Red Bull Set for Driver Lineup Change Ahead of Japanese Grand Prix
Visa Cash App Racing Bulls’ Yuki Tsunoda was recently confirmed by ESPNF1 to replace Liam Lawson at Oracle Red Bull Racing ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix. This year’s Japanese GP is also the first race of the first triple-header of the Formula 1 season. The swap comes after days of speculation following Lawson’s subpar performance at both the Australian and Chinese Grand Prix and rumors of an unstable work environment at Red Bull. It seems the Austrian team is looking for the quickest way to improve their worst season-opening since 2020.
Lawson’s drive in the second Oracle Red Bull Racing seat was confirmed last December following Sergio Perez’s disastrous final year with the team and in Formula 1. Since then, Red Bull Racing Team Principal Christian Horner has defended the Kiwi driver, saying, “[Lawson] will be able to face the internal challenge with Verstappen.” However, the results of the season’s first races say otherwise. Whereas reigning champion Max Verstappen has qualified third and fourth and ended the races in second and fourth, Lawson has yet to make it out of Q1 in qualifying and has not scored points. This is a stark difference from the Lawson fans saw in the VCARB last year after replacing Daniel Ricciardo, putting up several points performances and showing promising pace.
It also seems like Red Bull is internally divided on the matter, and their star student has discreetly become an opponent to the swap. De Telegraaf, a mainstream Dutch news source, has claimed that Verstappen disagrees with the team’s decision to intervene so early in the season, and the decision could hurt the careers of both drivers. Verstappen has not officially commented on these claims, but the Milton Keynes-based team seems to have major issues with where the power lies in the decision-making of driver careers. Helmut Marko, the team’s advisor, also seems to have switched his tune. Once an ardent Lawson defender, he now believes that Tsunoda has made a “quantum leap” in terms of his performance.
In the end, though, it is up to Tsunoda to perform in the next few races. This is now Tsunoda’s fifth season with the Red Bull junior team, and many believe that he was snubbed for the Oracle Red Bull Racing seat after Perez’s departure. His driving style has been compared to a young Verstappen, bold and aggressive, but his management of the RB21 is yet to be discovered. With his principal sponsor, Honda, ending their partnership with Red Bull at the end of 2025, this is Tsunoda’s last chance to prove himself in the world of Formula 1.
