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- Liam Lawson axed after poor showings in Melbourne and Shanghai.
- Yuki Tsunoda to replace Lawson ahead of Japanese Grand Prix.
- Red Bull met in Dubai to finalise Tsunoda driver switch.
- Christian Horner stressed Red Bull needs both drivers to score points.
Just two races into the 2025 F1 season, Oracle Red Bull Racing driver Liam Lawson has been officially axed by the team after poor results that saw him eliminated from the first round of qualifying in Melbourne and Shanghai before finishing both the sprint and Grand Prix in Shanghai in last place.
The news has been confirmed by Oracle Red Bull Racing and Lawson will be replaced by Visa Cash App Racing Bulls driver Yuki Tsunoda who has proven his ability early in the season. Original reports from De Telegraaf stated that a C-suite meeting took place in Dubai (confirmed by Red Bull motorsport adviser Helmut Marko), where Red Bull’s major shareholder Chalerm Yoovidhya lives, in the lead-up to the Japanese Grand Prix.
Early rumours suggested that Alpine reserve driver Franco Colapinto could be slotted into the top job, but Red Bull chose to look within. Tsunoda, 24, is from Sagamihara, a city in Kanagawa Prefecture of Japan. With four years of experience under his belt at the RB and 89 Grand Prix races completed it makes sense that Oracle Red Bull Racing would slot him into the hot seat with the Japanese Grand Prix just days away (4th-6th of April 2025).
With only a limited number of seats on the grid, the F1 business is one of the toughest in all of sports.
Lawson had previously told this publication that he and the Red Bull team were “Here to win,” during an interview with Nick Hall ahead of the 2025 Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne. Saying that he wanted to be competitive alongside Champion Max Verstappen. “For me, I want to be competitive. In anything I do, I’m like that. I’ve been given a great opportunity with Oracle Red Bull Racing this year and in a good position to fight at the front,” he said in the interview.
That all came crashing down with two poor performances in Melbourne and then Shanghai, and Red Bull Team Principal, Christian Horner, made sure that Lawson heard the message loud and clear after his DNF at the Australian Grand Prix, saying “We will study all the data and do our best to support Liam. But we also need two drivers who score points.”
More recently, Tsunoda was asked about the potential for a driver swap with Lawson, and the 24-year-old responded with a casual “Yeah, why not? Always,” before being pulled out of the interview by the team’s PR officer as it was getting too casual, according to motorsport.com.
The writing is now officially on the wall for Lawson, and now he’s facing an even tougher task alongside French rookie Isack Hadjar who has demonstrated pace in the most recent race at the Chinese Grand Prix, qualifying 7th and finishing the race just outside the points in 11th.
To keep his job as an F1 driver, Lawson will have to prove that he can keep up.
