Liam Lawson is looking forward to driving at a track he knows after two poor weekends on unfamiliar circuits.
However rumours are growing that Red Bull could drop him from their top team before the next round at Suzuka in Japan.Lawson failed to score points in either of this weekend’s races at Shanghai International Circuit. He crashed out of the season-opening race at Melbourne, which also took place on a track he had never previously raced at.
Speaking after today’s race, Lawson said he was eager to get more time in the car in order to work on the problems he’s had. “I’d love to say ‘I just need more time driving the car’, but obviously we don’t really have that,” he told the official F1 channel.
“So fortunately we go to a track that I know, and it’s a track that I like. But I’ll be spending this week very heavily going into absolutely everything to try and obviously do a better job.”
Suzuka, the next venue on the calendar, is the only venue out of the first 14 rounds on the 2025 F1 calendar where Lawson has previously started a grand prix. He also knows the track well from his stint in Japan’s Super Formula series two years ago and took pole position on his last visit.
Lawson started today’s race from the pit lane in order to evaluate set-up changes to his car. However he found the RB21’s performance was worse for him than it had been the day before.
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“To be honest we were even more competitive in yesterday’s sprint,” he said. “We were able to overtake cars and move forward.
“There’s a lot to learn from this weekend, a lot for me personally to get on top of as well. It’s just been extremely tough.”
Before the season began, Lawson predicted he would have a “very, very tough” start due to his lack of experience on many of the first tracks F1 is visiting this year. After Suzuka, he knows several tracks from Formula 2, but Miami and Montreal are also venues Lawson hasn’t driven at before.
Red Bull motorsport consultant Helmut Marko said Lawson’s performance was “not what we expected.”
“We’ll analyse it carefully,” he told Sky on Saturday. “We have a few who are coming up and thankfully we’re well positioned.”
If Lawson does lose his Red Bull seat, the team is expected to promote Yuki Tsunoda, who they passed over for the drive when they sought a replacement for Sergio Perez at the end of last season.
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DaveW (@dmw)
23rd March 2025, 17:42
I think the car is pretty poor. It was flattered today by Verstappen having long experience with its limitations as Ferrari making a disastrous set up change over night. Also Mercedes having a rookie in the second car still getting his feet. The upside for Tsunoda is he can’t qualify worse. If he’s half a second off Verstappen it’s a massive victory for him.
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
23rd March 2025, 19:16
The car is pretty good. The problem is it’s built around 1 person, and that person has a knowledge or understanding of that car that his teammates do not.
This kind of thing happens a lot in competitive spaces, where ‘tribal knowledge’ is used to keep people from advancing or competing with more veteran employees/actors.
There is also the ‘bit’ where people say he has it set up so far up front, that people have too hard a time understranding the real limit of the rear. The thing is, those guys might not have all the information either, or not be perceiving the right information in time to adjust properly,
At any rate, Honda did the same thing in Moto2 and MotoGP w/ the Suter chassis and it’s own RCV, they turned their bike in to something that only one person understood, And this gives that person far too much power with in the organization, and is a big time failure of the leadership at Red Bull. This was not a problem during the Vettel days, this is the product of how some people approach competition with in their own team, and Red Bull have done this to themselves.
Cliff
24th March 2025, 6:02
The car wasn’t built by Honda. Car was built by the Red Bull team.
S Arkazam
24th March 2025, 8:36
You can develop a car more towards the liking of one driver; it might not suit the preferred driving style of the other.
But the set-up remains 100% the responsibility of each single driver and his engineer.
Jane (@janedone)
24th March 2025, 10:17
The setup is congruent to the way the car is developed.
PeteB (@peteb)
23rd March 2025, 17:43
I can absolutely guarantee that if they swap Yuki and Lawson over, Lawson will suddenly look like a decent driver and Yuki will look like someone who won a competition to have a go in an F1 car.
Max is a few tenths faster in the Red Bull than he would be in any other car but you have to drive the car like Max does. Anyone else would be faster in the sister team than they would in the 2nd Red Bull car.
debaser91
23rd March 2025, 17:50
I’m not sure that’s true any more.
It was, but you put Max in the McLaren, Mercedes, or the Ferrari right now and he would be going faster. Just because he can drive the Red Bull fast doesn’t mean he wouldn’t want a more user friendly car.
Edvaldo
23rd March 2025, 18:13
He would be competitive but he would not crush the teammate the way he does.
Just like Vettel was nearly invincible with blown diffuser Newey-designed cars, Mark Webber could not drive nearly as well.
Then the regulations changed and he never did anything like that again. And it’s not because he lacked a dominant car, Max has been destroying his teammates since before finally driving a WDC-level car in 2021.
anon
23rd March 2025, 19:01
Edvaldo, but we also have had both Marko and Horner repeatedly confirm that they run a tiered driver system, with their second driver not getting the same level of support that Verstappen does.
We know from former team mates of Verstappen, public statements from the team itself and from the FIA’s homologation forms that there have been times when their second driver was given older specification parts.
We also know that at least two of his former team mates (Gasly and Perez) have said that their feedback was often ignored by the team, and it was only when Verstappen made similar complaints to Perez about the performance of their 2024 car that they began to listen to Perez as well.
We’ve had Marko, similarly, confirm in the past that Red Bull concentrate their more experienced staff on Verstappen’s side of the garage – Ricciardo cited the fact that Red Bull wanted to move some of his engineers over to Verstappen’s team and replace them with inexperienced staff as part of the reason why he left.
S Arkazam
24th March 2025, 8:46
So you are saying Red Bull is doing exactly the same as most other teams most of the time (when they have an obvious performance differences between their drivers).
And even when they have very similarly skilled drivers some teams opt for team orders early in the season (see Melbourne and China).
Nothing to see here, other than commenters with engrained preferences and opinions. ;)
stefano (@alfa145)
23rd March 2025, 23:26
Mark Webber used to get 4th place regularly, when Vettel was winning everything
Rhys Lloyd (@justrhysism)
24th March 2025, 0:13
Yeah Webber could never figure out the blown diffuser. In more “normal” cars Webber was often faster than Vettel.
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
23rd March 2025, 20:30
I don’t think he’d make the Ferrari go faster because he’d fall out with too many people on the way to trying to make it go faster.
erikje (@erikje)
23rd March 2025, 18:03
That’s my take too Pete. I’d argue if you put almost anyone else in the second RedBull they’d be well off the pace Max can get out of the car.
The reverse of that is I believe if you drop Max into a Ferrari, Mercedes or McLaren he wouldn’t be dominant at all.
It’s no disrespect to Max. He’s developed the car to suit his style and can drive how he wants and how he wants just happens to be extremely fast.
The issue for RedBull is they’ve put all their eggs in one basket. If Verstappen moves teams or retires then they’d look like a back marker team right now. With Perez and Lawson they’d likely both be out in Q1.
It’s the package of Max and RedBull which is so impressive. Split that package up and I believe both parties look much more average.
Patrick (@paeschli)
23rd March 2025, 20:38
While I believe this is true, I also think they should do it. Yuki has more experience and might catch the mystery that is the Red Bull sooner than Lawson.
BasCB (@bascb)
24th March 2025, 8:00
Yeah. And IF they really see the potential in Lawson, it would be a shame to drown him right now (better to give him the chance to grow at the baby team for the future) while Tsunoda would probably be dumped at the end of the year anyway, so he can only positively surprise them by actually doing decently in the seat next to Max.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
23rd March 2025, 20:52
I think this makes a lot of sense, it seems to happen every time that driver A is doing fine at TR, gets promoted to red bull, disaster, gets demoted to TR, back to doing fine.
Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
23rd March 2025, 21:56
Palmer also said that tsunoda would likely suddenly look and perform a whole lot worse than he is now if he goes to Red Bull. I think they should have gone with a 2nd attempt of getting a very experienced driver like Perez and just hoped that this time they would be decent. Which perez was at first.
SteveP
24th March 2025, 10:24
You’re fishing in a small pool to start with, limit things by insisting “you are number 2 only, and accept Max as clear number 1” and I think that shrinks to a puddle and only very small fry can survive even for a limited time.
Edvaldo
23rd March 2025, 17:54
Not knowing the tracks shouldn’t be an excuse for starting last with one of the fastest cars. Bortoleto also never raced in China and was faster than him with the slowest car in the grid.
And it also illustrates how absurd was this option Red Bull made on him. What did they expect? The car is tricky, his teammate is extremely strong, that seat has been burning drivers for years and they decide to put the rookie in there?
It’s hard to believe they were this careless.
David BR (@david-br)
23rd March 2025, 18:24
There’s your answer, they don’t care. A second car and driver is just an obligation they have to fill, apparently. Difficult to read this endless calamity in any other way.
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
23rd March 2025, 20:31
@david-br In which case, there shouldn’t be masses of pressure from within the team to do better – it should be perfectly aware of the real reason for that seat being the way it is and being gently supportive of whoever happens to hold it.
stefano (@alfa145)
23rd March 2025, 23:28
There’s a difference between getting small points or close to them and fighting not to finish last, though
S Arkazam
23rd March 2025, 17:58
How good would it be if he can race it in a car he knows (i.e the RB) ;)
Nulla Pax (@nullapax)
23rd March 2025, 18:03
Well … I have been moaning, whining, and begging about this for at least the past year, so really I should be happy if Yuki gets a shot in the second car in actual races.
Truth is though – I’m a bit scared now that it might really happen.
Come on Yuki boy … a lot of us believe you can do it :)
Laz
23rd March 2025, 18:09
Yeah I was warning Lawson fans to be careful what they wish for, now Yuki might get the seat and I am every bit as wary. A chain of drivers Gasly, Albon, Perez, now Lawson, have all struggled in that seat, I struggle to see why it would change with Yuki stepping in. I absolutely want him to succeed, it would make his career and I would love for him to be Japans first race winner. Hard to see it happening at the moment though.
Patrick (@paeschli)
23rd March 2025, 20:40
With how well Albon has been against Sainz this year, it only makes it that much more obvious that the second RB car is cursed.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
23rd March 2025, 18:14
“When the gods wish to punish us, they answer our prayers…”
Riccard
23rd March 2025, 18:13
Personally I think they should keep Lawson for at least Japan – just to answer the question of ‘what if he knew the track’. There are enough weekends in a year that they can afford to switch after 3 rather than 2 if he continues to perform at his current level.
I’ve been a consistent supporter of Tsunoda, and if there’s another weekend literally right at the back without other improvements, it would make sense to switch (and tell them a lot more about the level of all four of their drivers)… but there is a decent chance we see more of Lawson next time out, and that possibility is worth exploring. Red Bull don’t want to burn a driver, and the best scenario for them is for Lawson to come good.
If they do put Lawson down, the next question is what kind of future they see for him. If they rule out him ever being good enough for the first team, is it worth keeping him in Racing Bulls? You could see a scenario where they poach another team’s reserve.
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
23rd March 2025, 20:33
Riccard, Alpine has spares, if any of them would like a short F1 career instead of potentially none at all…
Patrick (@paeschli)
23rd March 2025, 20:41
Tsunoda will also likely perform better at home in the RB than in that cursed Red Bull.
Cliff
24th March 2025, 6:17
Yes, I agreed. If he failed to score the point or failed qualifying again and then Yuki should be promoted to the Red Bull. It is up to Horner. Horner made wrong decision last year to keep Perez and extended his contracts to two years. That cost the team Constructor Championship and paid $75 millions to terminate Perez’s contracts. I don’t know why Horner does not want to promote Yuki to the Red Bull.
David BR (@david-br)
23rd March 2025, 18:22
Red Bull should have done everything to sign Sainz – available early last year! But no. They thought the best thing to do was to continue with the strategy of churning through Max-unthreatening drivers and/or so-so rookies that has so admirably failed them since Ricciardo left. Why not send out a Red Bull clown car as the number two, distributing free fizzy drunks and junk brand messaging if they’re not going to take the number two car’s occupant seriously? I’m sure Liberty would give the OK. I mean, they OKed Vegas.
S Arkazam
23rd March 2025, 18:31
Maybe they’ll sign him when he starts outracing Albon ;)
David BR (@david-br)
23rd March 2025, 18:39
Which he probably will eventually. I think Sainz is smart, experienced and fast enough to deal with the kind of ‘difficult’ environment at Red Bull, but nobody is going to join the team matching Verstappen from the start. They need resilience. Performance isn’t the only issues, temperamentally Lawson already seems defeated – it didn’t help that he was excusing himself from a good performance in these races before the season started. I guess he’ll have a few more races to turn it around – if they drop him now, worse still for Red Bull. They’ll just intensity the pressure on future drivers even more.
They could have signed a Piastri or Russell at one time, but now the car is flailing and the new regulations and engines are due, Red Bull no longer seems the dream team to join. Even more so with rumours of Verstappen leaving soon.
MurasamaRA300 (@murasamara300)
24th March 2025, 13:34
Sainz might not be overly interested in playing second fiddle.
Admittedly his first two races with Williams weren’t all that great, but Williams at least appear to be on an upward trend, and there may be other opportunities opening up for CS in the future. Red Bull appear to be going backwards (and they’ve also lost Newey).
I’m starting to wonder if the situation with the second car has something to do with the engineering/tech team for car no 2.
A string of drivers have been shown the door, some after very short periods.
But Gasly and Albon are doing well in other cars. So they weren’t that slow.
Red Bull management still seems to think that “sacking drivers early” is the solution.
But what if the driver is not the core problem…?
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
23rd March 2025, 20:34
@david-br I don’t think that would have helped – the real issue is Red Bull’s attitude to the seat, rather than the identity of who occupies it.
Francesco (@schivo69)
23rd March 2025, 22:03
AMEN
t1redmonkey (@t1redmonkey)
23rd March 2025, 18:33
Seems a bit of a joke to get rid of someone after two races (regardless of who the driver is), especially when they have someone like Max as their teammate. I’m all for firing someone who’s underperforming for maybe half a season or so, but two races isn’t enough, and I think that would say more about the people who made the decision to put LL in that car than it would about LL himself. They have so much data on drivers these days before they stick them in a race seat (RBR even more so considering they have a junior team), they should have confidence that a driver is more or less up to the task before their first race for a team.
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
23rd March 2025, 20:34
@t1redmonkey The only exception would be someone in danger of having their superlicence revoked, which Liam clearly does not have to worry could happen to him.
Patrick (@paeschli)
23rd March 2025, 20:43
Scoring points in a Red Bull should not be that hard of thing to achieve. Lawson has at least the fourth fastest car, he does not have an excuse finishing lower than 8th.
AndrewT (@andrewt)
23rd March 2025, 18:49
I think if you sign a driver for a full season, or for multiple seasons, it’s not the second weekend the parties should evaluate the situation and decide if they should continue together or split, regardless of how problematic the situation looks.
Only because of the recent influx of talented youngsters made rookies look like an obvious choice for any team, Red Bull just couldn’t have expected Lawson with his 11 GPs scattered across two seasons to be up to Verstappen’s speed at once (but I guess they didn’t expect him to run on the tail end either.)
Anyway, Lawson is the same driver Red Bull committed to and trusted only a couple of months ago, and if Perez was allowed to overstay his welcome for at least a year, Lawson should be granted much more time than this and deserves every mean the team could offer to support him. A split would would be unfair towards him, and unfair towards anyone replacing him without the (not so long) winter test to familiarize with the team and the car.
David BR (@david-br)
23rd March 2025, 19:26
Two facts Red Bull seem to have ignored. 1. The current grid of drivers is extremely strong and, presuming Antonelli’s potential, their main rivals all have outstanding pairings. But other teams have talented and experienced drivers aplenty. 2. The cars are extremely are close. So basically any talent/experience/confidence short fall will be experienced sharply. Even as far as dropping to the bottom of the grid and more or less staying there.
Dismissing Pérez seemed to recognise that reality. Signing Lawson didn’t. That’s why it seemed such a bizarre choice.
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
23rd March 2025, 20:36
@david-br Signing Lawson recognised that Yuki won’t get the seat and Hadjar is even less preparared for the seat (plus there cannot be danger of Verstappen being challenged, which obliges some margin to exist even when the two drivers are closest…)
David BR (@david-br)
23rd March 2025, 21:59
@alianora-la-canta It’s an endless vicious circle. My point is that the kind of gap they seem to want between Max and whoever is in number two inevitably means that the incumbent is a long way down the grid. For the second RB driver to be competing closer to Max Verstappen during races (in the top 6-8 say) they’d need someone who could potentially beat him, which they don’t want. The talent is too high and the differences between cars now too small for the Red Bull ‘goldilocks’ driver to exist. So on that basis, they should be happy with a Pérez or similar and support them. Yet as you pointed out above, they’re not and they don’t. Instead they’re back to churning through drivers who are doomed to fail from the start. Tsunoda won’t make a difference, nor Hadjar. They’d need another A-level driver to actually do the job. And that seems ruled out.
Erk
24th March 2025, 9:56
Every other supposed a grade driver has look like a rookie these last 2 races. Why discredit Yuki?
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
23rd March 2025, 19:35
That alone is proof Horner and Marko live another reality. How can a driver with so little experience be thrown into a difficult car in the worst environment ever and perform?
Adam (@rocketpanda)
23rd March 2025, 19:50
I really don’t think Red Bull have anything to lose by putting Tsunoda in there. If he fails similarly to Lawson nothing ventured nothing gained, but if he at least can get it into the lower end of the top 10 that’s got to be a positive. Currently Lawson cannot do that, can’t get out of Q1 let alone score points. That’s unacceptable for Red Bull when their car isn’t strong and their competitors have lineups that are reliably scoring with both cars. If Tsunoda fails, you’ve given Lawson a year in a low pressure to prepare for 2026. If Tsunoda succeeds, you’ve got points. Win-win. Currently nothing and nobody is helped by Lawson spiralling under the pressure.
Jane (@janedone)
24th March 2025, 10:21
Tsunoda have everything to lose by taking the second Red Bull seat, although he said wants it.
Deerhunter
23rd March 2025, 20:18
Even if you believe that Lawson isn’t up to snuff for that second Red Bull seat, the fact that his level of performance couldn’t even come close to what he’s shown last year in the Toro Rosso is enough indication that something is seriously wrong with Red Bull.
Either the team is hanging him out to dry, or they are so totally clueless about the car that they don’t even have the slightest idea how to get Lawson to at least try and unlock some of the car’s potential
Patrick (@paeschli)
23rd March 2025, 20:47
It’s clear that that Red Bull is suited to Max Verstappen only and no other driver on planet earth can master it. It’s kind of like Marc Marquez towards the end of his Honda career: a bike that only one rider can wring somewhat decent performances out of.
It’s crazy to think that with a Lawson/Perez lineup Red Bull would be fighting Alpine and Sauber.
Ankita
24th March 2025, 5:34
Interesting proposition. But RBR would not be fighting Alpina and Sauber. I don’t know where they would be but I don’t rule out that they’d be where they are now with VER. The approach the team would make is totally different, focused on both drivers’ needs. Remember what happened every year with PER. He started the season well and then, as the car was “developed”, he lost performance. So, the car evolved not according to his needs but to those of VER.
SteveP
24th March 2025, 10:45
Well, the guy that designed the basic car they have been “developing” left for another team.
Before he left, he told them their development direction was a dead end.
I guess we all get to watch things play out and discover whether he was right.
Franky
23rd March 2025, 22:28
Red Bull is deceiving even minimum sportmanship. Are we now more significant the ones who think that the problem might not be just the N. 2 driver but the team focus? This RB team is focused, now even more, at least 75% on their no. 1 driver, not being a bad idea, but their no. 2 driver does not stand a chance at all. N. 2 driver is just being a test mule, moving chicane, subservient driver for the team.
For me it is crystal clear, it is strategy. I mean not to be that low in results, but to use the second driver to test alternate setups, strategies, to feed data to Max’s engineers, etc, not mentioning instructions and strategies to directly slow down competitors. This has been very straight forward since they abandoned the real intra team competition when Riccardo left and Max became number 1 with Jos bossing around the padoc. After that everything has been Max focused. A few moments here and there but definitely a slap on the face whenever someone dared to be competitive with Max. And since the decline of competitiveness with the departure of Newey it just got worse.
And all this theatre of giving him the same tools as Max is just for the naive fans and media. In the end they just crunch drivers as potato chips making they dream of winning. The only one who did get some shine was destroyed after with subservient strategies and a spare parts car, making him sign an extension with the illusion that there would be a fair opportunity just to deny him the chance to get a seat somewhere else. No wonder why Sainz didn’t even consider getting there, did he have a chat in Spanish with Perez?
Gasly, Albon, Perez, Lawson …. Tsunoda, Hadjar and anyone on this list has the skills to drive competitively an F1 car. Never at Max level but at least to be a regular top 10-to-top-3. The problem is that they are trying to make fans and media think that it is a “normal” team. It is multiple times worse than Aston Martin. As another fellow fan wrote, they make look pay drivers better.
My theory is as good as anybody else’s.
Francesco (@schivo69)
24th March 2025, 14:03
I agree with your opinion, everything seems to point towards the team, not the driver.
This Max-centric management style was working for them as long as Max was winning, but now this is costing them money.
MurasamaRA300 (@murasamara300)
24th March 2025, 14:15
I think you’re spot on.
An Sionnach
23rd March 2025, 23:23
Important note in case everyone has forgotten it in the clamour to destabilise Red Bull: Lawson was left out on slicks in Australia. Horner admitted it was a gamble. I don’t think his retirement in Australia should be used in evidence against him because of this.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
23rd March 2025, 23:26
That’s true, I didn’t forget: there were 2 drivers that crashed at that stage, bortoleto was on the intermediate tyres, so he doesn’t have that excuse; lawson does.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
23rd March 2025, 23:27
A thing that surprises me about this article is that it says he could be out by next race in the headline, but in the article I don’t find any quote or anything hinting he could be replaced so soon, and it’d surprise me too, as it seems early even for red bull’s standards.
David BR (@david-br)
24th March 2025, 1:11
@esploratore1 It’s based on unspecified rumours and maybe Marko in interview not discounting the possibility of Lawson being replaced by the next race. Question is, if they do sack Lawson after two races, who would want the job? As a career with prospects goes, it’s up there with ‘Bad News Advisor to Darth Vader.’
ferrox glideh (@ferrox-glideh)
25th March 2025, 14:18
(heavy breathing noises) “I find your lack of faith disturbing.” :)
MichaelN
24th March 2025, 8:57
Lawson has done very badly, but let’s not skip the part where he was promoted and let’s not forget who made that call. Why does Red Bull not have an Antonelli? Why is there no Piastri? Why didn’t they bring in Sainz? These all point to failures at the top of the organisation.
Lawson shouldn’t be in that Red Bull based on what he has shown so far. But a driver in his position career-wise was always going to say yes ti the opportunity.
Jim from US (@jimfromus)
24th March 2025, 11:04
The thing I find interesting about this article is that replacing your rookie driver after 2 races is insane yet it is within the realm of possibilities with Redbull based on the last few years.
Wer
24th March 2025, 11:33
Lawson did better last year in an RB. RedBull are doing something fundamentally wrong about how they mold their car around the specificity of one driver.
They should start coming with some sensible and logical conclusions after several years of Perez being unable to compete in their car.
nunof
24th March 2025, 11:33
I guess it’s a great opportunity to put Yuki on a RBR car on his home race to hide how poorly RBR is managed and how abusive they are to their drivers