Red Bull told they are in “big trouble” with Liam Lawson set for demotion

Red Bull have been warned they are in “big trouble” about their second F1 driver conundrum with Liam Lawson facing the axe.

Lawson is reportedly on the verge of being dropped as part of a seat swap with Racing Bulls driver Yuki Tsunoda from next weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix after a nightmare start to his Red Bull career.

The 23-year-old Kiwi has failed to score a point so far for Red Bull, crashed out of his debut race in Australia, and has been eliminated in the first part of all three qualifying sessions he has contested.

It is rumoured that Red Bull will officially confirm the driver swap later this week following a crunch meeting on Tuesday in Dubai where Lawson’s fate was reportedly sealed.

Speaking on the Sky Sports F1 Show following last weekend’s Chinese Grand Prix, Bernie Collins explained why Red Bull are in such a difficult position.

"The performances didn't look great from either race weekend so far,” Collins said. ”[In China] seven tenths off in Q1 is enough to put them at very different ends of the grid.

“Max is very, very strong. He gets the most out of the car. He puts the lap in when it matters, he very rarely makes mistakes. He generally outqualifies others who make mistakes.

“He gets the best lap together when it matters and even in races when it matters, he manages to pull it out.

"There was a very interesting, in my opinion, interview with Christian Horner on Friday. Natalie [Pinkham] pushed him on team development, and he said that the team had followed the direction of their fastest driver in developing the car that's quite tricky to drive that lots of other people cannot get on top of because it is so nervous and twitchy.

"Max can handle that; that's the development direction they've gone. How difficult is it for them to come out of that? Are they ever going to get that second seat working?”

Red Bull currently the ‘10th-fastest team’

Collins went on to suggest that Red Bull are in “big trouble” regarding who they put in their second seat after failed stints for Pierre Gasly, Alex Albon, Sergio Perez and now Lawson.

The former Aston Martin strategist went even further to claim that Red Bull would be the "10th-fastest team" without Max Verstappen. 

"I think they're in big trouble," she said. "I think that they should have looked at the younger talent and said, 'who is the most forward aero balance [driving style]?'.

“That's what we believe the characteristic of that car is, it's very on-the-nose and very different to the Racing Bulls in characteristic.

"So they should have looked [at which] of their young drivers is driving the closest to that spectrum, they are the one who is going to succeed the most.

"They should have maybe put all of them in an old Red Bull for a day and said 'who can get the best lap time out of this car?'. That's one metric of doing it because the Racing Bulls is fundamentally different.

“People who have failed in the Red Bull - (Alex) Albon is a great example. He is driving brilliantly in the Williams and arguably if you offered him the Red Bull seat again he might not go back because that car is not to his liking and has probably got worse in the last few years.”

"If Max leaves or doesn't show up at a race, they are currently the 10th-fastest team."