Should Tsunoda Reject Lawson’s Race Seat?

Wild rumours are raging that Liam Lawson has now completed his second, and final, race weekend for Red Bull.

“Liam Lawson is already out for the next race,” former F1 driver and now television pundit Ralf Schumacher told Sky Deutschland.

“(Yuki) Tsunoda will replace him. It hasn’t been fully confirmed yet, but that’s probably how it is. And Lawson will then go back to Racing Bulls, where he’s supposed to build himself up again.”

Tsunoda declared in China, where Lawson was basically the slowest driver of all throughout the Shanghai weekend, that he was “100 per cent” ready to replace the New Zealander.

The Japanese also said he was confident he would be “faster”.

“He can say whatever he wants,” a downcast Lawson, 23, said at the end of his dire Chinese GP weekend. “I’ve been racing him for years, I’ve beaten him in junior categories and I’ve done it in F1.”

It’s also rumoured that Tsunoda’s replacement at Racing Bulls from Suzuka onwards could be Franco Colapinto – but veteran Swiss journalist Roger Benoit doubts that.

He thinks Alpine is clearly shaping up to put the highly-rated young Argentine rookie into Jack Doohan’s seat. “For Doohan, one flop and mistake follows another,” Benoit wrote in Blick newspaper.

As for Red Bull, team management will get together this week – reportedly Thursday – to discuss what to do about the problematic RB21 car, and Lawson.

“There’s a meeting in Milton-Keynes this week where we’ll discuss when and how we can close this gap,” advisor Dr Helmut Marko told Servus TV. “We’re worried, but we’re not giving up.”

Team boss Christian Horner acknowledges that the 2025 Red Bull is particularly hard to drive, raising the possibility that any replacement for Lawson will be just as likely to struggle.

Schumacher is highly critical of the energy drink-owned team.

“It’s pure chaos at Red Bull,” said the former grand prix winner. “Not only is the main team too slow, they’re also swapping drivers around like a charade. I have to say, I find it unbelievable.

“Above all, just incredibly bad from a management perspective. They’re destabilising the good Racing Bulls team, which is finally doing well with both drivers, and in my opinion, they’re just going to burn out Tsunoda as well, who also has no chance against Max (Verstappen).”

Schumacher continued: “No matter who you put in that second car, they’ll be sent home within a few races. So I’d recommend keeping Lawson in the car and instead work on making the car more competitive.

“Certainly if I was Tsunoda’s manager, I wouldn’t recommend him going there.”