The chief team of Red Bull, Christian Horner, explained the reasons for the decision to replace Lawson at any time in the championship
Replaced Red Bull by Yuki Tsunoda, Liam Lawson will return to racing bulls. The head of team Christian Horner said that the decision was made to protect and develop the young pilot, ensuring that he has more time to evolve in Formula 1.
The change took place only two weeks after the start of the 2025 season, after Lawson faced difficulties in his first races in the main team.
Why has Liam Lawson been replaced?
At the end of 2024, Red Bull announced that Lawson would be Max Verstappen’s new teammate, replacing Sergio Pérez. At the time, Horner justified the choice by saying that New Zealand, with only 11 GPS played, had more margin of Tsunoda growth.
“We believe that Liam’s trajectory has more potential, so we chose in this way,” said Horner at that moment. “But this does not exclude Yuki in the future – it was a very divided decision and impressed the team when he tested Abu Dhabi.”
Thursday (27), Red Bull officially announced the decision to make a “driver’s rotation”, lowering Lawson to racing bulls and promoting Tsunoda.
The change was motivated by Lawson’s poor performance in the first races. It was eliminated in the first quarter in all classifications and was the slowest in China qualification sessions. During the tests, he could not recover and follow without scores. On the contrary, Tsunoda distinguished himself in the classification, reaching Q3 in all phases.
Although the decision may seem hard for Lawson, Horner stressed that Red Bull has the responsibility of protecting him and helping him evolve.
“It was difficult to see Liam had difficulty with RB21 in the first two races, and therefore we made the decision to act quickly,” explained Horner.
“Our goal for 2025 is to maintain the title of pilots and recover the title of manufacturers. This decision is purely sporty.
“We have a duty to protect and develop Liam and, after such a complicated start, it makes sense that you continue to acquire experience in racing bulls, an environment and a team that already knows very well.”
Speaking of the arrival of Tsunoda in Red Bull, Horner stressed that his experience will be precious for the development of RB21:
“We recognize that there is a lot of work to do with RB21 and Yuki’s experience will be extremely useful to improve the car. We welcome it and we can’t wait to see it behind the wheel.”
Source: Terra
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