Yuki Tsunoda ‘100%’ ready to replace under-pressure Liam Lawson

Yuki Tsunoda has reignited talk of a possible Red Bull F1 promotion by claiming he is “100%” ready to replace the under-pressure Liam Lawson.

Scrutiny is already mounting on Lawson after his nightmare start to his Red Bull career continued as he ended up slowest of all in qualifying for the Chinese Grand Prix.

It marked the second time in two days that Lawson qualified P20, adding to his disappointing Q1 elimination at last weekend’s season-opener in Melbourne.

Lawson’s Red Bull teammate Max Verstappen has not qualified outside the top four so far this season.

The 23-year-old Kiwi was chosen by Red Bull to replace the underperforming Sergio Perez for 2025, having been promoted from sister team Racing Bulls despite only making 11 grand prix starts spread over two years.

Lawson also failed to comprehensively out-perform Tsunoda during their brief spell as Racing Bulls teammates, though Red Bull still opted to overlook the Japanese driver.

In contrast to Lawson, Tsunoda is enjoying a fine start to the season.

Tsunoda was was ninth-quickest in Saturday’s regular qualifying session, which followed an eye-catching P5 on the grid in Australia.

The 24-year-old gave a resounding “always” response to being asked if he would be happy to take on the challenge of driving the Red Bull.

Pushed if he would be ready to do so at the next round in Japan if Red Bull made a driver change, Tsunoda told media including ESPN: "In Japan? Yeah, 100%. I mean, the car is faster.”

Red Bull not ruling out driver change

Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko did not rule out the possibility of a driver swap during the season.

"Formula 1 is a competitive sport and ultimately that's what counts," Marko told Sky Germany, adding that Lawson’s performance was “not what we expected, but we will discuss it calmly.”

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner admitted to Sky Sports: "It's been a tough day in the office for him today so we'll have a good look at it and go through it and obviously try and give him the best car for tomorrow.”

Following his latest disappointment, Lawson conceded “I don’t really have time” to find confidence in the RB21.

“Unfortunately I don't really have time, but it's just one of those things,” he told Sky Sports.

“I mean to drive a Formula 1 car, it takes 100% confidence in what you're doing and it's not that I don't feel confident, but the window's so small that right now I just seem to miss it. It's that that I just need to get a handle on.

"So yeah, I don't know how else to put it really, it's just not good enough."