Ralf Schumacher has gone a step further than Red Bull in assessing Liam Lawson and believes the Kiwi shouldn’t be in a Formula 1 car at all.

After two races of the F1 2025 championship, Red Bull has made the difficult decision to pull Liam Lawson from their senior team line-up by swapping him with the experienced Yuki Tsunoda from the sister Racing Bulls squad.

Ralf Schumacher pulls no punches as drastic Liam Lawson assessment made

Lawson’s difficulty with adjusting to life in Red Bull’s RB21, and the resulting effect it had on his mental headspace, resulted in the team making the big call to drop the rookie driver back into their sister team, a lower-pressure environment which will allow him to try rebuilding – in similar fashion to how Pierre Gasly and Alex Albon have done in the past.

But their decision doesn’t have the support of former Grand Prix winner turned pundit Ralf Schumacher, who believes the Kiwi doesn’t merit a place on the grid at all.

“He is replaced like a wet rag after two races. That’s tough,” Schumacher said to Germany’s Formel1.de, in sympathy for Lawson’s plight, before explaining that the switch back “astonished” him as he wonders “what Lawson’s doing at Racing Bulls now”.

“I know I’ll be hated for this by one or two spectators, but I wouldn’t have put Liam Lawson in a Formula 1 car at all,” he said, before seemingly pointing to Red Bull’s rising junior star Arvid Lindlad.

“I would have given the opportunity directly to a young driver. There are enough in the queue.”

Lawson’s inability to adjust, a fact that the Kiwi driver admitted himself he needed to do “as a professional driver”, means that, in Schumacher’s eyes, he’ll never be regarded as a top-level driver.

“Because one thing is also clear: Lawson will probably never become a top driver, and in a situation like this, you might as well go for the next one in line and try your luck,” Schumacher said.

While critical of Lawson, Schumacher was also negative about Red Bull’s handling of the situation, saying that the team should have looked externally by hiring the experienced Nico Hulkenberg as “that would have worked well”.

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It’s in Red Bull’s team management – who were unanimous in the decision to pull Lawson out of his seat to protect him – that Schumacher was particularly critical.

“I don’t think everything is harmonising anymore,” he said.

“Red Bull must now urgently draw the consequences from the whole thing. Because Christian Horner seems to have been wrong. In my opinion, he backed the wrong horses and lost the good people.”

Red Bull’s advisor Helmut Marko also came in for criticism, with the German pundit saying, “He often has a lucky hand.”

But it was “not far from total failure,” Schumacher said, because Marko “pushed Lawson too hard. I think two races are simply not enough for a young driver.”

This somewhat paradoxical position was concluded by Schumacher’s assessment of how Tsunoda will do in Lawson’s seat, with the German believing that the Japanese driver will also struggle.

“Now, without testing in a new team, alongside Max Verstappen – I don’t see where he can win,” he said.

“If he gets halfway there, then that’s normal. But if he’s as far away as Lawson, then that’s it for his career.

“The crucial question now is: Can he get more out of the car? I think so with his experience. I think the car suits him a bit more than Lawson. But Max drives at such an incredible level that no one can simply hold their own next to him.”

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