Liam Lawson was quicker than Max Verstappen in key area at the Chinese Grand Prix before he ‘destroyed’ his lap

Liam Lawson looks set to start the next race of the 2025 Formula 1 season as a Racing Bulls driver with Red Bull preparing to make another change to their driver line-up.

Red Bull announced 99 days ago that Liam Lawson would be replacing Sergio Perez after a disappointing campaign for the Mexican driver.

However, in that time, the 23-year-old has taken part in a winter of preparation back in New Zealand and at the team’s Milton Keynes factory and a disrupted pre-season test, before Lawson raced in Australia for the first time and then drove at a very unfamiliar Shanghai circuit.

Team principal Christian Horner and chief advisor Helmut Marko have decided that’s enough evidence to make their most drastic driver swap in 20 years of competing in Formula 1.

Lawson is expected to be replaced by Yuki Tsunoda in time for the Japanese Grand Prix, and while the data doesn’t look good for the New Zealander, there were signs in China that he was getting to grips with the RB21.

READ MORE: Who is Red Bull Racing F1 driver Liam Lawson? Everything you need to know

Liam Lawson faster than Max Verstappen for majority of Q1 run at the Chinese Grand Prix

Journalist Jon Noble was speaking on The Race F1 podcast and discussing why Red Bull have decided to drop Lawson.

He delved into the data of his P20 exit from qualifying and explained: “I looked at his Q1 lap in Shanghai, for example, just to see, because he talked about, ‘It’s not every corner, it’s not every lap,’ and if you look at his lap, there were kind of two corners where he was losing all his time.

“It was the first sequence around kind of turn one into whatever the order they number it, turn two, turn three.

“He lost a lot of time, but then from turn three all the way through to the corner onto the back straight, actually, he gained on Verstappen.

We’ll be charging from the second row on Race Day 🏁

Result ⏱️ PIA, RUS, NOR, Max P4, HAM, LEC, HAD, ANT, TSU, ALB. Liam P20.#F1 || #ChineseGP 🇨🇳 pic.twitter.com/2h2OU4yZ2f

— Oracle Red Bull Racing (@redbullracing) March 22, 2025

“He was competitive, [he] wasn’t bleeding time, but then something went away in that long right-hander so he was slower coming out of there and then lost all the time, because he lost momentum, all the way down to the hairpin, and it basically destroyed the lap until the end.

“So, it’s not as if he’s off the pace everywhere it’s just in certain corners but I think this is Max’s ability to get speed out of the car in all circumstances, all corners, all speed ranges and when it’s got trouble he can much easier cope with it than someone like Lawson.”

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Liam Lawson’s final radio message in China speaks volumes about Red Bull’s 2025 F1 car

Lawson set the slowest time in both qualifying sessions in China, and if the swap is confirmed before Suzuka, he would be the first driver in years to race for an F1 team without ever starting a Grand Prix from the grid for them.

Verstappen has made it clear that the car’s operating window hasn’t improved since last year, when Perez was also struggling to advance out of Q1, and alarm bells are ringing at Red Bull that a fix might not be easy to find at this stage of the development cycle.

Lawson was critical of the balance of his car after the chequered flag flew in China, suggesting he was only able to keep the RB21 in the optimum window for a single lap.

Whether the more experienced Tsunoda is able to prove he’s an immediate upgrade is yet to be seen, but he has even less time to prepare than his old RB teammate for what’s set to be an incredibly high-pressure debut.