Hi friends,
Well, that didn’t take long. If you’d asked me three weeks ago who’d be the first to go this year, Lawson definitely wouldn’t have been top of the list. But here we are.
Top Story of the Week: Yuki Tsunoda replaces Liam Lawson at Red Bull
Liam Lawson’s tenure at Red Bull comes to an end after a mere two races.
The writing on the wall started to appear during the Australian GP, when a hydraulic issue caused him to exit qualifying in Q1, and subsequently take a pit lane start for the race. Lawson failed to make much headway in the race, relegated to battling with with Ocon and Bearman in the two Haas cars, until the rain shower caught him out, and he had to end his day early following a crash.
Things didn’t improve in China. He finished last in both sprint qualifying and the main qualifying session. And while he did recover five positions in both the sprint and the race, that performance falls short of what Red Bull expects from their second driver in a Constructors’ Championship fight.
As a result, during a meeting on Tuesday Red Bull leadership decided to make a change: Liam Lawson is out, and Yuki Tsunoda is in.
The move appears to have been driven not only by Lawson’s underwhelming results, but also by pressure from Red Bull’s principal shareholder, Thai billionaire Chalerm Yoovidhya. Honda also reportedly played a role, lobbying for Tsunoda’s promotion and offering additional financial backing as part of the deal.
Red Bull and its sister team VCARB have long been known for their cutthroat approach to driver development. Sergio Perez, Daniel Ricciardo, Nyck de Vries, Alexander Albon, Pierre Gasly, and Daniil Kvyat have all experienced the sharp end of that system. Now, Lawson joins that list.
It’s an odd reality that in a team often praised for its deep junior program, the driver who’s received the most leeway is an external hire—Sergio Perez—who lasted four full seasons before being shown the door.
With the current rate of driver turnover, it’s fair to question whether Red Bull’s development model is still effective. It may work when you have a generational talent like Verstappen, but for anyone else, the margin for error seems impossibly narrow.
At some point, Red Bull will have to reckon with whether their system is setting young drivers up to succeed—or to fail.
Yes, Formula 1 is a results-driven sport. And yes, if a driver isn’t delivering, a team is within its rights to make a change. But if you’re going to position yourself as a team that champions young talent, that commitment needs to include patience—especially in a high-pressure environment like Red Bull.
While I’m not surprised they decided to make a move, I am surprised it came after just two races. Now, all eyes are on Yuki Tsunoda—a driver who, ironically, was widely expected to leave the Red Bull system at the end of this season with the Honda engine deal expiring.
Lawson’s early exit may have opened the door for Tsunoda to extend his stay. But make no mistake: he’s stepping into a high-stakes role, with high expectations—and very little room for error.
The Rest of the Stories This Week:
- Audi opposes the talks about moving to v10 engines
- The F1 drivers held a “fair discussion” with the FIA over the swearing ban
- Valtteri Bottas has tested the 2023 McLaren MCL60 in Barcelona
- Alpine and Haas among the teams that’ve had to make wing changes following the new flexi wing tests implemented by the FIA
- Pascal Wehrlein will make his 24 Hours of Le Mans debut with Porsche
- WEC is offering the Imola round for free and 15% off of the 2026 WEC TV season pass for anyone affected by the app issues during the Qatar 1812 km race
- Sophia Flörsch and HMD Motorsports part ways after just one race in INDY NXT
- Total Energies is the new fuel supplier for WRC
- The Sports Authority of Thailand signed a memorandum of understanding with F1 about plans to host a Grand Prix
- The two Tiktokers who impersonated security staff at the Australian GP have been arrested
- EA Sports F1 25 releases in May
That’s it for this week, thank you for being here.
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