After just two races in the F1 2025 season, Red Bull has made the difficult call to swap Yuki Tsunoda into the seat of the struggling Liam Lawson.

With Lawson struggling to connect with the Red Bull RB21 and provide support to Max Verstappen near the front, Red Bull has opted for change by promoting Yuki Tsunoda from Racing Bulls into the Kiwi’s seat.

Red Bull swap Liam Lawson and Yuki Tsunoda

Last season, with Sergio Perez enduring a nightmare turn of form that saw the experienced Mexican completely fall off the boil and, essentially, turn Red Bull into a one-car team, it was evident change was needed.

The two candidates for the seat were Tsunoda and Lawson – Tsunoda being the far more experienced of the two, having arrived in F1 with AlphaTauri in 2021, while Lawson’s experience consisted of two short stints over two seasons.

Lawson, while beaten by Tsunoda during their six-race stint together at the end of last year, proved not far off the Japanese driver. This suggested a high potential, given his inexperience, and his mentality was one of utter self-confidence and belief – exactly the type of driver Red Bull needed to survive the mental barrage that any teammate of Verstappen faces.

It’s for that reason that Lawson was promoted ahead of Tsunoda, but just two races into the championship in which Lawson has seriously struggled, Red Bull has reversed the decision – Tsunoda will take over Lawson’s seat in Japan, while Lawson will slot back into the Racing Bull.

Interestingly, the confirmation from the team specifies that, having access to four seats on the grid, the switch for Japan is an exercise in “driver rotation”, suggesting that further changes could be made in the second Red Bull cockpit should Tsunoda also flounder.

“It has been difficult to see Liam struggle with the RB21 at the first two races, and as a result, we have collectively taken the decision to make an early switch,” team boss Christian Horner said.

“We came into the 2025 season with two ambitions, to retain the World Drivers’ Championship and to reclaim the World Constructors’ title, and this is a purely sporting decision.

“We acknowledge there is a lot of work to be done with the RB21, and Yuki’s experience will prove highly beneficial in helping to develop the current car.

“We welcome him to the team and are looking forward to seeing him behind the wheel of the RB21. We have a duty of care to protect and develop Liam, and together, we see that after such a difficult start, it makes sense to act quickly so Liam can gain experience, as he continues his F1 career with Visa Cash App Racing Bulls, an environment and a Team he knows very well.”

Lawson thus steps back into a lower-pressure environment where he has developed great familiarity over the last two years, while Tsunoda now has his chance to shine and put his experience and knowledge to the test in what could be a career-defining switch for the Japanese driver.

More on Red Bull in Formula 1

👉 All the mid-season driver swaps Red Bull have made in their F1 history

👉 10 talented racing drivers you forgot were once Red Bull juniors

Why has Red Bull made this difficult decision?

Rowing back on such a high-profile decision so quickly after it was made is not a decision that’s made lightly – after all, it’s a very public climbdown from what appeared to be an informed and well-thought-out process over an extended period of time.

But Lawson’s inability to connect with the RB21 was alarming for Red Bull, an altogether worst-case scenario which meant discussions between the both sides of shareholders, Helmut Marko, and Christian Horner quickly turned towards discussing how to rectify the situation.

Lawson’s disastrous Australian GP weekend, in which he failed to clear Q1 after a solid, if unspectacular, Friday practice had Marko already pressing the panic button to have Lawson swapped out immediately.

This was after the Bahrain test had left Red Bull somewhat concerned over Lawson’s comfort with the RB21, as the Kiwi had left the garage scratching their heads over what had been an underwhelming day and a half behind the wheel.

This concern became outright alarm in Australia when it became clear that Lawson’s struggles to connect with the car hadn’t been specific to the test. Not only was Lawson not enjoying the handling, but it was clear that the mental resilience that Red Bull had hoped for was being tested immediately.

While Verstappen was hauling his RB21 around to challenge for the top spots and harass the superior McLarens on race day, Lawson failed to make much by way of forward progress and, when the rain came, the ask to continue on slick tyres was a step too far for the rookie.

With Lawson’s head already drooping, the Chinese Grand Prix weekend did little to assuage the issues. Not only was he unable to find pace, grip, or confidence, but his demeanour had become concerning – the normally quite chipper and upbeat Kiwi had become somewhat despondent and morose, with one source revealing Lawson had spent most of his weekend apologising to anyone present about his lack of competitiveness.

Worse, Lawson’s three outings – the Bahrain test and the two Grands Prix weekends – had failed to yield a moment in the data that had given Red Bull confidence that he could match Verstappen at any point around any of those circuits.

As Lawson explained over that weekend, the lack of testing and in-season track time away from a Grand Prix weekend is negligible, meaning that there simply were no solutions to quickly turn the situation around – Red Bull’s choices thus became whether or not to give Lawson the time to find his feet over the season, potentially costing the team another title as every weekend ticked by with lower than expected results, or to rip the band-aid off on admitting an error in judgement and respond by giving Tsunoda the seat.

Given the “duty of care” which Horner referred to, both in the announcement press release and after the Chinese GP weekend, it’s therefore unsurprising that Red Bull has made the call to swap the pair around.

With the seat having been up in the air between Lawson and Tsunoda just over three months ago, Lawson’s rapid change of mental state meant the scales tipped back firmly in Tsunoda’s direction.

This was despite Lawson’s social media use being restricted by the team following his announcement of his drive due to the extent of the negativity shown towards him by various fanbases.

A source has indicated to PlanetF1.com that the feeling in the camp was that it was a little too much, too soon, for Lawson – the reality of stepping up as a rookie to race alongside F1’s current talisman, Max Verstappen, under the weight of expectation and the pressure of delivering when his predecessors had not, got to him in ways that weren’t foreseen.

While the RB21 is undoubtedly a tricky beast, as Lawson made clear by his reveal of how he was struggling to get the car into what is a very narrow operating window, the Kiwi is understood to have been quite open about the fact that he also was not driving to the best of his abilities.

As a result, the decision amongst Red Bull’s top brass was unanimous – both sides of Red Bull’s shareholders, Marko, and Horner were in agreement that the best course of action for everyone was to swap Tsunoda into the Red Bull, and drop Lawson back to Racing Bulls where he can follow the same path that Pierre Gasly and Alex Albon did in rediscovering confidence and faith in his abilities.

For Tsunoda, whose future with Red Bull is uncertain as F1 2026 looms and an upcoming split between Honda and the Red Bull organisation becomes reality, the promotion marks a huge career opportunity – he now has the chance to potentially blow the socks off Red Bull’s management, whilst also putting himself in the shop window for a drive elsewhere.

With Red Bull junior Arvid Lindblad eyeing up an FIA Superlicence this summer, the pressure is on Tsunoda to impress to the point of being a potential long-term solution for Red Bull – a feeling that isn’t currently the case.

Lawson, whose youthful confidence in his own abilities has now had to give way to a more humbling position, has taken a serious career blow, and it will be a devastating period of time for someone who has never had their abilities in doubt before. But it’s key to note that the journey isn’t over for Lawson – it’s in his hands from here, with Racing Bulls a likely home for the foreseeable.

After all, referring back to the word “rotation” as was mentioned in the press release, what does Red Bull do if Tsunoda meets with the same struggles?

Read Next: Yuki Tsunoda issues first response after Red Bull promotion