Get all your news in one place.

100’s of premium titles.
One app.

Start reading

Get all your news in one place.

100’s of premium titles. One news app.

Start reading

Motorsport

Sport

Lawson, Tsunoda or even Colapinto? Red Bull now has tough decisions to make

Red Bull Liam Lawson Chinese Grand Prix Yuki Tsunoda Max Verstappen Franco Colapinto Racing Bulls Alpine Jack Doohan Pierre Gasly

The second Red Bull seat alongside Max Verstappen has long been considered one of the toughest roles in Formula 1. Still, speculation about a driver change after just two races is extreme, even by Red Bull standards.

Liam Lawson began his full-time Red Bull campaign with optimism, but by now admits that he is struggling more than expected. The New Zealand driver has finished 18th, 20th and 20th in his three qualifying appearances – placing him last on the grid two consecutive times, something no Red Bull driver has experienced before. His race results – DNF, 14th and 12th – don't look much better, with the 12th place in China boosted by three post-race disqualifications.

Ahead of the Chinese Grand Prix, paddock sources suggested a driver change before Japan was not out of the question. Horner didn't dismiss that possibility after the race either, saying the team would review all the data: “We have data from the first two races and we'll look carefully at that. We have 400 engineers in the team and 600 sensors on the car, so we have a huge amount of information to go through.”

Asked whether Lawson’s seat for Suzuka is guaranteed, Horner repeated that the team had a “responsibility” towards him, but avoided giving a direct answer. “We're two races in and we've just finished this race. I think we take away the information we have.”

While one might argue Lawson should be judged on tracks he knows like Bahrain and Suzuka, Horner downplayed the significance of that aspect: “I think these guys get up to speed pretty quickly. We'll take away a stack of data to go and have a look at.”

If the data suggests Lawson is unlikely to improve in the short term, Red Bull may well feel the need to act. “I think Liam still has got potential. We're just not realising that at the moment. I think the problem for him is he's had a couple of really tough weekends. He's got all the media on his back and the pressure naturally grows in this business. I feel very sorry for him. You can see it's very tough on him at the moment.” Internally, Red Bull’s main dilemma is balancing the hard data with the human side – and whether it's fair to make a change after giving Lawson a chance for just two races.

Tsunoda in the spotlight – but promotion before Japan a major risk?

Yuki Tsunoda, RB F1 Team (Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images)

If Red Bull does make a switch, Yuki Tsunoda is the obvious candidate to step up. The Japanese driver wasn’t promoted over the winter, but Helmut Marko offered notable praise in China, implying that his opinion on Tsunoda has changed.

“Yuki is in the shape of his life,” the Austrian said. “He’s a different Yuki now than in recent years. He changed management, he has a different approach and is more mature. It took a while for him, but now it seems to be working.”

It underlines that Tsunoda is being taken more seriously by Red Bull than before. His Red Bull test in Abu Dhabi is part of the current evaluation, together with data from the past race weekends at Racing Bulls. “He did very well in that test with us,” Horner said. “It’s useful data for us, but we always look at the bigger picture.”

When asked if Tsunoda was first in line, the Red Bull team boss replied: “I'm not even going to comment on a change, because that would be your first headline! We have quite a bit of information. We're going to go away and have a good look at it, and work with Liam to do the best that we can for him.”

With personal aspects playing a role in any decision on Lawson, exactly the same applies to Tsunoda. Putting him into the tricky RB21 ahead of his home race at Suzuka is a major risk for all parties involved if he struggles like Lawson. Tsunoda has impressed so far, but as Verstappen has noted, the Racing Bulls car is completely different from the Red Bull: “When I talk to Liam, that Racing Bulls car is definitely easier to drive than our car.”

Is Red Bull's car the real issue?

Ultimately, the root of the problem may not be the drivers, but the car itself. The second Red Bull seat is challenging for several reasons.

First, Verstappen’s sheer pace is difficult to match in equal machinery and makes any team-mate’s job daunting. Once drivers start to experiment with extreme set-ups to match him, things usually get even worse.

Secondly, the RB21 is tailored to Verstappen’s driving style to some extent, as sources within the team confirm. The car has a very sharp front end and a loose rear, a combination that many drivers have found impossible to master.

Alex Albon described the Red Bull car as “a [computer] mouse with sensitivity at 100%” – extremely reactive and therefore equally difficult to handle for anyone with a different driving style. Since Daniel Ricciardo’s departure in 2018, none of his successors – Gasly, Albon, Sergio Perez and now Lawson – have been able to handle the task of sitting next to Verstappen. From the outside, there is little reason to believe Tsunoda would fare differently at the main team.

Liam Lawson, Red Bull Racing (Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images)

From a technical standpoint, there’s logic to building a car with the extreme characteristics that suit Verstappen better than others. The Dutchman has delivered with four world titles and is Red Bull’s only chance to compete at the front.

In 2025, things got even more difficult for any driver next to him. Red Bull's dominance from 2022 and 2023 is gone which means the team needs to push the boundaries even more to be competitive.

Add to this the fact that the current F1 field is extremely competitive, meaning the second Red Bull can get knocked out of Q1 with a deficit that was good enough to secure a place on the front row just a few years ago.

Colapinto a surprise candidate at Racing Bulls?

The other big question for Red Bull is what to do with Lawson and the second Racing Bulls' seat, if they decide to go ahead with a driver change. The most straightforward solution would be to swap Lawson and Tsunoda, allowing Lawson to reset at the sister team.

“Liam is a young guy. We've got a duty to look after him. And we're going to do the best that we can to support him. He's still a very capable driver. We know that. We're just not seeing it for whatever reason. We're not seeing him able to deliver that at the moment,” Horner said.

This leaves room for interpretation. Protecting Lawson could mean three different things: keeping him at Red Bull for some more races, giving him the comfort of an easier car at Racing Bulls, or temporarily benching him as Red Bull's reserve driver.

The last option would be particularly harsh given how long Lawson had to wait for his F1 debut, but is fuelled by Spanish media reports linking Franco Colapinto to Racing Bulls. Motorsport.com Spain sources suggest that the deal is already close. Helmut Marko was seen in Alpine’s hospitality in Shanghai on Sunday – and it wasn't to taste French coffee.

Franco Colapinto, Alpine (Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Motorsport Images)

How serious the Colapinto option is remains to be seen for now, as it becomes clear that this storyline is partly pushed by the Argentinian's camp; it's linked to Jack Doohan at Alpine.

The Australian had a particularly difficult debut in Abu Dhabi, but has shown more speed during the first race weekends of 2025. Doohan is currently making a better impression at Alpine than before, perhaps better than expected. He made a rookie mistake in Melbourne, but managed to match Pierre Gasly's race pace in China and was close to the Frenchman in qualifying. Doohan was only a tenth off on Saturday and ahead of Gasly in sprint qualifying.

If an opportunity at Alpine takes longer than thought, it's normal that Colapinto’s management is looking at all places where an opportunity may present itself. In the world of F1, where everyone is talking to everyone, it's equally logical for Red Bull to explore the market and assess all available options. Colapinto (temporarily) to Racing Bulls is simply one of those options.

Neither the Red Bull seat next to Verstappen nor the Racing Bulls situation has been decided yet, and given the different interests and parties involved, it's too complex to predict now.

But one thing is clear: the next few weeks are crucially important for the Milton Keynes-based team. Verstappen will visit the Red Bull factory this week to discuss the RB21’s weaknesses and push for improvements to save his championship hunt. At the same time the team needs to make decisions on the driver front much earlier than anticipated. These are season-defining weeks already, at least if Red Bull doesn't want to fall behind in both championships.