In recent months, Yuki Tsunoda and Lawson have faced opposite, yet in some ways very similar challenges: adapting to a new seat, but without making an impression. For Tsunoda, the RB21 is proving to be nervous and unpredictable, and the risk is getting lost. Lawson, on the other hand, is paying for a lack of qualifying speed that has yet to appear.
In recent years, the second seat at Red Bull has become hot—actually, red-hot. The last few seasons have seen changes even mid-season, but with one recurring element: difficulty adapting and exploiting the car’s full potential, especially when the benchmark on the other side of the garage is Max Verstappen.
It’s a tough comparison, so much so that Red Bull itself, as Helmut Marko has often said, doesn’t set the goal of matching or beating the Dutchman, but only staying within an acceptable performance delta that can secure points in the Constructors’ standings—where the Milton Keynes team is effectively fighting with just one car.
This is the reason why, at the start of the year, after just two Grands Prix, Red Bull made yet another mid-season switch, replacing a struggling Liam Lawson with the very same driver they had dropped less than five months earlier: a band-aid on an open wound, in the hope that, magically, a quick and available solution could fix a much broader problem.
Yuki Tsunoda’s case is the clearest example, because ten points in seven races is certainly not the haul the team expected, but it offers the chance to observe and analyze more deeply his transition to Red Bull and how, on the other side, Lawson is trying to rebuild the confidence he lost during those few months away from Faenza.
Yuki Tsunoda is experiencing the RB21’s “nervous” character
Yuki Tsunoda had dreamed of the Red Bull opportunity for many years, so the enthusiasm surrounding his first statements was understandable—he even emphasized how, in the simulator (a tool that has long shown correlation discrepancies in Milton Keynes), his feeling with the RB21 was good and that he was aiming for a podium at Suzuka.
The problem is that with the RB21, he is facing the same issues as his predecessors: dealing with a car that must be pushed and mastered at the limit to extract its potential, highlighting especially the difficulties in managing it. While it’s true that he didn’t have all the latest updates in the last three races—also due to the Imola crash—the trend tells an interesting story.
Lawson’s short stint in the Red Bull seat highlighted two main aspects: underwhelming performances and major difficulty in fully exploiting the car’s potential. It’s no surprise that his fastest laps rarely came on his final attempt, as the RB21 would reveal its “nervous” and unpredictable nature when pushed to the limit.
This is something Yuki Tsunoda is also struggling with in his Red Bull experience, especially in qualifying, when it’s time to extract everything from the car. The closer the car gets to the limit, the higher the risk of making a mistake, as seen in Jeddah and Imola.
The Imola crash is the most telling example, precisely because—as the Japanese driver himself admitted—it was caused by underestimating the RB21’s unpredictability. A crash that, according to him, would never have happened in the Racing Bulls, which by then had become like a second skin to him.
“In recent years with Racing Bulls, I knew what was going to happen—I didn’t even have to think much. I reacted naturally and drove fast. I think those things will come with time. I believe the Imola incident made me realize the level of understanding I have with the Red Bull. I was probably underestimating how important it is to really know certain details.”
Lawson suffers from the qualifying gap
It’s no secret that the Racing Bulls car is quick among the midfield teams, but more importantly, it’s easy to drive at the limit—something especially evident in the hands of Isack Hadjar, a rookie who continues to impress. On the other side of the garage, however, Liam Lawson is struggling—not so much with finding confidence in the car, but in unlocking the speed and putting everything together.
Looking at the data—even excluding Bahrain (where he had a DRS issue)—the average qualifying gap to Hadjar is around three and a half tenths. Lawson was only quicker in one weekend, in Saudi Arabia, but even then failed to score points due in part to a penalty. The New Zealander has always said that he doesn’t lack confidence in the car, but rather the ability to put it all together.
The only weekend where he managed that was Monaco, where he scored his first points. Even then, however, the gap to his teammate was around two tenths. “In Monaco, we improved from the practice sessions and put ourselves in a good position for qualifying. But I wouldn’t say I felt anything different during the weekend. It wasn’t like something clicked inside me. That feeling was there in every race. It’s just that we had a clean weekend—the first one all season.”
As Liam Lawson admitted, qualifying has not been his strength this year, and the results confirm it. But there’s a problem: those average three tenths matter a lot in the midfield, where teams are very close. Even with good race pace, moving up becomes difficult, so it’s clear that a big step forward is needed—especially as his future no longer seems secure.
There’s an interesting stat: looking at the best absolute lap times (excluding Bahrain for Lawson and Imola for Yuki Tsunoda), the difference between the two is only two tenths—smaller than the gap between Lawson and Hadjar. Not entirely surprising, considering that Lawson has started ahead of Yuki Tsunoda on four occasions since they swapped seats, confirming how tricky the Red Bull is to drive.
Adapt or get lost, because even Japan is now going through a complex phase. The difficult qualifying in Spain, which he couldn’t find an explanation for, is the clearest example: despite various attempts, he couldn’t get on top of the issue and felt lost, finishing in last place due to a lack of grip.
Paradoxically, Liam Lawson and Yuki Tsunoda’s situations are similar but also deeply different. Looking ahead to Canada, the Japanese driver revealed that he will try something new in the simulator, hoping to make progress: “It’s something we’re going to try. I’m looking forward to it and hope it can make a difference. It can’t get worse than this. So let’s see.”
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