Liam Lawson’s first races as a full-time Red Bull driver haven’t gone as planned. The young New Zealander was brought in to replace Sergio Perez after a disappointing 2024 season.

Lawson had shown promise during a six-race run with the junior team, Racing Bulls, last year, and earned the seat ahead of the more experienced Yuki Tsunoda. But now, just two races into the 2025 season, some many are wondering if Tsunoda should have been given the spot instead.

So far, Lawson has struggled to match the pace of his teammate, Max Verstappen. This has raised two big questions. First, is Lawson simply underperforming? And second, is the Red Bull RB21 car too difficult for anyone other than Verstappen to drive? Even Verstappen himself has admitted that the RB21 isn’t easy. In fact, he thinks Lawson might be quicker if he were driving the Racing Bulls car instead.

Some say that the car has been specifically designed to suit Verstappen’s preferences, which could explain why others find it so difficult to drive. However, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has denied those claims.

“The car is difficult to drive and Max is able to adjust to that,” said Horner, quoted by Speedcafe.com.

“Liam is, confidence-wise, he’s struggling with the car at the moment, which is why we made some significant changes [for the Chinese Grand Prix] to see if we could find a more confidence-inspiring set-up.”  

Verstappen has been the team’s lead driver since 2018, and over time, the cars have been built more and more around his unique driving style. He likes a car with a strong front end and some oversteer, where the back of the car can slide a little.

Former teammate Alex Albon once said driving a Red Bull was like playing a computer game with the mouse sensitivity turned all the way up. As the car develops, Max gets quicker, but his teammates often struggle, just like Perez, Albon, and Pierre Gasly did before Lawson.

“If I think back to the beginning of ’22, we had quite a stable car but with quite a bit of understeer, which obviously Max hates,” Horner explained.

“We had an upgrade in Spain where we put a lot more front into the car and Max made a big step forward. Checo [Perez] sort of nose-dived from that point. So you’ve got to produce the quickest car and you’re driven by the information that you have and the data that you have. As a team, we don’t set out to make a car driver-centric, you just work on the info that you have and the feedback that you have to produce the fastest car that you can. That’s obviously served us very well with 122 victories.”

But right now, the car seems to suit Verstappen far more than it suits Lawson. The Red Bull is fast, but difficult to handle. Lawson hasn’t had much time to learn, especially with little practice and two unfamiliar tracks to start the season.

“The Racing Bulls car is a more settled car in terms of it probably is a little more stable on entry,” Horner said.

“It probably has a bit more understeer in that car, and therefore, it’s easier to adapt to. But you can see the difference in pace in the cars on a longer stint,” he added.

“But in terms of finding the limit in a car that has an inherent understeer is always going to be easier than finding the limit in a car that is a little more edgy.”