Red Bull confirm brutal Lawson Tsunoda driver swap

Red Bull has made the brutal decision to drop Liam Lawson after just two grands prix and hand Yuki Tsunoda the chance he has long craved.

The move follows Lawson's wretched start to life in the Red Bull hot seat after team principal Christian Horner and advisor Helmut Marko placed their faith in the New Zealander to replace Sergio Perez at the end of last year.

With immediate effect from Tsunoda's home grand prix in Japan on April 4-6, he will partner Max Verstappen at Red Bull. Lawson returns to Racing Bulls, the team he drove for in two stints in 2023 and last year.

A Red Bull statement read: "Following a difficult opening period to the season for Liam Lawson, Red Bull Racing have made the decision that from the 2025 Japan GP, Yuki Tsunoda will drive for Red Bull Racing and Liam will drive for Racing Bulls.

"Red Bull is in the unique position of having four seats on the Formula 1 grid, across Red Bull Racing and Racing Bulls.

"As such, the team have made the decision to exercise a driver rotation, that will see Yuki partner current and four-time world champion, Max Verstappen."

Horner and Marko met with Red Bull majority owner Chalerm Yoovidhya, and other leading shareholders in Dubai on Tuesday, to determine the team's course of action, resulting in the harsh call for Lawson.

It is understood Red Bull will now lean heavily on Tsunoda's four years of experience to help develop the RB21, which has so far proven a handful for even Verstappen to drive, and Lawson, in particular, found hard to handle.

Lawson qualified 18th and crashed out of the season-opening Australian Grand Prix. What followed a week later in China was a double disaster as he was slowest in both qualifying sessions for the sprint and grand prix.

Lawson's miserable showing was a kick in the teeth for Horner and Marko, who felt that the 22-year-old's potential was greater than that of Tsunoda after reviewing the data from the final six grands prix of last season when they were team-mates at RB.

Although not having raced at either of the first two tracks, Lawson has failed to show that potential, despite clear balance issues with the RB21. 

Lawson, however, has failed to score a point whilst Verstappen has 36 to leave him second in the standings.

Over the Chinese Grand Prix weekend, neither Horner nor Marko refused to rule out the possibility of a driver swap, even though Lawson has experience of the upcoming Suzuka circuit after competing in Super Formula, as well as the Bahrain International Circuit following pre-season testing.

For the sake of their constructors' championship hopes, however, Red Bull has decided to turn to Tsunoda after four years with its 'sister' team in its various guises.

Tsunoda had to wait until the post-season one-day test in Abu Dhabi at the end of last year to finally get his first taste of a Red Bull, apparently performing admirably, although was ultimately overlooked for Lawson, who will now partner rookie Isack Hadjar at Racing Bulls.

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