Red Bull warned of "big trouble": '10th fastest team'

The Dutchman has carried on his form from last year to largely outperform his machinery, finishing second in the Australian Grand Prix and Chinese sprint before picking up fourth in the main race at the Shanghai International Circuit.

But Liam Lawson is set to be dropped by Red Bull having failed to score a point - the New Zealander expected to be replaced by Yuki Tsunoda for the Japanese Grand Prix having qualified last for both the sprint and grand prix in China.

Speaking on the Sky Sports F1 Show, Collins suggested Red Bull was in a dangerous position.

"I think they are in big trouble," said Collins.

"I think that they should have looked at the younger talent and said who has the most forward aero balance - that's what we believe the characteristic of that car is. It's very on the nose, we would call it. Very different to the RB characteristics. So they should have looked at who is driving closest to that spectrum as they are the ones who are going to succeed the most.

"They should have put all of them in an old Red Bull for a day and said 'who can get the best laptime out of this car' because the RB is fundamentally different."

Trouble in the ranks?

"If Max leaves or doesn't show up at a race, they are currently the 10th fastest team." Collins added. "I was criticised last year for saying when Checo was there that if Max didn't turn up for a race, they were the fourth fastest team but at the minute they're 10th fastest.

"Your championship position is based on both cars - the constructors' - that's how your employees are paid their bonuses. It will start to become very detrimental to that team that people are starting to look at being fourth or fifth or wherever they end up in the constructors' if they can't get that second seat working.

"Max's championship's really important to Max and maybe Christian and maybe others in the leadership team at Red Bull, but not so much to the people on the ground because the people on the ground because the people on the ground are paid by a different metric."

This article was written in collaboration with Cas van de Kleut.