Red Bull considering new team-mate for Max Verstappen

Red Bull is to consider dropping Liam Lawson and making an immediate driver change, RacingNews365 understands.

The situation has arisen following a wretched start to the season for Lawson following his promotion from Racing Bulls over the winter as the replacement for Sergio Perez.

Red Bull opted for Lawson over Yuki Tsunoda after reviewing the data of the two drivers from the final six grands prix of last year after the New Zealander was handed a seat following the sacking of Daniel Ricciardo.

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said at the time of Lawson's appointment that he saw greater potential in the 22-year-old after 11 grands prix than from Tsunoda following his four years with the 'junior' team.

Lawson, however, has failed to show that potential in his two grands prix so far with Red Bull. He has yet to make it out of the first part of qualifying in three attempts - once in Australia and twice in China which also hosted the first sprint of the season.

At the Shanghai International Circuit, Lawson was the slowest on track in both qualifying sessions. It forced Red Bull into a pit lane start for the second successive race, and Lawson into a 'guinea pig' role as extensive changes were made to the car to gain vital data to further understand the handling of the RB21.

Lawson finished 15th - later promoted to 12th after disqualifications for Ferrari duo Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc, along with Alpine's Pierre Gasly - but he is without a point to his name after initially crashing out in Australia. In contrast, team-mate Max Verstappen is second in the standings with 36.

Red Bull is now poised to hold an emergency meeting this week to discuss its poor start to the season, with the RB21 off the pace of the leading McLaren MCL39, according to advisor Helmut Marko.

Regarding Lawson, neither Horner nor Marko is ruling out the possibility of making an immediate driver change, with the most logical candidate for the step up being Tsunoda ahead of his home race in Japan.

In his post-race media session after the Chinese Grand Prix, Horner twice declined the opportunity to deny a change would take place, even though he said he was "sorry" for what Lawson was going through. 

"Everything is purely speculative at the moment," he told media including RacingNews365. "We're going to take away the info and have a good look at it."

Across the weekend, Tsunoda said he was "100%" ready to step into the Red Bull if asked to do so for the Japanese GP.

RacingNews365 understands that although a potential swap is a possibility, no final decision has been reached.