Here we go again. Yuki Tsunoda has been officially called up to the Red Bull roulette tournament directed by Helmut Marko. Liam Lawson left the team battered, with the joy of his promotion alongside Max Verstappen short-lived, as the moment he hit the track (during preseason testing in Bahrain) he began slipping into a nightmare. For preparation, he had a day and a half of testing in Sakhir and three free practice sessions between Melbourne and Shanghai. Then came the verdict, and for Liam Lawson, it wasn’t good news.
Alexander Albon (26 races alongside Max Verstappen, then shown the door at the end of 2020) was the driver who best understood what it means to drive a Red Bull: “It’s like using a computer with the mouse sensitivity set to maximum.” The onboard footage is quite telling. In the little time Lawson had, he constantly struggled with the reactions of the RB21, with every attempt to gain speed through corners resulting in noticeable corrections and an inability to reach the apex. A nightmare.
The point is, Max Verstappen has been driving Milton Keynes-built cars for years, and very quickly. Yet, in mid-2024, even Max raised a red flag because since Red Bull had to respond to McLaren’s growth, the car took another step to the extreme, making drivability even more problematic. For Helmut Marko, the solution is simple: find another Verstappen. But the reality is that Red Bull is searching for a driver who doesn’t exist. And while Marko hopes for a miracle, the academy continues to prepare young drivers for a mission with slim chances of success.
The team is in a tunnel, with two scenarios on the horizon: discovering a Verstappen 2.0 or a drastic change in direction that brings drivability back into the equation. Until one of these two solutions takes shape, Red Bull will continue to race with a car—or at best, one and a half cars. For now, Helmut Marko’s vision prevails, and that will remain the case until Verstappen digs in his heels. This possibility seems more likely today, because it’s one thing to grit your teeth but at least have a winning car, another to fight for less gratifying goals.
Next weekend, at his home race, will be Tsunoda’s time. In Yuki’s case, the stakes are lower. While Liam Lawson was sacrificed with the knowledge that he was being put in a car for which he had never completed a full season in Formula 1 (Liam had never raced in Melbourne or Shanghai), Yuki Tsunoda can count on the experience gained over four seasons with Racing Bulls. Yuki is also aware that he is at a crossroads that will decide the future of his career, as at the end of the season, Honda (his first sponsor) will end its relationship with Red Bull. Yuki Tsunoda has little to lose—if the feeling with the RB21 turns out to be positive, it will be a real jackpot; otherwise, he will return to square one.
The scenario is different for Liam Lawson. Returning to Racing Bulls (a script already seen) is the prelude to a definitive goodbye—no one has ever had a second chance to return to the wheel of a Red Bull. And without this prospect, the demotion to Racing Bulls becomes a kind of subsidy while waiting for alternative opportunities. It’s a shame to witness the drastic shift in perspective for a talented young driver like Liam in just three months, but this is the reality. Red Bull is, of course, free to move as it sees fit, as none of the junior drivers are tied to the academy with a gun to their head.
However, a reflection should be made, because Red Bull’s method is not the only one that works in Formula 1. On Sunday evening, after Oscar Piastri’s victory in Shanghai, McLaren’s team principal Andrea Stella shared the entire process they went through with Oscar to solve the problems that had emerged over the previous two seasons from his direct comparison with Norris. Months of work, many Grand Prix revisited together to identify the critical points and wrong choices.
It was in Shanghai, in 2024, that Norris finished in second place, while Piastri could only manage eighth, over forty seconds behind his teammate. “I remember scratching my head and telling Oscar that there was a lot to learn from that race,” Andrea Stella recalled. “And now I can say that all the work we did together we capitalized on in the best possible way.” This is also an approach that can work in modern Formula 1.
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