BREAKING: Tsunoda to Replace Lawson at Red Bull

C/O to motorsportweek.com

According to multiple sources, Red Bull has decided to replace Liam Lawson with Racing Bulls Driver Yuki Tsunoda starting at the Japanese Grand Prix.

After a miserable start to the 2025 season for Lawson, according to Racing News 365, Red Bull's senior management (including Team Principle Christain Horner and Senior Advisor Helmut Marko) met in Dubai. Ultimately, they decided to move forward with Tsunoda as their driver beside Max Verstappen. Red Bull are expected to make an official announcement later this week.

Reports say that Lawson will return to Racing Bulls to drive alongside Isak Hadjar.

In making this move, Red Bull has taken a major risk. As we all know, Red Bull faced so much backlash for choosing Lawson over Tsunoda for their second seat before the season started, and it has only gotten worse as the season has progressed.

Yes, Lawson doing as poorly as he has does not help, but giving up on a young driver like Lawson after just two races seems a bit rash, especially considering how much they supported him and their decision to move forward into the 2025 season with him. Lawson at least deserved a chance to get to know the car, which for years has proved to be difficult to drive.

In my opinion, two races, no matter how they went, should not be enough to consider making a move like this. Lawson has been terrible to start the year, everyone knows that, but he may not be the problem. During Verstappen's tenure, we have seen driver after driver fail to match the pace of Verstappen or the pace the team expects them to be driving. Not only that, but whenever they get rid of said drivers, such as Pierre Gasly and Alex Albon, they suddenly start driving at the pace everyone knows they can. In my eyes, Red Bull should have made more of an effort in the offseason, as well as in-season, to adjust their car more to Lawson's needs.

As for Tsunoda, a move to Red Bull has been a long time coming. Should he have been chosen originally over Lawson? Probably, but not because of Lawson. His pace, decision-making, and consistency have improved every year since he joined F1, to the point it seemed inevitable that Red Bull would give him a chance after they moved on from Sergio Perez. I guess better late than never, right?

For Tsunoda, one can only hope that he does not fall into the black hole his predecessors have fallen into. In order for him to succeed, Red Bull needs to realize that their strategy of going all-in with Max is not working anymore, and that they are the problem. In F1, you have two drivers, and you need to build a car that is suitable for BOTH drivers. Yes, they have done well bending that rule, as they have won four drivers championships in a row, but with teams now either caught up or past them in terms of overall pace, Max cannot carry them on his own anymore.