What Max Verstappen told media that indicates Yuki Tsunoda is facing the same problem as Liam Lawson in RB21

Red Bull caused some early drama in the 2025 Formula 1 season when they announced they would be swapping Liam Lawson for Yuki Tsunoda after two races.

Lawson was supposed to be the successor to Sergio Perez, who underperformed in 2024 and eventually contributed to Red Bull losing the Constructors’ Championship.

For 2025, they wanted to rectify that by promoting Lawson, after Helmut Marko and Christian Horner were impressed with his results in Racing Bulls.

But Lawson suffered two Q1 exits and scored zero points in both the Australian and Chinese Grand Prix weekends, with Red Bull conceding that he’d lost his confidence and needed more time.

Tsunoda has taken over, and while he’s offered a slight improvement, Max Verstappen indicated that he is now suffering from the same problem as Lawson when speaking to media at the Spanish GP, according to journalist Ronald Vording.

Max Verstappen tells media that Yuki Tsunoda is finding out how hard RB21 is to drive

Tsunoda lines up in P19 on the grid after a disastrous qualifying session at Barcelona, after his time was over a second slower than Verstappen.

When discussing his form after the qualifying session with the media, Verstappen referenced how hard Tsunoda is finding the RB21 to drive.

“Max said Tsunoda is not a ‘pancake’ – that’s the literal quote – and he added that perhaps this is a sign” The follow-up question was, of course, a sign of what? And Verstappen said: “You can fill that in for yourselves,” said Vording.

“What he means is quite clear, and when we noticed it, Max said: “Yes, Yuki is now also realising that himself.” Tsunoda himself sounded dejected and a bit desperate when he came into the square in front of the media.”

What makes the RB21 so hard to drive?

Verstappen has a history of crushing his teammates at Red Bull but this scenario is much more circumstantial compared to the others.

The RB21 is an evolution of the RB20, and that was also a difficult car to get into the right operating window in terms of setup.

Red Bull is wary of Tsunoda following Verstappen’s lead when it comes to car setup, which is where he is potentially going wrong, as the Dutchman likes a very sharp front end that other drivers can’t cope with.

Questions will likely be asked of Tsunoda if his disappointing form continues, having only scored four points compared to Sergio Perez’s 107 points at the same time last year.