The pressure within the Red Bull team is unsustainable and the future of Liam Lawson seems more than decided. The Austrian Formula 1 team has a very short fuse, and only two races have been enough for the New Zealand driver to be more than sentenced. Yuki Tsunoda will be the one to take his seat.
Liam Lawson out of Red Bull
The news has not yet been made official, but it seems like an open secret that Liam Lawson will become team history in the next few hours. He is already team history for having the worst start by a debutant in Red Bull, after scoring two zeros and for his poor qualifying in the Chinese GP and the Australian GP. Only in the sprint did he seem to get his head up, where he gained six places starting last, but we must not forget that this race, especially for the cars at the back who were not risking anything, was more of a mere training session and he went for it all, even colliding with a couple of drivers when overtaking them.
Helmut Marko has been one of the most critical of the driver, a few days ago he set the next three races as an ultimatum, but it seems that not even that, given the result of the last race. Red Bull is a team designed for excellence, and if victories cannot be achieved, they must fight to be at the top. In this sense, having Max Verstappen does not help Lawson at all. Despite Red Bull’s bad run of form, the four-time world champion has managed to put the car at the top of the field, coming close to victory in Australia and in the sprint race in China.
“There will be a meeting in Milton Keynes this week to discuss when and how we can close the gap. Until then, it’s all about scoring as many points as possible. We’re worried, but it’s not like we’re throwing in the towel.”
Yuki Tsunoda, the substitute
But Helmut Marko goes further, and although he did not confirm Lawson’s departure, he was already talking about the progress of Yuki Tsunoda, a candidate to take the wheel left by the New Zealander. “Yuki is a different Yuki to previous years. He’s in the best shape of his life. Obviously, he changed management. He has a different approach. He’s more mature. It has taken time, but now it seems to be working,”
Horner tries to protect Lawson
For his part, Cristian Horner tried to put out the fire after the race, aware of what Lawson’s situation was going to generate, and came to his defense. “There are always rumors in the paddock, we have just finished the race and now we will look at the data,” he analyzed. “It was a tough race with Liam. We have tried to change things in the car’s configuration and we have obtained good data. I was not happy with the balance, but we will analyze it and try to get a lot of information about it.”
The truth is that the arrival of Liam Lawson has always been a matter of controversy at Red Bull, not because there were doubts about his level (which he is now unable to demonstrate), but because of the circumstances in which he arrived. In May, Red Bull surprised everyone with the renewal of Checo Pérez when he was half a body outside the team, a million-dollar renewal with the aim of allowing the Mexican to focus on obtaining better results. But nothing changed, and after strong pressure from within the team, he was dismissed at a high cost. This was expected to put indirect pressure on Lawson, who has not even been able to come close to the poor results of the Mexican.
The decision seems imminent, although Red Bull has already shown us on many occasions how situations within the team can take unexpected turns.