In the blink of an eye. Liam Lawson’s time as a full-time driver for Red Bull Racing started at the end of last season, with the Abu Dhabi tests, and has already ended.
Today, the Milton Keynes team issued an official statement—along with Racing Bulls, the team that until yesterday had Yuki Tsunoda alongside Isack Hadjar—confirming the replacement of Liam Lawson with the Japanese driver.
This change takes effect immediately. Yuki Tsunoda will be behind the wheel of the Red Bull RB21 starting from the next event, the Japanese Grand Prix, which will take place next week at the Suzuka circuit.
“It was tough to see Liam struggling with the RB21 in the first two races, and as a result, we collectively made the decision to make an early change,” said team principal Christian Horner. “We entered the 2025 season with two goals: to defend the drivers’ title and claim the constructors’ championship, and this is purely a sporting decision.”
“We recognize there is a lot of work to be done with the RB21, and Yuki’s experience will be extremely valuable in contributing to the development of the current car. We welcome him to the team and look forward to seeing him behind the wheel of the RB21.”
A grand debut in Red Bull for Yuki, which will take place in front of his home crowd. However, this will not make his task easier. He swears he’s ready, but it’s one thing to say it from the outside, and another to have all eyes of the team on him—let alone those of Helmut Marko—with expectations far higher than those he faced in Faenza over the years.
Yuki Tsunoda is now preparing to take part in an adventure that will likely define much of his career. If he manages to perform well alongside Max Verstappen—or even just not embarrass himself, considering the precedents—then it could be seen as a success.
After Daniel Ricciardo, all the drivers who partnered with Max Verstappen have been utterly crushed by the comparison. Daniil Kvyat, Pierre Gasly, Alexander Albon, Sergio Perez, Liam Lawson. Of these, only Gasly and Albon managed to reinvigorate their F1 careers—Gasly at Alpine and Albon at Williams. However, it is undeniable that being Max’s teammate in today’s F1 is the most difficult role of all.
Liam Lawson, on the other hand, has been demoted after just 4 months as a full-time driver for Milton Keynes. The final Abu Dhabi tests of 2024 and a day and a half of the 2025 preseason tests in Sakhir were his preparation for such a challenging task. Time is never a friend of drivers in a Red Bull suit, but the impression is that Helmut Marko had much less patience with the New Zealander than with those who came before him (perhaps because he was also less supported in terms of sponsorship).
Now, Lawson—ironically—might have a great opportunity: to return to Racing Bulls, where he had already done well in two short stints in 2023 and again last year, using a car that seems to be very well-designed. The team has not yet been able to fully harness the potential of the VCARB02 due to costly strategic errors in the first two races of the season, but for Liam Lawson, this could really be a second chance, perhaps following in the footsteps of Gasly and Albon towards a bright future, even if away from the Red Bull logo.
“We have a duty to protect and nurture Liam, and together, we realize that after such a tough start, it makes sense to act quickly to allow Liam to gain experience, while continuing his F1 career with Visa Cash App Racing Bulls, an environment and a team he knows very well,” Christian Horner added.
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