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Red Bull goes into the Qatar Grand Prix weekend on the brink of dropping out of 2024 Formula 1 constructors' championship title contention and not entirely certain who its second driver will be in 2025.
Those interlinked situations are uneasy ones for the future hopes of the team that's just won a drivers' title with Max Verstappen.
With Red Bull 53 points off constructors' championship leader McLaren but Sergio Perez's 2024 tally so far 251 points away from Verstappen's, it’s not hard to see why there’s a debate over whether Perez should make way for Liam Lawson, Yuki Tsunoda or even Franco Colapinto in 2025.
It's been a very different story at McLaren this year, where the driver question mark has been all about team orders as Oscar Piastri has proved more than capable of beating the team's title hope Lando Norris.
But asked in Qatar if he thought Verstappen's drivers' title bid had been made easier by the lack of intra-team opposition, Norris began with a firm "no" and came up with far more downsides than upsides for Verstappen to Perez's poor season.
"He has to do all of his work on his own," said Norris of Verstappen.
"Hats off to him, he doesn't have someone who is pushing him, doesn't have someone who is trying other things with the car.
"You can't do A/B tests and things like that because data isn't as valuable when you don't have someone who is performing at the same level.
"A lot of things that Max can do are phenomenal, driving at the level he does consistently without a team-mate that can push him in any way.
"It certainly makes his life harder from that perspective, also from a team perspective.
"But at the same time, no pressure, he doesn't have to deal with trying to beat anyone in his own team. That comes with some comfort.
"But they go together. In some ways I like having a bit of pressure, because it makes me do a slightly better job.
"I'm sure he's going to say he doesn't care whoever his team-mate is, he's not going to mind. But I hope he has someone who can challenge him a bit more."
It was a typical Norris response in which he explored the question properly while also trying to avoid saying anything that might be pounced on for a quick headline.
That was even more obvious later in his media session when he said it was "clear and obvious" that "Red Bull probably would have won the constructors' if they had two drivers as good as Max" and it showed "as a team they've probably still done the best job" but also felt compelled to sign off with "it’s nothing to do with me, I don't care, he can have whoever he wants as a team-mate".
Asked how much he'd been able to discuss Red Bull's 2024 problems with Perez despite the performance gap between them, Verstappen implied that there had at least been plenty of congruence in their feedback even though Perez - who last finished on the podium in April - was struggling with the car so much more.
"We're always speaking and trying to improve the car," Verstappen said.
"I also did not enjoy the car for most of the season in terms of handling.
"You have to deal with that, try to overcome the difficulties, discuss with the engineers how we can improve the situation. That's what we have done and the car has been a lot more driveable lately.
"But we're still lacking a bit of performance to win races. It's been a difficult season for both of us in terms of driving the car in some places."
