When Red Bull entered talks with Sergio Pérez about parting ways for 2025 following his difficult season, it also had the challenge of choosing his replacement.
There was never an obvious solution to the seat alongside Max Verstappen, one that has been a headache for Red Bull since Daniel Ricciardo’s departure in 2018. The team always faced a call between its two young drivers at RB, Yuki Tsunoda and Liam Lawson.
Many of the statistics pointed in Tsunoda’s favor. He is more experienced, with 97 races since debuting in 2021, and showed a step in performance each season. Lawson has just 11 grand prix starts to his name. In their six-race stint as teammates to end this season after Lawson replaced Daniel Ricciardo, Tsunoda won the qualifying head-to-head 6-0 and outscored Lawson by eight points to four.
But as Pérez neared the exit, Lawson always led the chase for the seat. The contrasting body language between him and Tsunoda in Abu Dhabi was telling — Tsunoda seemed resigned to another year at RB despite having his maiden Red Bull test set for the following Tuesday.
The decision to go with Lawson was made in a meeting between Red Bull’s senior management and shareholders on the Monday after the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. After talks to part ways with Pérez concluded and his departure was announced on Wednesday, all was clear for Lawson to be announced as a Red Bull Racing driver for 2025.
It marks the realization of a long-held dream for Lawson, stepping up to the senior Red Bull squad, as well as a dramatic turnaround after starting the year with no racing planned at all. But for Tsunoda, it closes the door to an opportunity that he feels he has proven himself to be ready for.
The decision to go for Lawson
The decision to go with Lawson over Tsunoda revolved around a few factors, including the belief that Lawson has a higher ceiling, considering how early he is in his F1 career.
“Eleven races is a short amount of time, but if you delve closely into his performances, in qualifying, the margins to Yuki were very tight, and on race pace, he’s come out on average above Yuki,” Red Bull team principal Christian Horner explained on Thursday.
“So there’s very, very little to choose between them. But when you look and you consider that Liam is still only 11 races (into his F1 career) and he’s already at that level, the potential for growth is still significant.”
One of Red Bull’s lingering questions about Tsunoda is his temperament and ability to deal with high-pressure moments, particularly given some of his previous outbursts on the team radio. With Lawson, Horner said there’d already been encouraging signs of handling the intensity of F1. In his first two races back in the car this year, in Austin and Mexico, Lawson went toe-to-toe against Fernando Alonso and Pérez, two of the most experienced drivers on the grid, holding his own.
“What has really stood out with him has been his attitude and his ability to deal with pressure,” Horner said. “I think Brazil was an interesting one, where all the rookies looked a little bit like rookies in Brazil this year. Liam didn’t drop the car, he didn’t make any mistakes. He’s looked like a seasoned campaigner.”
Horner said he thought Lawson had the “broad shoulders” required to handle the demands of being in a Red Bull seat that has chewed up and spat out Pierre Gasly, Alex Albon and Pérez in the past six years, with none managing to get close to Verstappen’s level of performance.
“Liam has got the right character to be able to cope with the pressure of being Max’s teammate,” Horner said. “And the expectations on him are very clear. We’re not expecting him to beat Max. Max is a generational talent.
“The objective for Liam is to get as close as he can and bag as many points as he can so we don’t have a 285-point deficit between the cars.”
What next for Tsunoda?
Given the purpose of Red Bull’s sister F1 team has always been to prepare drivers for the step up to the senior squad — Verstappen and fellow four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel are the most successful graduates — the decision to overlook Tsunoda will leave the Japanese driver asking questions about his future.
In July, Tsunoda said that he would find it “weird” if Red Bull would promote Lawson over him, as thought was given to a mid-season reshuffle, but the team opted to stick with Pérez through the remainder of 2024. In Abu Dhabi, when the winds were already blowing in Lawson’s favor, Tsunoda said it was “quite clear that I should get a chance” given his performances against his teammates.
Did Horner think Tsunoda could not have provided the performance the team expects of Lawson? “I think that Yuki could do that,” he replied. “I think the feeling within the team is that the trajectory that Liam is on has more potential, which is why we’ve taken that route.
“But that doesn’t rule out Yuki, in that it was a very split decision, and I think that, certainly, Yuki impressed the team when he tested last week in Abu Dhabi. His feedback was good. And I think that he, if required, would be there to be drawn on if we needed to.”
But Horner did acknowledge the decision would leave Tsunoda at a crossroads. Next season will be his fifth at RB, making him the longest-serving driver in the history of the Faenza-based team, as well as the last year that Honda, which has supported Tsunoda since Formula Four, will be Red Bull’s engine supplier.
“We’re acutely aware that if we’re not able to provide an opportunity for Yuki being (promoted), in all honesty, this year, does it make sense?” Horner said. “You can’t have a driver in the support team for five years. You can’t always be the bridesmaid. You’ve either got to let them go at that point or look at something different.”
Horner said that when he spoke to Tsunoda about the decision, he sensed “his motivation was to demonstrate that he warrants that opportunity,” particularly as RB bids to make a step forward in 2025, the second year under its new management team and name.
“He’s very determined, he knows that things change very quickly,” Horner said. “Who would’ve thought nine months ago we’d be sitting here talking about Liam Lawson being our driver for 2025? Things change quickly in this industry, and (Yuki is) aware of that and knows that he needs to be the one demonstrating that he’s the one knocking on the door.”
There’ll be no shortage of competition for Tsunoda to prove that. Formula Two runner-up Isack Hadjar will join him for 2025, his fourth teammate since the start of 2023 after Lawson, Ricciardo and Nyck de Vries. Red Bull will also have two juniors racing in F2 next year, Arvid Lindblad and Pepe Marti. Lindblad, 17, particularly stood out for his displays in F3 this year, winning four races.
Will history repeat itself?
When Red Bull signed Pérez for the 2021 season, it broke with the past. After recognizing it had promoted Gasly and Albon to the senior team too soon, Pérez brought almost a decade of F1 experience outside the Red Bull program.
To now turn back to youth and go with Lawson so soon brings a degree of risk, no matter how confident Horner may be in his potential and ability to handle the rigors of the Red Bull seat. Gasly lasted only 12 races, while Albon only made it a season and a half before being replaced by Pérez.
“The danger is there’s a repeat of that,” Horner acknowledged. “But I think that Liam is a different character. He’s a different personality to be able to deal with that pressure. He’s shown real resilience and strength of character with the opportunity that’s been provided to have to turn up and get on with it and deliver, and he’s done that.”
The difficulty of getting the most out of the Red Bull car in the way that Verstappen does has been a fundamental reason why the second driver has struggled at the team. The team is trying to develop a broader operating window for the RB21 car — the range of setups where it feels stable and at its quickest — after what Horner described as a “very narrow, very peaky performance window” this year. He also said Lawson’s driving style bore similarities to Verstappen’s.
“He drives the car in a similar fashion to Max,” Horner said. “He doesn’t shy away from having a very positive front end in the car. So I think in terms of driving characteristics, it will be easier for the cars to run more closely together in set-up.”
Horner also wanted to ensure Red Bull didn’t put too much pressure when Lawson went up against Verstappen, noting a change in perception compared to when Gasly and Albon raced in that seat.
“I think one of the things we’ll be looking to protect Liam from is expectation,” Horner said. “Of course, when Alex and Pierre were with the team, Max wasn’t a four-time world champion. He hadn’t won a world championship at that point.
“We have a very clear positioning in the team with where Max is at in his career and what we need from the second driver.”
The decision by Red Bull is significant for both Lawson and Tsunoda’s F1 careers. It’s a big call by Red Bull to back Lawson for what it believes is a higher potential ceiling.
Yet, as Verstappen proved when he got his chance in 2016, being so bold can pay off handsomely — and will be justified if it can reclaim its lost constructors’ crown in 2025.
Top photo: Mark Sutton/Getty Images, Mark Thompson/Getty Images, Rudy Carezzevoli/Getty Images; Design: Demetrius Robinson/The Athletic
