Two full race weekends have not even concluded and things are already not looking good for Red Bull driver Liam Lawson. The team promoted Lawson with the hope that he would be the answer to their second driver problem as none of his predecessors have come even close to matching four-time world champion Max Verstappen.
Lawson believed he could do it last year if given the opportunity, but things are clearly not working out for him as he hoped. The 23-year-old has taken part in three qualifying sessions so far and has gotten knocked out in Q1/SQ1 in all three of them.
With such being the struggles that Lawson is facing, Red Bull’s top brass is already being asked the tough questions. Sky Sports’ Ted Kravitz told Red Bull team principal Christian Horner that they certainly would not have paid Perez a $15.2 million severance fee to see his replacement repeatedly getting knocked out of Q1.
As expected, Horner did not have much of an answer and all he could say was that they would evaluate Lawson’s performances. But Red Bull team advisor Helmut Marko suggested that his side already have two replacements — Yuki Tsunoda and Isack Hadjar — in mind if Lawson continues failing to deliver.
Ted Kravitz did not hold back when questioning Christian Horner about Liam Lawson #ChineseGP pic.twitter.com/oY9KUIgEkE
— Motorsport.com (@Motorsport) March 22, 2025
Tsunoda, in particular, has been mightily impressive and was even quizzed if he was ready to replace Lawson provided there is a chance. After qualifying ninth for the Chinese GP on Sunday, a confident Tsunoda replied, “Yeah, why not“?
Since Tsunoda is Japanese, the ideal race for him to replace Lawson would be his home race. So, when asked if he would be ready to replace the New Zealander at the Japanese GP — which happens to be the very next race on the calendar — the Racing Bulls driver replied, “Japan? Yeah 100%, the car is faster“.
But, Tsunoda’s wish to be a Red Bull driver in Japan is unlikely to come true. According to a report by The Race, a poor output on Sunday in China won’t immediately decide Lawson’s fate. “However, it has emerged that the team views the next race in Japan in a fortnight as critical for it to decide where things go from there,” said the report.
The RB21 certainly looks much faster in the hands of Verstappen, who has delivered impressive lap times in each of his qualifying sessions so far. After qualifying third in Australia last weekend, the Dutchman qualified second during sprint qualifying for the Chinese GP followed by fourth in the main GP qualifying session.
Max Verstappen’s response to if he can win the Chinese GP
“If they all retire, I do. We’re not fast enough.”
[@SkySportsF1] pic.twitter.com/18HYLdmbwj
— RBR Daily (@RBR_Daily) March 22, 2025
Lawson, knowing he is underperforming, has not given any excuses either. “It’s just really tough, honestly,” he said in his post-qualifying interview. “The window is small, but that’s no excuse. I need to get on top of it. It was a messy session. Had we not dealt with traffic it might have been okay but it is still not good enough“.
But given the questions that are being asked of Red Bull, it seems that Lawson does not have much time. While it seems unlikely that Red Bull will replace him before the Japanese GP, they definitely could consider replacing him if he shows no signs of improvement even during that week.
If Red Bull does end up replacing Lawson, it could finally give Tsunoda the chance to impress on the senior team, having been repeatedly ignored previously. The Japanese driver seems ready and is just eagerly waiting for his opportunity to showcase his potential.
