Why Red Bull snubbed 'faster' driver than Liam Lawson to partner Max Verstappen

Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko has explained why the team opted against promoting Yuki Tsunoda, despite him being “faster” than Liam Lawson.

Lawson got the nod over Tsunoda to replace the axed Sergio Perez for 2025, with the 22-year-old New Zealander becoming Max Verstappen’s fifth teammate since he joined Red Bull in 2016.

Perez was the latest casualty of Red Bull’s ruthless regime, with the Mexican ditched after his abysmal performances last season and being deemed not to be at an acceptable level to drive the second car.

Pierre Gasly and Alex Albon faced similar fates before Perez at Red Bull, who have now turned to Lawson, who has made just 11 grand prix appearances spread over two seasons.

Lawson’s promotion comes despite him not convincingly outperforming Racing Bulls teammate Tsunoda, who was faster than Lawson in the six regular qualifying sessions they contested at the end of 2024.

‘Significant emotions challenges’ for Tsunoda

Marko has moved to outline why Red Bull opted to pick Lawson over Tsunoda.

“In terms of speed, Tsunoda is definitely the faster of the two at the moment, but he lacks the necessary consistency and continues to make mistakes,” Marko told Sport.

Marko also pointed to Tsunoda’s emotional outbursts over team radio as being a factor behind Red Bull’s decision not to promote the Japanese driver.

"His outbursts of anger have improved considerably but remain an issue. He loses control,” the 81-year-old Austrian explained.

Marko added that going up against Verstappen would pose Tsunoda “significant emotional challenges”.

“We believe it would cause significant emotional challenges for Tsunoda if he realised alongside Max that he couldn’t beat him, or perhaps even get close to him, and that things weren’t going as he had imagined,” he said.

And Marko described Lawson as “the mentally strongest of our juniors,” despite his lack of experience.

“He has the mental fortitude to race alongside Verstappen and accept that he won’t be able to challenge the Dutchman,” Marko concluded.

Tsunoda will instead spend a fifth season at Red Bull’s second team.

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has hinted at the possibility of Tsunoda being released when his contract expires at the end of 2025.

"We're acutely aware that if we're not able to provide an opportunity for Yuki [at Red Bull] in all honesty this year, does it [keeping him on] make sense?," Horner admitted.

"You can't have a driver in the support team for five years. You can't always be the bridesmaid. You've either got to let them go at that point or look at something different."