Liam Lawson’s time at Red Bull has come to an early end after just two Grands Prix weekends. He has been replaced by his former Racing Bulls teammate Yuki Tsunoda, starting from the Japanese Grand Prix.

The New Zealander failed to score any points and didn’t make it out of Q1 in any of the qualifying sessions he has participated this year. Last weekend Shanghai, a circuit he had never raced on before, he qualified last for both the sprint and the main race.

Although Lawson was picked over Tsunoda to join Red Bull at the start of the 2025 season, team advisor Helmut Marko has now admitted that the team may have acted too quickly.

“Yuki was too inconsistent, and that is why we unanimously chose Lawson, but under the increased pressure, he couldn’t deliver from day one,” Marko told OE24.

“He entered a downward spiral, it is like a stricken boxer and on top of that, it is hard to get out of it. In that sense, it was a mistake.”

Marko pointed to issues in Australia that already set Lawson back. “In Australia, Liam had a turbo problem in the third free practice. The mileage he lost there, he came up short, and what he has delivered so far is obviously not enough,” he explained. “We need a strong second driver, if only for [in-race] tactics.”

Lawson came into the season with just 11 race starts, and while he had shown promise in the past, the pressure of the Red Bull seat alongside Max Verstappen proved to be too much, too soon.

On the other hand, Tsunoda has had a solid start to the year. He’s regularly made it into Q3 and scored three points, although he could have had more if not for unlucky strategy calls and a front wing failure in China. After four years at the sister team, he has now a chance to show what he is actually capable of.