Liam Lawson’s difficult start to the 2025 Formula 1 campaign poses a series of equally difficult questions to Red Bull.
Lawson has had a baptism of fire at Red Bull with the promise shown at Racing Bulls last year at threat of being extinguished by the RB21.
His Red Bull debut in Australia was characterised by a Q1 exit, a late-race DNF, and Round 2 China went even worse.
Last in both qualifying sessions at the Shanghai Sprint weekend, Lawson was at a loss as he remained scoreless throughout the weekend.
After Saturday’s Grand Prix qualifying session in China, Lawson told Sky Sports F1: “I think the window’s really small; I mean that’s known, but honestly, it’s not an excuse.”
When asked what he needs to fix it, he added: “I think it’s just time; unfortunately, I don’t really have it.”
Would Lawson go faster with Racing Bulls?
Lawson’s fears could prove true with speculation heating up around an early demotion for the New Zealander ahead of Round 3 in Japan, presumably for Racing Bulls’ Yuki Tsunoda.
Tsunoda is adamant that the Red Bull is the quicker car, but the reality facing the Milton Keynes outfit is that its RB21 is the latest in a long line of notoriously difficult F1 machines.
Speaking to Dutch publication De Telegraaf last weekend, Max Verstappen said: “If you look at the difference between the two drivers at the other teams, they are all closer together.
“It also shows that our car is extremely tough. I think if you put Liam in the Racing Bulls car, he will go faster. I really think so.
“That car is easier to drive than ours. I also notice that when I talk to Liam.
“Last year, I didn’t think the difference between him and Yuki Tsunoda was that big. Otherwise the team wouldn’t make the choice to put him in at Red Bull either.”
True enough, the Racing Bulls car looks strong in the hands of Tsunoda and rookie Isack Hadjar, with both qualifying in the top-10 last Saturday and strategy preventing a double-points scoring effort in the race.
Red Bull Team Principal Christian Horner was asked to address Verstappen’s comments in Shanghai and said (via PlanetF1) “I think the Racing Bull is a more settled car in terms of it probably is a little more stable on entry.
“It probably has a bit more understeer in that car and therefore is easier to adapt to but you can see the difference in pace in the cars on a longer stint.
“But I think in terms of finding the limit in a car that has inherent understeer, it is always going to be easier than finding the limit in a car that is a little more edgy.”
Will Tsunoda suffer the same fate as Lawson at Red Bull?
That raises the question that if Lawson and Tsunoda were to swap for the latter’s home race next time out, what’s going to stop the same issues from recurring?
Tsunoda could well find himself joining the long list of drivers including Pierre Gasly, Alex Albon, Sergio Perez and now Lawson to struggle to adapt to Red Bull’s pointy, peculiar creation.
Meanwhile, Lawson could drop back into Racing Bulls and immediately flourish.
If this comes to pass, what happens to Tsunoda, does he get dropped and if so, who is left to fill the void?
According to reports, even more drastic solutions are being mooted for Suzuka that involve dropping Lawson out of the equation entirely.
Relevo cites that Red Bull could be reviving interest in the now Alpine reserve driver Franco Colapinto to take Tsunoda’s place at Racing Bulls, with the Japanese driver moving up to the senior squad, leaving Lawson out to pasture.
F1 reporter Joe Saward writes that such a deal could be difficult, given that Colapinto is still a loanee from Williams, which has a say on where Alpine deploys the Argentine.
Instead, Alpine’s deep pool of reserve drivers could present another option, with the adept Estonian Paul Aron floated by Saward as a potential solution to Red Bull’s driver headache.
Aron finished third in Formula 2 last season with Hitech in his rookie campaign and was third the year before in his maiden Formula 3 assault.
However, dipping into rivals’ reserve pools is a papering-over-the-cracks solution for Red Bull.
Red Bull needs answers
Red Bull still can’t solve why its car is a poisoned chalice for Verstappen’s countless team-mates and why it has a limited amount of in-house options to replace Lawson if push comes to shove.
Still, Horner comments, “There’s always going to be speculation in the paddock.
“As I say, we’ve only just finished the race here. We’ll take away the info and have a good look at it.
“There’s nothing specific that’s been set up. I think everything is purely speculative at the moment. I think Liam still has got potential. We’re just not realising that at the moment.
“I’m not even going to comment on a change, because that would be your first headline.
“As I say, we’re two races into this championship. We have a sample of two.”
READ MORE – Christian Horner passes verdict on potential Red Bull F1 driver swap
