Liam Lawson has been axed by Red Bull Racing after just two races in 2025, with Yuki Tsunoda promoted to partner Max Verstappen from the Japanese Grand Prix
Ted Kravitz has branded Red Bull’s decision to drop Liam Lawson after just two races “crazy” despite pressing team boss Christian Horner on the Kiwi driver’s disastrous form.
Lawson, who was fast-tracked from Racing Bulls over Yuki Tsunoda to take Sergio Perez’s seat for the 2025 season, had a nightmare start to 2025 with a crash in his Red Bull debut in Australia, followed by a lowly 12th-place finish in China.
Despite those setbacks, many have questioned the wisdom of demoting Lawson back to Racing Bulls so soon, particularly given his unfamiliarity with the Melbourne and Shanghai tracks. There were hopes that Lawson might improve at round three at Suzuka, where he has experience from Japan’s premier single-seater competition, Super Formula.
Kravitz didn’t hold back during what turned out to be Lawson’s last outing with Red Bull, reminding Horner of the costly decision to pay off Perez a year early after a difficult 2024. After a disappointing qualifying session in China, Horner said: “It’s been a tough day in the office for him today, so we’ll have a good look at it and go through it and obviously try and give him the best car for tomorrow.”
Kravitz questioned: “But you need him to score the Constructors’ [Championship] points. You didn’t pay off Checo for this, did you? I mean, the point was to replace Checo with a quicker driver, and is he just not a quicker driver?”
However, Kravitz maintains that Red Bull should have kept their faith in Lawson. On the Sky Sports F1 podcast, before the decision was made public, he said: “They’d be crazy to replace Lawson for Japan because Lawson knows Suzuka like the back of his hand and is clearly going to be better there.”
“He’s never driven in China and Australia and it [China] is a really tricky track to get the best out of. He is seven-tenths behind Verstappen, which isn’t years in F1. It is years this year because the pack is so tight. That’s why he hasn’t got out of Q1.”
Kravitz suggested a way for Red Bull to alleviate the pressure, adding: “I just wonder whether Red Bull could diffuse the whole situation by saying, ‘We made the commitment, we got to where we got to with Checo [Perez], that’s the past. If it means we finish further down in the Constructors’ Championship, so be it.”
In defence of the move to demote Lawson, Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko told the BBC: “His performance was unfortunately not good enough and that comes from self-confidence.
“We were worried that his self-confidence is so damaged that he could not bring his normal performance. We have to have two drivers for the constructors championship and also to support Max. Yuki has until the end of the season because we believe he can do the job.”
