“Radical” Red Bull set-up fails with Liam Lawson already at risk of axe

Red Bull are reportedly weighing up whether to immediately replace Liam Lawson.

A switch could take place between Lawson and Racing Bulls driver Yuki Tsunoda as early as the next F1 race, the Japanese Grand Prix, according to Autosport.

Red Bull are already considering the swap after Lawson’s nightmare start to the 2025 F1 season continued in China this weekend.

Lawson crashed out of the season-opening Australian Grand Prix on his Red Bull debut after being eliminated in the first part of qualifying.

The 23-year-old Kiwi then qualified last for both the sprint race and the main grand prix in Shanghai.

Lawson could only recover to 15th in Sunday’s Chinese Grand Prix, compounding his truly miserable start to the year. He was promoted to 12th when three drivers were later disqualified.

Rumours are swirling that a driver swap between Red Bull and their sister team Racing Bulls is likely.

Tsunoda was initially overlooked by Red Bull for a 2025 F1 promotion as the team instead opted to promote Lawson as the axed Sergio Perez’s replacement.

That was despite Lawson completing just 11 grands prix spread over two years for Racing Bulls and his failure to convincingly out-perform Tsunoda.

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner cited Lawson’s mental resilience as being a key factor behind the decision.

“Radical” set-up behind poor Chinese GP

Horner revealed after Sunday’s race that Red Bull had experimented with the set-up on Lawson’s car to gain some crucial learning.

“We made the decision to take him off the grid, and into parc ferme, to try some radical changes on the set-up because we are so limited in testing these cars,” Horner told Sky Sports.

“It made sense to say ‘okay, we are starting at the back, let’s try to learn something’.

"We have done that. We have 56 laps of information with a radically different set-up on the car.

“That gives huge information back into the factory as we look to improve our performance.”

On the set-up, Lawson commented: "We tried to do something aggressive with the set-up, mostly to learn something, to get an idea.

"We definitely learned something but it just didn’t work today."

Asked about Lawson’s future, Horner said: “Liam is a great little racer. He gets his elbows out and races hard.

“He’s just struggling, at the moment, to find the limit and get the most out of this car.

“As a team, a group, we are looking to support him as best we can. He’ll be in the debrief giving the information to the engineers.”

Horner added: “You are always going for ultimate performance. Fast cars are never easy to drive.

“We know there is performance to find and we need both drivers up there, if there is any hope of fighting for the constructors’ championship.

"In the drivers’ championship, you need to have a second car in play.

“You can’t just do it one-legged. As a team we want collectively to get both cars as far up the grid as we can.

“F1 is a pressure business. There is always time pressure. He knows that.

“Hopefully he will respond accordingly and we’ll see where we go.”

Following a disastrous qualifying on Saturday, Lawson admitted he doesn’t have time to find confidence in the RB21.

Pushed on what he meant by that comment, Lawson replied: “We are into the seasons, two races in, we are racing.

“You’d love to have 60 test days. I know some of the other guys tested a lot out of season.

“It’s not something we did. It’s not something we can do in this car anyway.

“It’s not an excuse. It’s something I need to get on top of, as quickly as I can.”