Red Bull dropped Liam Lawson as the teammate of champion after just two rounds of the season and replaced him with Yuki Tsunoda on Thursday.
Lawson was given the Red Bull seat despite not having previously driven a full F1 season and struggled immediately. The New Zealander did not score any points, crashed out of the season-opening and qualified in last place for the and its sprint race.
Tsunoda moves up from Red Bull’s second team, Racing Bulls, in time for his home Japanese GP next week. Lawson will take Tsunoda’s place at Racing Bulls alongside rookie Isack Hadjar.
The change is a sign of how cut-throat F1 can be and an admission that Red Bull made the wrong choice in . He completed only 11 career F1 races before this season and was typically slower than Tsunoda across their six races as teammates last year.
“It has been difficult to see Liam struggle with the (car) at the first two races and as a result we have collectively taken the decision to make an early switch,” Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said in a statement.
“We came into the 2025 season with two ambitions, to retain the world drivers’ championship and to reclaim the world constructors’ title and this is a purely sporting decision.”
Horner acknowledged there was work to be done with the team’s RB21 car and said Tsunoda’s experience will prove beneficial in helping to develop it.
“We have a duty of care to protect and develop Liam and, together, we see that after such a difficult start it makes sense to act quickly so Liam can gain experience, as he continues his F1 career with Racing Bulls, an environment and a team he knows very well,” Horner said.
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