Neither Yuki Tsunoda nor Liam Lawson were wanted in the second Red Bull seat by team boss Christian Horner, at least according to Ralf Schumacher.

Instead, the six-time F1 race winner claims that Horner wanted to place Franco Colapinto alongside Max Verstappen for F1 2025, after bursting onto the scene with Williams last season.

Franco Colapinto at Red Bull: Horner’s pick?

After Sergio Perez vacated his Red Bull seat following the 2024 campaign, Red Bull turned to Liam Lawson as his replacement, calling the New Zealander up off the back of a pair of stints with junior team Racing Bulls, amassing 11 grands prix in total.

However, after just two race weekends at Red Bull – his Melbourne and Shanghai outings producing no points and a clean sweep of Q1 exits – Lawson has been sent back to Racing Bulls, with Yuki Tsunoda coming the other way after four seasons and a bit with the junior squad.

The early swap though has Schumacher claiming that Colapinto was the one who Red Bull principal Horner desired in the second Red Bull seat, the Argentinean scoring five points across nine starts with Williams last season after replacing Logan Sargeant.

Colapinto was unable to secure a seat on the F1 2025 grid and subsequently became Alpine reserve.

As per Schumacher, it was the wish of Red Bull senior advisor and driver programme boss Helmut Marko that they looked within their own driver pool.

Addressing Red Bull’s start to the season on the Backstage Boxengasse podcast – the team sat P3 in the early Constructors’ standings with 36 points, Schumacher began: “You have to admit that Red Bull have already disappeared into mediocrity.

“If they didn’t have Max Verstappen, who is somehow pulling the coals out of the fire, so you don’t really know technically where the car is going.

“All the engineers seem a bit unsure, then Dr. Marko comes along and internally they don’t really agree on the drivers because one thing was clear.

“Dr. Marko obviously wanted to take two drivers from his own squad for Red Bull, that was Lawson or Tsunoda. Christian Horner doesn’t think much of either of them, he wanted the Argentinian Colapinto, who, of course, shot himself in the foot when he had those three crashes.

“Then, of course, Horner was missing the power in the team at the time as Dr. Marko was simply stronger and now everything is turning around again.”

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But, as Tsunoda becomes the latest driver to take on the Verstappen challenge – the reigning four-time World Champion having become something of a Red Bull team-mate killer – Schumacher issued a warning.

“Max Verstappen, who has developed the car for himself, you can only really lose, not win.”

And the decision from Red Bull to switcheroo Lawson and Tsunoda is one which Schumacher feels is not fair on Racing Bulls, after the team made an impressive start to F1 2025 with the partnership of Tsunoda and rookie Isack Hadjar.

“I also don’t think it’s right to weaken the team like that,” said Schumacher. “Racing Bulls are doing well with both drivers.”

Tsunoda’s Red Bull promotion means he will debut with the team in front of his home fans at Suzuka.

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