It’s official. Lian Lawson is no longer a Red Bull driver and Yuki Tsunoda will be in charge of getting behind the wheel of the car. The New Zealand driver, after only two races with the Austrian team, is moving down to Racing Bulls, where he will have his last chance in his short F1 career.
Red Bull sacks Lian Lawson
It was an open secret and we were just waiting for official confirmation, and Red Bull has now done so. After only two races, Lian Lawson is no longer a Red Bull driver and is demoted to Racing Bulls, while the beneficiary is Yuki Tsunoda, who moves up to Red Bull and will be Verstappen’s new teammate.
Lian Lawson made his debut last season with Racing Bulls after taking over from Daniel Ricciardo, achieving good results in the half of the season he competed in. After Red Bull decided to dispense with “Checo” Pérez (after having renewed him for three years in the summer), they opted for Lian Lawson, rejecting other options on the market, such as Carlos Sainz, or denying the wheel to Yuki Tsunoda, a replacement that seemed more logical given the Japanese driver’s experience.
Lian Lawson has only competed in two races with Red Bull, the impatience shown by the team with him seems hasty, although the truth is that the driver has given him time to enter the history of the team, but for something negative, the worst debutant in the history of Red Bull. Helmut Marko was the first to question the continuity of the driver and one of those responsible for this decision, taken on Tuesday after a meeting in Dubai, which is now official.
Max Verstappen had tried to stop the change. The four-time world champion does not understand why this decision was made in just two races, and he had communicated this to Horner and the Red Bull management, but it seems that his mediation has been of little use.
Yuki Tsunoda takes over
Yuki Tsunoda made his F1 debut in 2021 and after several years of progression, he has been given the opportunity to drive for a big team. But it won’t be easy. He has just achieved good results in Racing Bulls, demonstrating his years of experience, but now he will have to prove himself in a team that will demand a lot from him, as we have seen.
Many think that Racing Bulls is better (or at least as good) as Red Bull this season. It is possible that his first results will be worse than those he was achieving, so we will see how patient his new team is.
Lian Lawson returns to Racing Bulls
Lian Lawson will have his last chance in F1. He has been on the grid for less than a year and his future in this world is already at stake. If he doesn’t manage to get good results, his life in Formula 1 will come to an end. We don’t know if the decision to give him the wheel was out of obligation or out of trust. During the week it had been said that Franco Colapinto could have been loaned to the team to take this wheel, but finally Alpine said that the Argentine would not be leaving the French team. We will see if Lawson is capable of bringing out the talent he has inside him or if, finally, he is living his last stage as a Formula 1 driver.
Red Bull has once again blown up, and we will see if the bet on Yuki Tsunoda is a good one or not. And we will see how Lawson fits in. Lawson has to look on the bright side and think that he is still in the hands of an F1 team, something many drivers dream of and few achieve.