There is no denying that Liam Lawson’s start in the 2025 Formula One season was nothing but a disaster. In the team’s two-year history in Formula 1, no driver has endured such a disastrous time at the start of his stint with Red Bull.
Red Bull panicked at Lawson’s lack of results in two races, considering swapping for Yuu Zonodas for the next round in Japan.
Serious concern about Lawson’s early form in 2025 can allow Red Bull’s top brass, but the unconventional two-race weekend (the Wet Weather-influenced round and the sprint) is also dramatic for the organization as tough as the energy drink giants.
Don’t get it wrong, Red Bull drivers should not be too slow. This is certainly a new low for Red Bull’s “cursed” second seat.
But after a driver who experienced Sergio Perez as if he had fallen completely off the cliff last year, it’s time for Red Bull to change his path and make a real effort to develop a long-term alternative for him. Unfortunately, early evidence suggests that the “hit and trial” method is still the name of Milton Keynes’ game.
It is important to note that Red Bull has tried everything it could to help Perez get out of the 2024 recession and close the gap with Max Verstappen. The Mexican was able to maintain his seat until the end of last season, and it was in December that the Christian Horner-led team repaid the driver’s signing an extension just six months ago and decided to take Lawson to his location.
Liam Lawson, Red Bull
©XPB Image
Red Bull also did its best to widen the operating window of the RB21, even at the expense of full performance.
However, Verstappen is the first to admit that the team’s 2025 Challenger is far from Formula 1 pacesetter McLaren, but is a very difficult car to drive. Lawson’s disastrous results in Australia and China have changed the focus from the inherent weakness of RB21 to convenient, and it is worth highlighting that the future of the Kiwi is currently a major topic of Shanghai.
Red Bull has a big problem to deal with
This is why we need to understand that there are major issues that Red Bull needs to deal with at the moment. This is an issue that Lawson is further exposed by his inability to grasp the latest F1 cars.
Red Bull knows what Lawson can do and has made him the forefront of Formula 3 and Formula 2, challenging the Super Formula title and the car DTM with its famous blue and red colouring.
The 11 race stint at Alphatauri/RB was promising, but not a mindset, but even Red Bull understands that there is a deeper problem behind why he’s struggled so much since joining this year’s flagship team.
What Verstappen accomplished with the RB21 (and last year’s RB20) is incredible, but he has been part of the team for nearly a decade now, and the entire car philosophy coincides closely with his driving style.
Many times, I have felt that a capable driver from Red Bull’s junior scheme stepped into the other side of the garage and was unable to tame a car. Perez, the team’s first non-red bull protector for over a decade, has become the closest to Verstappen, but he found himself in 2025 without a race seat as the team’s competitive struggles worsened last year.
With the announcement of a major regulatory overhaul in 2026, Red Bull was able to put more effort into designing cars that are easy to drive and not previously distorted by star drivers. This is a tough challenge for Red Bull. Even in the early 2010s, the blown diffuser pioneered by the team was more suited to Sebastian Vettel than his teammate, Mark Weber.
Liam Lawson, Red Bull
©XPB Image
Next, I have a question about how the driver will support Red Bull after a tough time in his second seat. Unlike the other top F1 teams in Red Bull, this is where things get complicated as they have two figures with very different personalities.
First up is team principal Horner. He is known to support younger drivers more publicly, at least despite his engagement in a verbal war with Mercedes counterpart Totowolf.
The second main character is Red Bull advisor Helmut Marco. He usually doesn’t hold back from the media and can be very strict with his criticism of the younger driver.
The contrast between the two is already seen in Shanghai on Saturday. Horner said, “We’ll do what we can to help,” but Marco raised speculation about the future of the Kiwi by commenting, “Formula 1 is a performance sport and ultimately important.”
In another tough race on Sunday, Horner urged him to reassess the situation. For all his experience in the junior category, Lawson is only 23 years old, so he is not fully prepared for a pressure cooker environment like Red Bull.
Even if Tsunoda parachutes in Suzuka’s car two weeks later, it doesn’t necessarily solve all Red Bull problems – certainly in the long run. It’s safe to say that some of Lawson’s rivals have done a better job after changing teams in the winter, including Lewis Hamilton, Carlos Sainz and Esteban Ocon, but Red Bull can’t expect Tsunoda to get the pace right away without prior testing.
And if it actually chooses to promote the horneda, it would chuckle the decision to abandon the experienced Japanese driver at the end of last year in favor of Lawson’s full season rookie.
At this stage, Red Bull would be better off choosing one driver to build a support team, making sure it is unimmunized from criticism from external sources. Whether it’s Hornada or Lawson, both drivers who could deserve seats on an A-grade team, so it’s hardly important in the grand scheme of things. But that A-grade team cannot function like a single driver operation forever.