Red Bull have been told they need to give Liam Lawson at least six races to get up to speed despite a rough start.

More pressure was put on Lawson following a P20 quali finish in China, but Sky F1 pundit Karun Chandhok believes it is too early to consider changing him.

Red Bull given Liam Lawson time warning

Following years of an underwhelming Sergio Perez, Lawson was brought in to make Red Bull more than the one-horse team it has been of late.

However, that has not yet played out with Max Verstappen scoring all of the team’s points so far this year, a fact that looks set to continue with Lawson’s P20 on the Chinese Grand Prix grid.

Chandhok however believes Red Bull should not rush into a decision and that the 23-year-old Kiwi needs at least six races to get used to the car.

“I think you’ve at least got to give him half a dozen races,” Chandhok said. “I think it’s a bit unfair [to drop him so soon].

“Clearly, it’s not an easy car at the moment and if you drop Yuki [Tsunoda] or Isack [Hadjar] into it, you have to give them half a dozen races before you judge them. I think it’s a bit unfair to judge before that.”

Chandhok did also say that the season has a “natural point” of where to judge and that is after the first five flyaway races when F1 heads for Europe.

“We’ve obviously got a natural point, the first five flyaways before we go to Europe. I imagine that’ll be a natural point where there’s some sort of conversation,” he said.

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Chandhok was joined on the broadcast by former Aston Martin strategist Bernie Collins who said the pace of the Racing Bulls is what is making Lawson’s life harder.

“When you’ve got both Racing Bulls out-qualifying the second Red Bull, then you’ve got to look at the situation,” she said.

“Now it’s only race two, so let’s not be too hard on Liam. But how many races before they have a check?

“Because we know that Racing Bulls on current pace is not faster than the Red Bull consistently but if they continuously out-qualify [Lawson], there’s something going wrong somewhere.”

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