Red Bull have major ‘frustration’ with Liam Lawson after his ‘quite telling’ Chinese Grand Prix comments

Red Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner will be wondering how he’s ended up in a position where another decision needs to be made on his driver line-up.

Horner faced months of questions about whether Sergio Perez was the right man for the job alongside Max Verstappen at Red Bull last year.

He eventually came to the conclusion that a change was needed and Red Bull confirmed Perez’s exit at the end of the campaign.

Liam Lawson was the man Red Bull decided to promote after two impressive spells with their sister team across 2023 and 2024.

Horner backed Lawson over Yuki Tsunoda despite the Japanese driver’s superior experience while Helmut Marko wanted to promote Lawson into a race seat for months before he eventually replaced Daniel Ricciardo.

Unfortunately, just two races into the 2025 campaign that decision is already being questioned with the 23-year-old unable to get to grips with the RB21.

Red Bull have to take much of the blame for Lawson’s struggles with Verstappen criticising his car and talking about how difficult it is to drive.

However, there is frustration within the Anglo-Austrian organisation after studying Lawson’s data up to this point in the campaign.

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Red Bull frustrated with lack of Liam Lawson ‘sensation’ after 2025 promotion

Journalist Jon Noble was speaking on The Race’s Patreon during the Chinese Grand Prix race weekend about Lawson’s difficulties.

He said: “It’s Formula 1, it’s tough, you’ve got to perform. From what I understand, the frustration is there hasn’t really been a kind of glimmer of sensation.

“If there had been strong practice sessions, or great race runs, or something brilliant in the races, then I think there would be a feeling that, OK, things haven’t worked on a Saturday, but we can see there’s potential, we can see improvement.

“But there is no explanation! I think they’re a bit lost about what’s happened.

“Liam, himself, I spoke to him in the pen afterwards [qualifying], [he] said it’s hard, I can’t get on with the characteristics of this car, he feels he can’t drive it.

“And I thought it was also quite telling, he said, ‘I would love to have the time to get on top of it, but I don’t have much time.’

“I wonder if he already knows the time pressure’s on.”

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Liam Lawson might have run out of time to impress Red Bull chiefs

Lawson will be frustrated that his preparation for the 2025 F1 season wasn’t as thorough as many of his fellow rookies.

The likes of Andrea Kimi Antonelli and Jack Doohan did thousands of kilometres of private testing while Lawson was disconsolate in Bahrain as one of his three sessions was cut short due to technical issues.

Lawson was disappointed to learn he was the only driver who had never raced at Albert Park when he arrived in Australia and he was one of six racers to be caught out by the rain during the race.

All of these small things have counted against him in his battle to try and keep up with Verstappen which is a fight no teammate has ever won.

The gap between the two drivers is too vast right now to justify his position in the team but it’s very hard to argue based on the evidence of the past few seasons that Tsunoda or any other driver will do a better job.