Red Bull Racing faced a conundrum throughout the second half of last season as it became clear they could no longer continue with Sergio Perez.
Perez signed a new contract in 2024 that should have seen him through until the end of next year, but that was cut short during the winter break.
He was outperformed by Max Verstappen by 285 on the way to his fourth drivers’ championships and after assessing all of their options, Red Bull handed Liam Lawson an early promotion.
It’s too early to say whether or not that decision was a mistake, but it doesn’t appear to be too early for Red Bull to row back on their decision.
Lawson is set to be replaced by Yuki Tsunoda for the Japanese Grand Prix, making him the shortest-serving driver in the team’s history.
However, Ralf Schumacher believes that team principal Christian Horner wasn’t impressed by either option within Red Bull’s second team last year.
Instead, he wanted to sign Williams prodigy Franco Colapinto off the back of his impressive cameo at the back end of the 2024 season.
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Ralf Schumacher thinks Christian Horner wanted Franco Colapinto at Red Bull
Schumacher was speaking on the Backstage Boxengasse Podcast and suggested Tsunoda shouldn’t accept a Red Bull promotion, and when addressing the driver situation within the team, he said: “Max Verstappen, who has developed the car for himself, you can only really lose, not win.
“I also don’t think it’s right to weaken the team like that. Racing Bulls are doing well with both drivers, so it would be a real shame [for him] to go.
“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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Franco Colapinto is once again at the centre of the Formula 1 driver’s market
When Colapinto made his debut at the Italian Grand Prix last year, he was already aware that Williams didn’t have a race seat for him in 2025.
Colapinto was linked with a move to Red Bull among other teams, but eventually settled for a reserve driver role at Alpine this year.
Jack Doohan is under pressure, having only signed a short-term contract and for a while that looked like his best option to return to the grid.
| Grand Prix starts | 9 |
| Career points | 5 |
| First race | 2024 Italian Grand Prix |
| Best qualifying | 8th (2024 Azerbaijan Grand Prix) |
| Best result | 8th (2024 Azerbaijan Grand Prix) |
| Qualifying head-to-head | Albon 8-1 Colapinto |
| Grand Prix head-to-head | Albon 4-4 Colapinto |
However, Colapinto has since been linked to Racing Bulls as a potential option to replace Tsunoda following his promotion, leaving Lawson without a race seat.
That seems highly unlikely but demonstrates the potential – both in terms of driving ability and financial – that the 21-year-old possesses.
It wouldn’t be a surprise to see Colapinto racing again before the end of 2025, although suddenly there’s now an argument about which team he’ll be turning out for.
