At the start of the 2025 Formula One season, one of the most asked questions amongst fans was how Liam Lawson would fare at Red Bull, and as Max Verstappen's teammate, after just eleven races, and following huge backlash following the decision to promote Lawson instead of Yuki Tsunoda.
The Competition
As it turned out, the Kiwi really struggled, and ended up being dropped for Tsunoda, just two races into the season. Now back at Racing Bulls, people thought that Lawson would excel in a team that he had proven his worth to in his two previous stand in stints with the team, in 2023 and 2024. However, he has failed to reclaim that form and now might be looking over his shoulder for a chance to just see out the season.
Red Bull have never been afraid to make a big driver change mid season, and academy member, Arvid Lindblad, is next in line . To add to the speculation, former multiple time F1 race winner, Juan Pablo Montoya, has told fans to not be surprised if the change happens before Abu Dhabi.
Speaking on AS's MontoyAS podcast, Montoya stated: I'll tell you the truth. If Liam doesn’t improve any further, I wouldn’t be surprised if they [Racing Bulls] put Lindblad in at some point”
“The Red Bull situation was complicated and I think it took a very strong blow to his liver, and he needs a lot of psychological treatment after that.”
The Colombian sighted the precedent set by the Alpine team who have already replaced Jack Doohan with Franco Colapinto.
"It’s Red Bull, it’s a bit like what’s happening with Alpine right now. Whenever Franco [Colapinto] doesn’t do well, the same thing will happen.”
Baptism Of Fire
When Lawson got the call up to the senior team of the Red Bull Academy, fans were up in arms, bashing Christian Horner and company for bumping up a driver who had yet to complete a full season of Formula One, instead of one who had four full campaigns under their belt.
Nevertheless, it was the 23-year-old who piloted the RB21 as the first race in Australia arrived. Unfortunately, he failed to get out of the first part of his maiden Qualifying session with the Milton Keynes outfit. Lawson ended up p18 in Q1, less than a tenth ahead of Esteban Ocon, nearly half a second off 17th place, Nico Hulkenberg, and worryingly for the Red Bull pit wall, more than a second off Verstappen.
Speaking after his early exit in Qualifying, Lawson said, as per the official Formula One website: "We were on target and then I just made a mistake in the last sector. I had a big slide through the high-speed and it cooked the tyres. Then, in the last sector, I just had no tyres and I went off."
“Obviously, a silly mistake so probably one that didn’t need to happen. I think we were in a decent position building up from the lap we were on anyway, so it’s pretty frustrating.”
It didn't get much better in the race, as after starting from the pitlane and failing to make substantial progress, he hit the barriers, ending his race on lap 47.
He explained, as stated on the official website: “We knew that sector three was bad, but we thought that sector one would stay a bit drier, so we carried on. Unfortunately, it was bucketing down with rain."
“At that point, to be honest, I’d backed out of pushing because it was so wet. I was just trying to stay on the track. But obviously, it’s not ideal.”
No Second Time Around
Lawson couldn't escape the same scenario in Shanghai and Qualifying was even worse, he came in 20th and last place, with a time of 1:32:174, over half a second off safety.
He finished 16th in the Grand Prix, and unlike the four drivers behind him, avoided being lapped, but in a Red Bull and his teammate in fourth, it was nothing to shout about.
Again, as per the official website, after another disappointing weekend, Lawson said: "It’s just we tried something with the set-up to learn something today. It was quite a big step and unfortunately it just didn’t work."
"I’d love to say I just need more time driving the car but obviously we don’t really have that.”
Time runs out
It turned out that was Lawson's last race in the top team, his fears were realised as he was dropped back to Racing Bulls, after just two races, and replaced by Tsunoda.
Now partnered with fellow full season rookie, Isaac Hadjar, the Kiwi has surprisingly been beaten by the Frenchman in the five races they've had together, Hadjar has put seven points on the board in that time, whereas Lawson is yet to score, which is what has led the rumour of him potentially not seeing out 2025, to enter the paddock.
Of course, nothing serious has been mentioned, so maybe Lawson has some more time to save his career and he has shown flashes of the talent he possesses, but it isn't a secret how Red Bull operate when it comes to changing drivers, so Liam is far from safe.
