Yuki Tsunoda just dealt Liam Lawson a bitter blow after latest Red Bull simulator comments

The first driver swap of the 2025 Formula 1 season has remarkably already taken place at Red Bull Racing just two race weekends into the campaign.

Yuki Tsunoda would have wondered over the winter break what he needed to do to grab team principal Christian Horner’s attention.

Despite only scoring three points in 2025 so far, his performances for Racing Bulls have stood out, and at the Japanese Grand Prix, he’s finally going to get his chance alongside Max Verstappen.

Liam Lawson vocalised his struggles with Red Bull’s car in China, and there wasn’t enough progress seen by senior staff within the team to justify keeping him in the RB21 for the upcoming triple header.

Red Bull’s car appears to be incredibly difficult to drive, with Verstappen backing Lawson to perform better at Racing Bulls going forward, given the wider operating window of the VCARB 02.

Lawson had a winter to prepare for his Red Bull debut, as well as three days of pre-season testing in Bahrain before his debut.

Tsunoda has been in the Red Bull simulator in recent days to try and get to grips with the 2025 car and has just made a comment that will frustrate Lawson after his first sessions back in Milton Keynes.

READ MORE: Who is Racing Bulls F1 driver Liam Lawson? Everything you need to know

Yuki Tsunoda didn’t find Red Bull’s car ‘challenging’ in the simulator

Tsunoda was taking part in a Honda event, relayed by Motorsport, ahead of his first race for Red Bull at Suzuka.

It’s an important race weekend for so many reasons aside from Tsunoda’s debut.

Honda and Red Bull have worked together to win multiple championships, and the power unit’s home race is a perfect opportunity to celebrate that relationship.

Tsunoda also has the support of the home crowd, while Verstappen once secured one of his four titles at Suzuka.

ready for the challenge ahead

挑戦への覚悟はできている pic.twitter.com/T7pyPSi26R

— 角田裕毅/Yuki Tsunoda (@yukitsunoda07) March 27, 2025

Tsunoda was asked about his preparations for his first race with the team and said: “I spent about two days in the simulator.

“From that experience, I didn’t find the car to be that challenging to drive.

“I definitely got the impression that the front-end is very responsive, as people often say. But if you ask whether it felt tricky to handle, I wouldn’t say it gave me a particularly strange feeling, at least in the simulator.

“Of course, how I want to set up the car is probably different from Max’s. I want to develop my own car set-up, get a good understanding of it, and gradually get up to speed from FP1.”

READ MORE: Red Bull driver Yuki Tsunoda’s life outside F1 from height to parents

Liam Lawson is the latest victim of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen-focused car development

While there are similarities between the technology used to build Red Bull and Racing Bulls’ cars, they’re set up very differently.

The way Isack Hadjar has adapted during his rookie season alongside Tsunoda compared to Lawson, highlights the difference between the two cars.

Lawson was slower than Sergio Perez in Red Bull’s simulator last year, suggesting that the issues he had in Melbourne and China could have potentially been predicted.

Tsunoda has said the right things about Red Bull’s car so far, but the proof will be when he heads out onto the track in Japan.

However, Lawson can take solace from how Pierre Gasly and Alex Albon have gone on to have successful careers in Formula 1 after being dropped by Red Bull.

He’ll be frustrated that Tsunoda appears to have got up to speed very quickly with the RB21 on the simulator, but will be closely watching to see if he can match those performances when the pressure’s on.