Off the pace, is Lawson about to lose his Red Bull seat?

Last year’s long-running Red Bull saga about whether Sergio Pérez’s contract would be terminated short after a series of disappointing performances was concluded with him being replaced by Liam Lawson, inset above. But it turns out that was just the next phase of the saga because after just two deeply disappointing races, it was being heavily rumoured that Lawson would be replaced at the third race, the Japanese Grand Prix, by his former RB team-mate Yuki Tsunoda, inset right.

Despite a series of promising performances in the 11 races he did for the junior RB team in 2023-24, Lawson failed to make it out of Q1 in his first two races for the senior Red Bull team this season. He even qualified a solid last in China. Lap-for-lap, he was around 1sec slower than Max Verstappen in the sister car and he crashed out of the race in Melbourne. In China he finished 12th, behind Racing Bulls’ Isack Hadjar, and around a minute behind Verstappen.

Tsunoda meanwhile has never understood why Lawson was favoured over him for the drive. Christian Horner and Helmut Marko had expressed doubts about the Japanese driver’s temperamental suitability to the senior team. Nonetheless, after some pressure from Honda, Tsunoda drove the Red Bull at the season-ending Abu Dhabi test. Although the test was deemed a good one, it didn’t change the decision to take Lawson.

After the Chinese race Horner was evasive when asked if Lawson would still be in the car in Japan. “It’s been a tough day at the office for him today,” he said to Sky F1, “so we’ll have a good look at it and go through it…”

When Tsunoda – who has qualified the Racing Bull in Q3 in both Australia and China – was asked if he’d be prepared to race the Red Bull in China, he replied, “Japan, yeah, why not? I mean, their car is faster.”