With three consecutive Q1 exits, Liam Lawson has had the worst start to life as a Red Bull driver. The New Zealander was promoted to the senior team with the hope that he would perform better than his predecessor, Sergio Perez, who also struggled to get to terms with the Red Bull cars.
However, with things just not working out as Red Bull would have hoped, questions are already being asked about Lawson‘s future. Sky Sports’ Ted Kravitz went as far as telling Red Bull team principal Christian Horner that the team certainly did not replace Perez for a driver who would deliver worse performances.
In response, all that Horner could say was that he and the rest of the Red Bull team would go back and evaluate Lawson’s performances. Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko, though, has gone one step further and even shortlisted two candidates who could replace the 23-year-old should he continue to underperform.
“If we look at our other team, it was incredibly impressive what Isack Hadjar showed,” the Austrian told ServusTV. “He was flawless and he didn’t even know the circuit. He was a positive surprise”. But Red Bull would surely be jumping the gun by wanting to replace Lawson with Hadjar, who is only in his second race weekend. What about Yuki Tsunoda?
“Yuki is right behind him (Hadjar), but Yuki is in his fifth season, while Isack is completely new and doesn’t know the circuit. And then he sets such a time,” Marko added.
Although the 81-year-old did mention Tsunoda as a potential option, his remarks seem to suggest that he still does not seem keen on promoting the Japanese driver to the main team. In Shanghai qualifying, Tsunoda qualified ninth while Hadjar was two places ahead of him in P7.
In fact, at one point, the two drivers were in the top three, right behind Max Verstappen’s Red Bull. Lawson was certainly slower than all three of them, ending up dead last and over 1.1 seconds off the fastest time in Q1. One would wonder whether the Austrian outfit has promoted the wrong driver from the Faenza outfit.
Ted Kravitz did not hold back when questioning Christian Horner about Liam Lawson #ChineseGP pic.twitter.com/oY9KUIgEkE
— Motorsport.com (@Motorsport) March 22, 2025
Instead of giving special praise to Tsunoda—who has now out-qualified Lawson 8-0 since the New Zealander made his permanent entry to the sport last year—Marko reserved all his praises for the 20-year-old French-Algerian, who is yet to start a Grand Prix after his DNS in Australia.
Should Lawson return to Racing Bulls?
With Lawson performing worse than both of the junior team drivers, many are wondering whether the New Zealander would be demoted back to Racing Bulls. ESPN journalist Laurence Edmondson believes this is a possibility.
“If Yuki continues to perform like that and Liam continues to struggle, then it becomes obvious after kind of a while. There is not much for Red Bull to lose if they do it (switch Lawson and Tsunoda),” Edmondson explained via ESPN’s YouTube channel. “They can keep Liam in the family by putting him down in Racing Bulls.”
That said, Edmonson did admit he would be surprised if Red Bull decided to switch their drivers anytime soon. He believes that Lawson should be given a fair opportunity just as Perez was last season.
Since his permanent return to F1, Liam Lawson has been out-qualified by Yuki Tsunoda at every race pic.twitter.com/cvmScSnSFF
— Autosport (@autosport) March 22, 2025
Several experts could not understand why Red Bull did not switch their drivers mid-season last year, as the team decided to stick with Perez until the season ended. That decision arguably cost them the Constructors’ title.
Nevertheless, it would seem like a wise strategy for Red Bull moving forward, especially if their preferred pick to replace Lawson is Hadjar—as Marko suggested in his interview—who is still massively inexperienced.
However, if any team is famous for making unconventional and surprising calls, then it is definitely Red Bull. So one must not be shocked if they decide to replace Lawson with someone like Hadjar sooner than most people expect.
