The 2025 Formula 1 season has seen just two races and the driver market has already sprung into action.
Liam Lawson has been replaced by Yuki Tsunoda at Red Bull after failing to score a point from the first two Grand Prix. The New Zealander will be back with Racing Bulls from the Japanese Grand Prix onwards.
Red Bull had felt Lawson would have the right mentality to go up against Max Verstappen in 2025 and that his driving style was ‘more aligned’ to the Dutchman than Sergio Perez.
The Mexican endured a miserable 2024 season as he finished eighth in the standings while Verstappen won the title. Perez scored less than half the points of his teammate as he did not finish in the top five after Miami.
Red Bull were hoping Lawson would be an improvement on the 35-year-old. However, Christian Horner has been proved wrong after the Kiwi driver could not get out of Q1 in Melbourne and Shanghai – qualifying last in the latter.
Lawson has the shortest Red Bull career in F1 history with just two races as he becomes the latest driver to struggle in the team’s second seat. No driver has been able to get to grips with the car’s sensitivity next to Verstappen.
Juan Pablo Montoya admits he was wrong about Sergio Perez as he says he did a ‘good job’ with the car he had
Lawson’s poor performances in 2025 are hugely concerning for Red Bull – even Perez, who many felt should have been dropped before 2024, managed to score podiums while he was struggling with the car.
Perez may have ‘contributed’ to Lawson’s poor start with his lack of feedback to his engineers. But the Mexican had also been voicing his struggles with the car to the team – most of which were ignored.
Mario Andretti says Lawson has made Perez look ‘very good’ with his 2025 performances. Juan Pablo Montoya seems to agree as he admits he was wrong about the Mexican.
Speaking with AS Colombia, the former F1 driver had felt Perez was ‘lacking’ but he now thinks he did a ‘good job’ with the machinery he had: “We have to start at the beginning of this conversation that they were wrong, that the problem wasn’t Checo and we were wrong.
“I have to accept that we thought Checo was lacking and if you look at the work that Checo was doing in that car because this car is an evolution of last year.
“Checo was doing a good job for what he had in the car, Checo was doing a good job and that’s why people have given Red Bull so hard because they lowered Checo and played around and this is what always happens.
“It’s much easier to blame the driver than the car and the team, they already burned one, they burned Checo and they ended Checo’s race.”
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Why have all of Max Verstappen’s Red Bull teammates failed?
While Lawson endured a torrid stint at Red Bull, it is worth mentioning that Perez was also knocked out of Q1 in the car. In 2024, he did not finish on the podium after the fifth round while Verstappen won nine races.
Lawson is now the fourth driver to be dropped by Red Bull after failing to perform alongside Verstappen. The machine is so tailored to the Dutchman’s driving style that no driver has adapted to the setup.
Many fear Tsunoda will be the next to fail. The Japanese driver had been producing some impressive performances at Racing Bulls, reaching Q3 in every qualifying session thus far in 2025.
One Mexican journalist recently claimed that Perez did not want Red Bull to sign Tsunoda. He fears that the team will just cut ties with him if he cannot deliver the results.
