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Red Bull’s Second Seat: Tsunoda or Lawson?
Ahead of the Formula One Japanese Grand Prix, Red Bull unceremoniously replaced Liam Lawson with Yuki Tsunoda in order to drive alongside reigning champion, Max Verstappen.
It’s fair to say the start of the 2025 Formula One season has been eventful with wet races, disqualifications, and a host of fresh faced rookies (after all, what could possibly go wrong?) If the pinnacle of motorsports is capable of just one thing, it’s orchestrating sporting moments that shock and astound. It’s certainly provided a lot to contemplate in just two races with one storyline dominating headlines.
The antagonist of this dramatic debacle, as so many an F1 spectacle includes, is Red Bull. The side characters forced to battle against one another? Long-term Racing Bulls’ driver Yuki Tsunoda and Red Bull’s newborn Liam Lawson. The object of their desire? The coveted second Red Bull seat and the chance to drive in partnership with four time World Drivers Champion Max Verstappen.
24-year-old Yuki Tsunoda made his F1 maiden voyage during the 2021 season when he replaced Daniil Kyvat to drive alongside Pierre Gasly on the Red Bull sibling team, then known as AlphaTauri. Tsunoda slowly and steadily progressed in his F1 racing career becoming the poster child of the team as eventually Gasly made way for Nyck de Vries, who was unceremoniously dropped midway through the 2023 season for Daniel Ricciardo. In an ironic twist of fate, Ricciardo was then dropped by the team midway through the 2024 season for Lawson, then a series rookie.
New Zealand born Lawson joined the Red Bull Junior Team, Red Bull’s driver development programme, in 2019. During the 2022 F1 season, he acted as a reserve and test driver for AlphaTauri. Lawson’s first permanent stint as an F1 professional racing driver at the tail end of the 2024 season did not paint a shining portrait of his on track abilities, however, the young driver was still called up to Red Bull for the 2025 season.
As the Chinese Grand Prix drew to a close, rumours began to swirl that Lawson’s poor performance during the season so far - albeit just two races - was not up to scratch for a leading team. What could possibly be done to rectify the situation? Replace the driver, of course. From the Japanese GP onwards, Tsunoda and Lawson have therefore swapped teams and driver pairings. Speaking ahead of his first race for Racing Bulls, Lawson admitted to the media that the change was, “something I wasn’t expecting so early.” Meanwhile Tsunoda, who many have suggested should have been promoted to Red Bull earlier, told F1.com that, “for now, I’m feeling pretty good confidence.”
The real test for Tsunoda will be how he handles working with Verstappen. (It should be noted here, as a pointed historical context, that Verstappen himself was promoted to the top seat at Red Bull at the expense of Daniil Kvyat at the 2016 Spanish GP.) Certainly not an easy task, numerous drivers have struggled to compete with Verstappen on track. Ricciardo, Pierre Gasly, Alex Albon, and Sergio ‘Checo’ Perez have all come and gone, with the latter the most capable in the seat, helping Verstappen clinch his four consecutive victories.
Following two seasons at Toro Rosso in 2017 and 2018, Gasly was moved to Red Bull in 2019. After just twelve races, he was dropped. Albon then took his place where he survived in the role for only a season and a half. “He has quite a unique driving style, it’s not that easy to get along with”, Albon once shared of his time with Verstappen at Red Bull on the High Performance Podcast. He further explained that, while the car isn’t necessarily designed with only Verstappen in mind, as the season progresses it is fine tuned further to his desires. “For you to catch up you have to start taking a little bit more risk…it just starts to snowball. Every time the car becomes sharper and sharper, you start to become more tense.”
With Verstappen, Red Bull unearthed a racing miracle, a once in a generation talent who only required one season at a junior team to prove his mettle. Since then, they seem to have taken a similar approach with other drivers, such as Gasly and Albon, throwing them into the fires in the hopes they conquer as Verstappen did. Clearly, as now Lawson further proves, this is not a sound technique. Perez had spent ten seasons at other F1 teams before joining Red Bull in 2021, bringing experience that undoubtedly aided his success, raising questions over the success of Red Bull’s junior programme - especially when Mercedes rookie Kimi Antonelli, an alum of the eleven times Constructors Champion’s junior team, is consistently performing at a high quality at just 18-years old.
Tsunoda has done his time in F1 and is now a verified veteran of the sport. He has deep rooted connections with the Red Bull team and has a positive rapport with Verstappen off track. Quite frankly, he is in a far better position to race in Red Bull’s second seat than Lawson was ever gifted. How well this new partnership will go however, is anybody’s guess. Rule number one of F1: expect the unexpected. After all, with Red Bull’s track record, Tsunoda could always get replaced…
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