Red Bull’s driver merry-go-round

Oleg Karpov and Jose Carlos de Celis reporting for Motorsport.com:

Liam Lawson could be replaced at Red Bull by Yuki Tsunoda as early as the Japanese Grand Prix, Motorsport.com understands.

Red Bull’s toxic, cut-throat culture is well-known, and Lawson didn’t do himself any favours in the first two races of the 2025 season. But firing him now is not just cruel, it’s also counterproductive.

When Lawson tested Red Bull’s 2024 car (RB20) in July last year, he got within 2 tenths of Verstappen’s lap time. This was also around the time when Perez started his run of poor form and Red Bull started to lose its dominance. Up to this midpoint of the season, we could assume Red Bull had a reasonably fast and balanced car.

From what I could learn, as the season evolved, RB20 became more oversteer-y (“pointy”) and harder to drive. Like Apple with its ill-fated “trash can Mac Pro”, Red Bull designed themselves into a bit of aerodynamic corner. Verstappen happens to like a pointy car, so it didn’t stop him from winning the world championship. But for any other driver, that RB20 must be a proper handful to drive.

Lawson was given the second Red Bull seat because of his 3-lap performance in a much less extreme mid-2024 RB20, and a quarter of a season in a VCARB (where he did about as well as his then teammate Tsunoda). Now, is it any surprise that he struggled with an even more pointy car just 2 races in? At this point, Red Bull seems to be expecting its second driver to match Verstappen’s performance in a car that Verstappen is uniquely suited to handle. Such a driver may not exist.

Oleg Karpov and Jose Carlos de Celis continued:

After finishing sixth in the sprint, Tsunoda was asked in his media session whether he would agree to swap places with Lawson in Suzuka. He replied: “Japan? Yeah, 100%. I mean, the [Red Bull] car is faster.”

Yes, the RB21 is faster than VCARB02 when Verstappen drives it. As much as this may seem like a big break for Tsunoda, I fear it’s going to turn into a trap, just like how it turned out for Lawson.