The writing looks to be on the wall for Liam Lawson who has endured a dreadful start to his Red Bull Racing career and may not even line up for them at the next race at Suzuka
After just two Grands Prix, one sprint race and zero points scored, Liam Lawson’s Red Bull Racing career may already be over. The first two weekends of the new Formula 1 season have been a chastening experience for a young racer whose big break has turned into a nightmare.
Picking Lawson, with his 11 Grands Prix-worth of F1 experience, over Yuki Tsunoda who has driven for sister team Racing Bulls for four full seasons was a bold move. It wasn’t necessary about ability, but temperament – Red Bull worry explosive Tsunoda may combust under the pressure of being Max Verstappen’s team-mate.
Regardless, they could be about to find out. Mirror Sport reported on Saturday that an early decision is likely to be made on Lawson’s future this season. And now it has emerged that he may even already have driven for Red Bull Racing for the final time.
No final decision has yet been taken but Red Bull will consider swapping Lawson and Tsunoda for the next race, the Japanese Grand Prix. It would give the latter the chance to drive in front of his own fans in a more competitive car.
Speaking after the Shanghai race, which Lawson finished 15th on the road but was promoted to 12th after three disqualifications, team principal Christian Horner did little to quell speculation over a driver change. He refused to rule out the prospect of doing do when asked about it in a session with journalists.
Horner said he feels “very sorry” for the 23-year-old Kiwi and made it clear he thinks Lawson “has got potential”. He also said: “We’ve got a duty to look after him,” and the best way to do that right now may well be to take him out of the firing line.
Most reasonable people will feel as bad for Lawson as Horner does. After all, his woeful qualifying and race results – he has yet to score a point while Verstappen is second in the standings with 36 – say far less about his ability than they do about how temperamental and difficult to drive the RB21 is.
Verstappen has admitted himself that the Racing Bulls car looks to be far more compliant than the Red Bull Racing machine. The only reason Tsunoda and Isack Hadjar have only managed to score just three points between them so far is because they have been compromised in both Grands Prix by incorrect and costly team strategy decisions.
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The results have been shocking but, in the media pen, Lawson has handled things very impressively. His predecessor Sergio Perez often found a million things to blame other than himself when things went wrong, but Lawson has been refreshingly forthright and shouldered the blame, admitting on several occasions that he needs to do more.
That has been great to see, but it has also made it all the more tough to watch things continue to go pear-shaped. Honesty won’t save his Red Bull Racing career – only results can do that and Lawson may have already run out of opportunities to get them.
The real scrutiny, though, should not be on his shoulders. The tough questions have to be asked of the Red Bull hierarchy, of Horner and of young driver chief Helmut Marko, following another failure to find a suitable team-mate for Verstappen which stretches back to the 2018 season, when Daniel Ricciardo left.
Pierre Gasly cracked under the pressure. Alex Albon was promoted when he was still far too inexperienced. Perez had his moments but wilted when the heat was on. And now Red Bull appear to have made the same mistake they did with Albon by choosing Lawson over the more experienced Tsunoda.
It makes them look even more silly for not trying to sign Carlos Sainz when he was available for months last year while he waited for a front-running team to come calling. They never did, so he went with the long-term project at Williams.
Verstappen is always going to be the main man at Red Bull for as long as he is there and his driving style will make it difficult for any team-mate to adapt to the same car. What Horner and Marko have to do is finally find someone who can not only do that, but who also has the mental toughness to stay composed during the time it takes.