Reports Confirm: Yuki Tsunoda to Race at Suzuka with Red Bull!
Mar.26 - The decision has been taken - Liam Lawson will reportedly not be returning to the cockpit of the 2025 Red Bull Racing car.
Dutch newspaper De Limburger, and the equally authoritative De Telegraaf, reveal that after a meeting involving 51 percent Red Bull owner Chalerm Yoovidhya in Dubai on Tuesday, it was decided that Lawson will return to Racing Bulls.
From Suzuka, it will be Yuki Tsunoda who becomes Max Verstappen's next teammate, reportedly strongly supported by Honda in the final season of the Red Bull-Honda collaboration.
Some, though, are sceptical that the Japanese driver will fare any better than Lawson, who was basically dead-last throughout the Chinese GP weekend.
"It is not possible that whoever comes alongside him (Verstappen) has such enormous difficulties," former F1 team boss and owner Giancarlo Minardi told his own website.
"It is probably a very difficult car to drive and manage, having been built entirely around the Dutchman (Verstappen) who has a particular style of driving, putting his teammates in difficulty.
"I find it hard to imagine a different explanation, since the 'cousins' (at Racing Bulls) are faster and better performing than Lawson."
Red Bull figures continue to deny that its Formula 1 cars are built exclusively to Verstappen's style, but boss Christian Horner does admit that the main team's car has a "sharper" front end than the Racing Bulls.
"That is the difference," Dutch racing driver Tom Coronel told Viaplay, "because Max has always wanted a car that is very loose at the back.
"That does not give other drivers confidence. If you steer into those fast turns, and you are constantly on the edge, you see that Lawson does not trust the car - and then you can never drive on the limit."
Lawson, 23, is expected to now simply return to Racing Bulls, with Alpine rubbishing a theory that Franco Colapinto - already on loan from Williams - could now be loaned to the Red Bull family.
"The rumours are not true," a team spokesperson is quoted as saying by Ole. "Colapinto is an Alpine driver."
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Why are people surprized. 2 years in F2 second one of which he came 3rd with Sargent just 1 point behind despite having more retirements. Now we all know how badly Sargent performed so why did people think Lawson would do much better.
Oh and the 2 drivers who beat Lawson, by a long way, still cannot get into F1, how fair is that!
Nothing official yet, but Lawson should be given time to improve throughout the upcoming triple-header at the very least, since he's driven on all these three circuits before & Tsunoda almost certainly wouldn't perform any better in the RB21 based on reality.
However, despite overlooking him earlier, I can understand Red Bull's willingness because Honda's financial backing for Tsunoda's presence in the organization is still relevant throughout this season.
Colapinto will replace Doohan sooner rather than later at the current rate as a long-term full-time driver nor has he even been an option ever since his Alpine hiring anymore due to his hiring circumstances.
More interesting is who pushed for Lawson in the first place,given how sheepish Horny looked after being asked about it , id guess he was responsible
The cars generally are overdeveloped and have become engineers playthings, not much good if the drivers young or old can’t drive them with any consistency.
Those a few months ago demanding young drivers be given a chance were wrong for the most part.
All complete rubbish about poor lawson anyway, over F1 history drivers have been swopped in and out of seats mid season and even after a couple of races, its just now its in the media, nothing new in it, no sympathy its business
To be honest I like Yuki & wish him all the best with RB, I can see RBs problem, they can't find another Max so they have to try other drivers or make the car easier to drive, I think Yuki going to challenge Max, looking forward to it.
I Agree, Rb arent the bad boys, there just doing what every other team is trying to do I.E win, its the in thing to do, slag off the competition , when they all know theyd exactly the same thing in this situation, laughable really, I also wish him well as I did Lawson, If hes quick , its the competition that should be worried not RbR and if he isnt Rb are no worse off, but no sympathy these guys earn Millions
Good switch, let's see how Lawson does in the sister car as they have been doing well & if Lawson is in front of YUKI then he should be chuffuffed to bits & also prove that the RB is not an easy car to drive.
Take your mind back 2 years, when Christian Horner put Danni Rick in a Red Bull @ Bahrain Testing....he got excited that he matched Max's time.....then they put him in the RB totally different animal to the test car WHY DON'T THEY WAKE UP AND GIVE HIM THE SEAT !!!!!!!!!
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