mark Webber) were outside our criteria, as is Carlos Sainz Jr for his exit from a situation he potentially wasn't going to be asked to stay in anyway.

Here's how we ranked them, from the least to the most harsh. Scores are an average of all input from our panel, with the scale running on a '1 = totally justified to 10 = utterly out of order' basis.

12. Scott Speed's mid-season 2007 sacking

What happened: Speed was dropped by Toro Rosso halfway through 2007 after 1.5 seasons and replaced by Vettel

Harshness scale: 1.4

Glenn Freeman: Red Bull was right that Speed hadn't performed well enough. And he was replaced by Vettel. How can you argue with how that turned out?!

Edd Straw: Speed was the less convincing Toro Rosso driver when paired with Tonio Liuzzi in 2006/7 and didn't endear himself to the team with his attitude.

Stuart Codling: Being a slightly abrasive character is just about tolerable if you're winning grands prix, but teams are less ready to tolerate chippiness when a driver isn't delivering. That said, this was a pre-Vettel era in which the Red Bull driver-development programme hadn't produced a superstar yet after several years of trying - so the default approach seemed to be to scream at whichever drivers were coming up short.

11. Daniil Kvyat's 2017 Toro Rosso exit

What happened: Kvyat was dropped by Toro Rosso in favour of Gasly late in 2017, recalled once when Gasly had a Super Formula clash, and then jettisoned completely (temporarily)

Harshness scale: 3.0

Valentin Khorounzhiy: This should've happened sooner, and he should've got the chance to rediscover his form with another F1 team. As it is, Kvyat's post-Red Bull Toro Rosso career remains a treadmill exercise - the recent German GP high point notwithstanding.

GF: By this point he was just filling a seat at Toro Rosso, and it was right for Red Bull to cut him loose and freshen things up.

James Newbold: Ejecting Kvyat was perhaps unwise given Carlos Sainz Jr was about to move to Renault, which left Toro Rosso scrambling around for a replacement and ending up with a driver in Brendon Hartley without recent single-seater experience. Kvyat had been close to Sainz on pace, if not results.

10. Brendon Hartley being dropped after 2018

What happened: Hartley's recall to the Red Bull ranks and F1 world fizzled out when he wasn't retained for 2019 after a season-and-a-bit with Toro Rosso

Harshness scale: 3.4

SM: Hartley was fortunate to get a chance in F1 when he did and to his credit had decent pace, but rarely strung it together when it counted and started to irk Red Bull with his attitude.

VK: Close enough to Gasly on pace if not points, Hartley proved he could've made for quite a useful F1 driver. That wasn't enough for Red Bull, so his departure is in line with its previous modus operandi, but that does raise the question of what exactly was expected of him?

SC: My impression was that he was a stopgap solution for Red Bull and that he was always treated as such. So it's little wonder that Toro Rosso didn't get the best out of him. Pace-wise he was usually there or thereabouts.

ES: He started well with his 2017 opportunities, but struggled to live with the oversteery Toro Rosso in the first half of '18 and let his head drop too easily at times.

9. Robert Doornbos's shortlived Red Bull run

What happened: Red Bull slotted Doornbos in instead of Klien for the final part of 2006 but his seat was always destined for Webber in '07

Harshness scale: 3.7

ES: I actually think Doornbos had one of the roughest Red Bull experiences. In his three late-season races at Red Bull in 2006, he outpaced Coulthard in qualifying in two of them but never had a chance of a full-time seat given Webber had signed before Doornbos even raced the car.

GF: He was only ever a sub so it wasn't too harsh, but he might have expected to be in the mix for a drive at Toro Rosso the following year so he could stay on board.

SM: It seems so bizarre that he was ever a Red Bull driver.

8. Christian Klien losing his seat in 2006

What happened: After a Red Bull-backed Jaguar season in 2004, Klien stayed on into the RBR era but Webber was signed to replace him for '07 and he was stood down for the final few races of '06

Harshness scale: 3.8

SM: While not as impressive in F1 as in his short junior career, his rapid graduation and point-scoring performances deserved more than to be turfed out to make way for an aged driver line-up that was the antithesis of what Red Bull was meant to be (and still is today): a company that invests in youth and gives it opportunities to succeed. A victim of Red Bull's early identity uncertainty.

JN: It's often forgotten that only a gearbox failure while running ahead of Coulthard in Monaco in 2006 meant Klien missed out on scoring Red Bull's first F1 podium, and he generally bore the brunt of the team's reliability issues.

GF: Klien was given a fair crack at it by the time Red Bull decided to sign Webber, and was offered a paid-for Champ Car drive for after F1, so he couldn't have any complaints.

ES: Had ample opportunity in 2005-6, not to mention a full Red Bull-funded season with Jaguar in 2004, to show how good he was. Proved conclusively he was a solid grand prix driver, but no more than that.

7. Vitantonio Liuzzi loses his Toro Rosso seat

What happened: Having (briefly) alternated with Klien at Red Bull in 2005, Liuzzi was part of Toro Rosso's first line-up across 2006 and '07 before the team signed Bourdais for '08 instead

Harshness scale: 4.2

ES: Liuzzi was a qualified success in his outings with Toro Rosso and, briefly, the main team, but didn't do enough on or off track to convince the team of his potential. Raised his game when partnered with Vettel, but it was too late.

SM: Too many spins, not enough points. The Toro Rosso wasn't very good but Liuzzi was hardly stunning.

GF: Liuzzi had enough time, and by this point Vettel had arrived and completely moved the bar for Red Bull's juniors.

6. Sebastien Bourdais' mid-2009 Toro Rosso exit

What happened: A 29-year-old four-time Champ Car champion got an F1 break with Toro Rosso's 'youth team' but going up against Vettel was a tough arrival. Dropped for Jaime Alguersuari midway though 2009

Harshness scale: 4.7

VK: Bourdais at Toro Rosso was always a strange fit, and it was the right decision to shift back towards the team being about preparing younger drivers for a tilt at the top team. It's only the mid-season nature of the decision that makes it seem slightly harsh.

JN: Given Alguersuari was very underbaked, having only completed straightline testing, Bourdais' sacking cannot have been with the expectation that Alguersuari would outperform him but as an act of realism to give the Spaniard some mileage. Harsh.

ES: His performances over 18 months at Toro Rosso were frustrating given his prodigious ability, but the fact is he couldn't live with Vettel and then failed to lead the team once Sebastien Buemi arrived.

Matt Beer: His signing was leftfield to the point of probably being doomed from the outset. It seems weird to argue that a four-time Champ Car champion has had an underrated career of 'what ifs?' but you have to imagine he'd be regarded differently by history had he got a more predictable F1 chance or a top drive in a unified IndyCar Series when in his prime.

5. Sebastien Buemi losing his Toro Rosso seat

What happened: After three seasons with Toro Rosso, Buemi lost his race seat in its pre-2012 line-up refresh but remained in the Red Bull fold as a test, reserve and simulator driver

Harshness scale: 4.8

ES: Buemi did a good job over three years at Toro Rosso, it just wasn't good enough for Red Bull ever to see him as a serious option for Red Bull Racing. But he'd done enough to clearly get the nod over Alguersuari for the testing role.

SM: That he maintained a mega relationship with the company and carries out testing duties even now shows Red Bull clearly thought, and still thinks, highly of him - so it must not have been an entirely easy decision to replace him at Toro Rosso.

MB: Proof that Red Bull life needn't always be a doom-or-glory rollercoaster and can actually turn into a sensible professional motorsport career. He had a fair shot at F1 and his sportscar/FE success is well-earned.

4. Jamie Alguersuari losing his Toro Rosso seat

What happened: Bourdais' mid-2009 replacement spent until the end of 2011 at Toro Rosso before being shown the door when it went for the Ricciardo/Vergne combination

Harshness scale: 4.9

SM: Two full seasons in F1 after being parachuted in so young doesn't feel like the most representative of efforts. But his off-track attitude massively clashed with Red Bull so you can't blame them for having had enough.

ES: His high points were excellent, but he did not make enough progress on improving his low points and frustrated Red Bull with his attitude.

SC: He clearly had talent - as Edd points out, his peaks were outstanding. But you always got the impression that he didn't quite want it enough, almost that he'd been steered into racing against his will and that sometimes he'd rather be doing a DJ set on a beach somewhere. The fizzling of his career post-F1 gives credence to that theory.

GF: Two full seasons were enough time for him to show what he was made of to Red Bull. But perhaps he was a victim of how prolific the driver scheme was at the time, as there were plenty more waiting in the wings that Helmut Marko & co wanted to give a chance to.

JN: In today's environment when a driver doesn't have to prove they're the next Vettel to stay in the Red Bull F1 fold (see Kvyat's recall), Alguersuari may well have had a stay of execution.

3. Gasly's demotion to Toro Rosso

What happened: After half a season at Red Bull Racing in his second F1 campaign, Gasly will be back at Toro Rosso from the Belgian GP

Harshness scale: 5.1

Stephen Lickorish: While team-mate Max Verstappen was winning in Austria, Gasly was a lap down - despite being involved in no incidents. That tells you all you need to know about his level of performance.

MB: No one could claim that Gasly has had a good first half of 2019, but the abrupt switch from insisting his seat was safe to the end of the year to demoting him was jarringly harsh. There's talent and speed in there, and it's hard to see this move being the key to unlocking it.

VK: Red Bull shouldn't give up on him. But given how much his pace oscillated, and how much he struggled in traffic in particular relative to Verstappen, it can't be blamed for wanting to see how someone else would go in the car.

ES: Getting the push after just 12 races is harsh. But he didn't show the capacity to adapt and it does seem that his approach and his struggles to deal with the pressure mentally were decisive in Red Bull feeling it had to make a change.

2. Jean-Eric Vergne's Toro Rosso exit

What happened: After losing out on two Red Bull promotions to Toro Rosso team-mates Ricciardo and Kvyat, Vergne was jettisoned when STR had another complete reset for '15 with Sainz and Verstappen

Harshness scale: 5.5

VK: Red Bull was probably quite right to judge him second-best to Ricciardo and Kvyat in terms of F1 potential, but it cost itself a useful asset nonetheless - and a handy yardstick for youngsters - when it cut him loose.

ES: Many in Red Bull saw 'JEV' as having greater potential than Ricciardo, but what he couldn't do in his three seasons at Toro Rosso was eliminate the inconsistency of performances and achieve as productive a relationship with the team as he should have done. Subsequent Formula E performances have shown him now to be a far more rounded driver.

JN: Arguably merited the promotion to Red Bull more than Kvyat in terms of performance, but Marko's insistence on potential won through. Red Bull might be in a very different position now had it kept Vergne on board.

GF: Three seasons was a fair crack. Both he and Buemi were probably victims of this being an era when all Red Bull juniors were still judged against the Vettel benchmark. In Verstappen and Sainz, Red Bull had two drivers well worthy of a shot at Toro Rosso when Vergne was moved aside.

SM: He made a lot of progress at Toro Rosso, but didn't impress with his mental capacity and attitude. Vergne was unlucky to be overlooked for Vettel's vacant Red Bull seat in 2015, let alone dropped entirely. He has since become the calibre of driver that would have definitely earned that seat instead of Kvyat.

1. Kvyat's 2016 Red Bull to Toro Rosso demotion

What happened: After a year and a half at Red Bull Racing, Kvyat was returned to Toro Rosso in a swap for Verstappen ahead of the 2016 Spanish GP - which Verstappen won

Harshness scale: 5.8

VK: A completely senseless decision judged on its own merits and in isolation. But understandable - if brutal - when viewed as the collateral damage from Red Bull needing to ensure Verstappen's long-term stay.

GF: Kvyat's Red Bull stint wasn't as bad as it is often portrayed, and it shouldn't be remembered only for his clumsy crash into Vettel in his final race before demotion. If anything this switch said more about Verstappen than Kvyat. While it was clearly the right call, that doesn't make the nature of it any less harsh on Kvyat at the time.

SC: In effect Red Bull burned him in order to stop Verstappen going elsewhere, and you only have to look at Max's results since to see that this was the right decision, if a brutal one

SM: If any other driver had replaced Kvyat this would have been a harsh demotion. But he was crashing, looked rattled, and Red Bull had the chance to secure Verstappen's future with the team. It was a no-brainer, albeit one tinged with misfortune for Kvyat.

ES: Kvyat did a good job in his year-and-a-bit with Red Bull, so his relegation ahead of the 2016 Spanish GP was not about his own underperformance. Instead, it was a consequence of the irresistible rise of Verstappen.

Voting panel: Scott Mitchell, Glenn Freeman, Edd Straw, Charles Bradley, James Newbold, Stephen Lickorish, Valentin Khorounzhiy, Stuart Codling, Matt Beer

Outside F1

Many more drivers were shown the door by Red Bull long before they even reached F1 - though in some cases there were grey areas over the extent of their Red Bull patronage and how their deals came about.

Our writers nominate the junior racers they feel Red Bull should've made sure it kept on its books.

Lewis Williamson

Harshness scale: 9

Glenn Freeman: Williamson always seemed a slightly odd fit in the Red Bull junior scheme, only getting proper 'Junior Team' status in 2012 after the affiliation began in 2011.

To then be dropped after a handful of races in Formula Renault 3.5 with a brand new team that was suffering teething problems with the series' brand new car was incredibly harsh, even if replacement Antonio Felix da Costa's form was sublime over the rest of that season.

Williamson's career never recovered, and you wonder if he'd have been better off not being taken on by Red Bull at all.

Robert Wickens

Harshness scale: 9

James Newbold: Second - albeit a distant second to Andy Soucek - in MSV F2 in 2009, he then showed Red Bull was wrong to drop him by finishing second in GP3 and beating Vergne in FR3.5 in 2011.

Callum Ilott

Harshness scale: 8

Marcus Simmons: Ilott was thrown into something he wasn't ready for and actually did pretty well when Red Bull launched him straight into European Formula 3 from karting in 2015.

Antonio Felix da Costa

Harshness scale: 8

Jack Benyon: Da Costa is probably good enough for F1, but the move away from Red Bull probably proved to be at the right time for him as opportunities at Red Bull were dwindling. The parting of ways allowed him to forge his own, successful, career elsewhere.

Dan Ticktum

Harshness scale: 6

Marcus Simmons: Ticktum perhaps needed longer to adapt to Super Formula, but he was underperforming massively relative to team-mate Tomoki Nojiri.

Valentin Khorounzhiy on the others Red Bull relinquished

Stefan Wackerbauer joined the Red Bull fold in 2012 on the strength of his Formula BMW Talent Cup performances, and was on paper somewhat harshly cut loose after finishing 11th - one place behind Gasly and three ahead of Esteban Ocon - in the ultra-competitive Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0.

Beitske Visser was added after a very strong first season in Germany's entry-level ADAC Formel Masters series, but didn't really kick on in her sophomore campaign and was let go.

Red Bull's decision to stop backing arguably the most promising female driver around was both deeply frustrating, and yet also egalitarian since it was very much in line with the programme's other decisions regarding her male counterparts.

See for instance Callan O'Keeffe, who had a difficult rookie season as Visser's team-mate and was let go despite a strong track record in karting, and Tom Blomqvist, judged on a middling F3 campaign with the seemingly declining EuroInternational team.

Alex Lynn left after winning the GP3 title in his single season as an RBJT driver but in the programme's defence it seemed more of a mutual decision, given he sought F1 opportunities for which Red Bull already had others lined up.

Dean Stoneman and Ilott were two other British one-season RBJT wonders, Stoneman managing a reasonable but unspectacular 2015 campaign in FR3.5.

Red Bull opted for a programme refresh of sorts in 2016, but its induction choices seemed increasingly scattershot and none of those added in the immediate aftermath lasted more than a couple of seasons.

Niko Kari and Richard Verschoor were two F4 champions that didn't quite deliver at the next level, while Luis Leeds was an 'impulse purchase' on the basis of a win in an F4 support race at the Mexican Grand Prix, and wasn't retained despite finishing a fairly respectable third in British F4 in his first full season in Europe.

A couple of podiums in his first Euro F3 season had earned current McLaren development driver Sergio Sette Camara an RBJT shot, but his sophomore campaign wasn't a big enough step. Neither was Neil Verhagen's second campaign in two-litre Formula Renault, the American having been a leftfield addition after winning the F1600 series in 2016.