Button questions 'weird' Red Bull F1 approach

Jenson Button has questioned what he sees as Red Bull's "weird" approach to mid-driver swaps across its two F1 teams. 

Since it joined the F1 grid in 2005, and then took ownership of what is currently RB as Toro Rosso in 2006, Red Bull has changed driver line-ups across its two teams 11 times, with the most recent case being Daniel Ricciardo's axing for Liam Lawson at RB. 

In pure performance terms and not counting injury or illness, the likes of McLaren and Mercedes have not made a single in-season driver swap, with Ferrari's last coming in 2009 when original stand-in Luca Badoer was dropped for Giancarlo Fisichella.

The rate at which Red Bull turns over its drivers is something 2009 world champion Button has admitted leaves him "uncomfortable."

"It’s a funny one, because there’s only one team really that brings in drivers mid-season, takes drivers out of the seat mid-season, or three races in, six races in, and that team is Red Bull and [RB]," Button told the Sky Sports F1 podcast.

"It is unusual, and I’ve never seen that in my career, unless someone’s been putting it in the wall every race and it’s like: 'You know what? We can’t afford to have you in the car.'

"So it’s a weird one. I’ve never felt comfortable with that, always I feel that a driver deserves a season to really show what he can do, because that’s what it is, right? 

"It’s a championship, and it’s how many points you can score through that season, not just halfway through – but they’ve always done it a different way."

Red Bull's merry-go-round

As the table below shows, even from its very first season in F1, Red Bull was not afraid to ring the changes, dropping Christian Klien for races in both 2005 and 2006. 

After the appointment of Sebastian Vettel to Toro Rosso in mid-2007, things settled down with only one further in-season change, in 2009, before the Danill Kvyat-Max Verstappen swap in early 2016.

Since then, there have been multiple changes as Red Bull looks to try and find a settled driver line-up at its two teams, often with little success...