Did Liam Lawson lose out on his chance at Red Bull Racing in just two races?
According tomultiple reports, Yuki Tsunoda will replace Lawson as Red Bull’s second driver at the Japanese Grand Prix. Lawson will swap spots with Tsunoda and move back to the Racing Bulls team alongside Isack Hadjar while Tsunoda teams with four-time world champion Max Verstappen.
It’s an abrupt switch for Red Bull after Lawson had a horribly disappointing start to his first full Formula 1 season. Lawson failed to get out of the first qualifying session and crashed out of the Australian Grand Prix and qualified last for both the sprint race and Grand Prix in China before finishing 15th.
Verstappen finished second in Australia and was fourth in China.
Lawson was tapped to replace Sergio Perez at Red Bull following Perez’s poor 2024 season. Verstappen has long hailed Perez as a teammate, but as Verstappen won his fourth straight championship, Perez routinely struggled in qualifying. That put him on the back foot during races, and Red Bull finished third in the constructor’s standings behind McLaren and Ferrari.
Tsunoda will be the sixth different teammate Verstappen has had since Verstappen moved to Red Bull in 2016. When Verstappen was promoted to the senior team to replace Daniil Kvyat, he teamed with Daniel Ricciardo. After Ricciardo left following the 2018 season, the team tried Pierre Gasly and Alex Albon before Perez joined.
Red Bull’s impatience with its drivers is well-known at this point. It was somewhat of a shock that Perez lasted as long as he did as Verstappen’s teammate. For much of the 2024 season, rumors swirled about his future with the team.
But that impatience is emboldened by the stranglehold the team has on the F1 grid. Red Bull is the only organization that controls two teams and four of the 20 seats in F1. Every other organization has direct control over just two seats.
Red Bull’s ability to have a junior team in the field has long been a source of consternation for many competitors. In Singapore a year ago, RB sent out Ricciardo for the fastest lap at the end of what would be his final race with the team before Lawson replaced him. Though it was a nice tribute to the longtime Red Bull driver, it also denied McLaren a chance at the fastest lap point in what was then a tight fight for the constructor’s title.
But it’s clear that Red Bull is being enabled more and more by its ability to control four seats. In 2016, Verstappen replaced Kvyat four races into the season and famously won in his first race for the senior team. Lawson may be only wishing that Red Bull had that type of patience.
No other team in F1 would even consider a driver swap so early in the season simply because they’re hindered by the logistics of a move. Red Bull is the only organization of the grid that can easily make a move like this.
And there’s no guarantee the move will pay off, either. It’s clear that the Red Bull car isn’t nearly as dominant as it was in 2022 and 2023 when Verstappen was nearly unbeatable. And does the team tailors things in its cars to Verstappen’s unique driving style and force his teammates to adapt?
Verstappen is one of the greatest drivers in F1 history. But the performance of his teammates in ostensibly equal cars makes it clear there’s a variable or three that they are dealing with. Gasly and Albon are no slouches. They’re capable of scoring points in their mid-pack cars every week. Yet they lagged significantly behind Verstappen in their time at Red Bull.
That’s why this promotion is a double-edged sword for Tsunoda. There’s case to be made the fifth-year driver should have been the driver promoted to Red Bull Racing instead of Lawson in the first place. But there’s also nowhere close to a guarantee of success at Red Bull either. Just ask the drivers who preceded him.
