Liam Lawson has had a hard start to the 2025 season, after failing to establish a place at Red Bull before struggling upon swapping places with Yuki Tsunoda at Racing Bulls.
The 23-year-old started this year realising his childhood dream as Lawson replaced Sergio Perez to become a Red Bull driver. Yet the Kiwi could not get on top of the difficult RB21 and only spent two rounds of the 2025 F1 season in Milton Keynes before they gave him the axe.
Returning to Faenza has not yielded an instant improvement in the New Zealander’s results, either. Red Bull demoted Lawson back to Racing Bulls ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix and promoted Tsunoda to partner Max Verstappen. But the Kiwi’s wait for points still continues.
Peter Bayer initially felt Yuki Tsunoda replacing Liam Lawson at Red Bull was ‘not good news’ for Racing Bulls
Red Bull grew frustrated with Lawson failing to adapt to their car as he even seemed lost for answers after a bleak display at the Chinese Grand Prix. The Hastings native was the slowest driver in both qualifying sessions, and only finished the Sprint in P14 plus Grand Prix in P12.
So, they held an emergency meeting to discuss his future, while motorsport advisor Helmut Marko admitted Red Bull made a ‘mistake’ promoting Lawson. He has also continued to lack form at Racing Bulls, with Lawson only P17 in Japan, P16 in Bahrain and P12 in Saudi Arabia.
READ MORE: Who is Racing Bulls F1 driver Liam Lawson? Everything you need to know
Racing Bulls CEO Peter Bayer has also now revealed that his initial feeling when Marko called to inform the Faenza outfit of Lawson’s imminent return in a straight swap with Tsunoda was that it was ‘not good news’. He was not thrilled to go through a shake-up after a strong start.
Bayer has told RacingNews365: “I had a call from Helmut after China and he said they were thinking about making a move, that the pressure on Liam was rising, that he was finding it difficult and the testing in Bahrain didn’t work.
“To me, in that very moment, it was not good news because there was great harmony in the team. You could see the car was fast and the drivers were happy. Apart from a couple of small hiccups, we were off to a great start.”
Liam Lawson is still finding his feet back at Racing Bulls but impressed Isack Hadjar in Saudi Arabia
Bayer initially felt Tsunoda replacing Lawson at Red Bull and the latter re-joining Racing Bulls was ‘not good news’ for his Faenza squad, having built with Tsunoda since his debut in 2021 and ‘immediately’ established a connection with Isack Hadjar after he gained Lawson’s seat.
“We spent a lot of time over winter developing as a team,” he said. “It felt like last year we were on a good trajectory… We did a lot of work with Yuki, and with Isack we immediately had a good connection.”
READ MORE: Who is Racing Bulls 2025 F1 driver Isack Hadjar? Everything you need to know
Lawson’s return to Racing Bulls has also not been that ideal so far, whereas Tsunoda scored his first points with Red Bull in Bahrain with P9. The 24-year-old even got into Q3 in Bahrain and in Saudi Arabia, whereas the Kiwi did not get out of Q1 in his two rounds with Red Bull.
Racing Bulls are also still waiting for the Red Bull product to score his first points this season. Yet Lawson’s ‘really fast’ pace in the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix impressed Hadjar after finding a lot of speed once in clear air to finish 1.360s outside of the points without his 10s penalty.
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