2nd race of the season, 3rd time he qualifies as one of the last on the grid. Will this continue? Will he start performing better? Will he get the boot?
To me, Lawson was the clear and cut right choice for Red Bull Racing to replace Perez. I firmly believe that his tenacity, his personality and his racecraft were the things that Red Bull Racing needed after the abysmal season that Perez endured. Yet, here we are. 2nd race of the season and I am wondering the question in the poll; How long will Lawson last at Red Bull Racing?
Sister team RB is performing on merit and Hadjar, as a fellow full season rookie, is leaving a better impression than Lawson is at the moment. Could this spell danger for Lawson? Could it mean that either Tsunoda or Hadjar will be promoted? Or is this just asking tabloid like questions?
He’ll surely get at least 8 races. He’s not good enough, and his team aren’t helpful enough to the 2nd driver for it to be a long term solution.
He didn't suddenly become worse than he was last year overnight.
It's worth noting the F1 press didn't even wait the five or so races they gave Hartley before they started to chip away at him like they have with Liam, despite what happened in Melbourne being largely beyond his control.
Unfortunately NZ is an inconsequential market and drivers from here get close to zero margin while others with huge corporate backing get to languish for months or years. Yet with Lawson we had Zak Brown sticking his oar in before the first race weekend was even done.
Hadjar is now faster than Tsunoda, when can we expect the same kind of threads and social media posts from F1 media about Yuki packing it in?
I think it's too early to say. If Lawson still struggles to make it into Q2 and score points after 6-7 races, it'll get quite interesting.
They are very unlikely to sign Tsunoda. Hadjar or Perez are the only likely options I see.
Another factor to consider is Verstappen moving to another team. If he signs with Mercedes or AMR for 2026, will Red Bull go for a completely new lineup for next season? Or keep Lawson and sign someone else alongside him?
He didn't suddenly become worse than he was last year overnight.
It's worth noting the F1 press didn't even wait the five or so races they gave Hartley before they started to chip away at him like they have with Liam, despite what happened in Melbourne being largely beyond his control.
Unfortunately NZ is an inconsequential market and drivers from here get close to zero margin while others with huge corporate backing get to languish for months or years. Yet with Lawson we had Zak Brown sticking his oar in before the first race weekend was even done.
Hadjar is now faster than Tsunoda, when can we expect the same kind of threads and social media posts from F1 media about Yuki packing it in?
we are comparing a driver that got into Q3 in a vcarb and simply blowed his final lap to a guy who is on merrit last in a Red Bull?
eh, no, it would be very silly to give Tsunoda the same treatment
also bit rich to complain about being a poor NZ with no market share when he got the cockpit over a better performing Japanese and a very marketable Mexican and Argentinian.
He didn't suddenly become worse than he was last year overnight.
It's worth noting the F1 press didn't even wait the five or so races they gave Hartley before they started to chip away at him like they have with Liam, despite what happened in Melbourne being largely beyond his control.
Unfortunately NZ is an inconsequential market and drivers from here get close to zero margin while others with huge corporate backing get to languish for months or years. Yet with Lawson we had Zak Brown sticking his oar in before the first race weekend was even done.
Hadjar is now faster than Tsunoda, when can we expect the same kind of threads and social media posts from F1 media about Yuki packing it in?
I do think it's early for Lawson, he needs a bit of time but you can't shy away that the guy has qualified at the back of the grid 3 times while Max has been up the grid and scoring podiums.
But also, Hadjar (who was phenomenal today) has only out-qualified Yuki once but so have all the rookies with their teammates. Doesn't make the older guys slow...but proves that the other Rookies are adapting, what's Liam's issue?
Anyway, give it till (European) Summer then Yuki or Isak will likely move if he doesn't improve. Kind of don't want Yuki to go to RBR honestly, let him get his stock up in a decent car and earn a move outside of Red Bull.
If they did put Hadjar in that would be the fourth young driver shoved into the car alongside Verstappen far too early. Further cementing that they haven't learned anything.
Red Bull need to have a long hard look at themselves, be it the car they are giving the drivers, or something going on that side of the garage. You can not have four drivers completely at sea with their cars and continue to blame it on the drivers. At some point they have to look at themselves and question 'is this really the best the car we can give these drivers? Or have we gone down a rabbit hole in development that has no exit?'
Obviously a complete disaster right now, but it would be stupid to change for a fair few races yet without making a serious effort to find out why and try to fix it. Dropping someone else in there as it stands is hardly likely to have a good result.
Something is wrong with the second Red Bull seat because I don’t think any driver in F2 today is that bad that they can’t string a decent qualifying lap together when the other car is fighting for pole.
He did OK in the sprint race, but I think that seat is poison to any driver’s career right now.
Damn i wanted to be the first to do this thread, thiught about it yesterday, didnt anticipate another P20. I think by race 5 if he hasnt got himself out of Q1 at some circuits he knows.
I love Tsunoda, think he should have got the drive, i still think hed have only managed likr p16. Max is an alien
Before shafting Lawson (which they will inevitably do) I think Red Bull should take a hard and long look at themselves why they never manage to have more than one competitive driver. And I do not believe that it's entirely down to the incompetence of the second driver. No matter how talented Vettel and Verstappen are this is a bit embarrassing for the team.
They chose Lawson over Tsunoda in the winter. I guess they won't go back to Tsunoda now.
Lawson has proved that being close to Tsunoda in the junior team is no guarantee for decent performances in the senior team. So promoting Hadjar will be another shot in the dark. If Hadjar also struggles, they will have jeopardised the careers of 2 of their junior drivers in one year instead of just 1 now.
So I think RBR are stuck with Lawson for this season.
Perhaps, if one of the out-of-work experienced drivers offers to drive on pay-per-point basis, they could replace Lawson with him.
If a driver looks good in a Minardi but bad in a Red Bull, the problem might be the driver, or it might be the Red Bull.
If it happens repeatedly, then Occam's razor suggests that it has to be the Red Bull.
It's getting to the point where I'm wondering if it's deliberate. Red Bull gets more out of having one driver fight for the WDC title than two fighting for the WCC. Especially when it can laud that driver by pointing to the numpties in the other seat.
We talk about Red Bulls toxic environment, we, the public are also acting like judge, jury and executioner here.
Seems it's not solely a Red Bull Car 2 issue but more of the current state of people's expectations generally.
A sign of the times, we as humans have become cold. This is a young man who has achieved sporting success at the pinnacle, more than 99% of us here could ever surpass. Who are we to belittle 0.7s slower head to head over 5.5km. As I said elsewhere, picture you vs a shadow car doing the pole lap on a sim arcade game, 0.7s is a breath. Count 1 second aloud.
I'd put this in the same worrying category as the love island folks who now need psychological support. Unnecessary bashing.
We've seen how many other drivers struggle over the years? Max is quite clearly an an exception with no further evidence needed to support that statement.
The best that somebody available could do is probably the Perez level... 5 tenths off which means barely out of Q1 these days.
Max can deal with massive amounts of oversteer to attack corners finding laptime for a car thats just not that great. This direction went off the deep end last year..
We talk about Red Bulls toxic environment, the public are also acting like judge, jury and executioner here.
Seems it's not solely a Red Bull Car 2 issue but more of the current state of people's expectations generally.
A sign of the times, we as humans have changed.
It is hardly an unrealistic expectation to expect the second car to be qualifying within a few places of the first. Especially when other rookies are managing just that compared to their own teammates.
I knew Lawson would do badly and then get dropped but this is far worse than anyone could imagine and honestly I can't see him being here even before the summer break if he doesn't improve drastically. The only issue is Red Bull clearly do not want Yuki, and at this point I don't think he even wants to drive for them, so their only option is to swap Lawson with Hadjar which will lead to the same issue. Otherwise they would have to axe Lawson completely and sign someone readily available like Bottas or Ricciardo (I didn't want to say it!) to jump in.
It is insane to think that at this stage Red Bull would be content if their second driver could perform like Gasly's 2019 stint, which was dire at the time. It is hard to feel any sympathy for Red Bull but I sympathise with Lawson whose career will likely end prematurely because he was pushed far too soon.
If a driver looks good in a Minardi but bad in a Red Bull, the problem might be the driver, or it might be the Red Bull.
If it happens repeatedly, then Occam's razor suggests that it has to be the Red Bull.
It's getting to the point where I'm wondering if it's deliberate. Red Bull gets more out of having one driver fight for the WDC title than two fighting for the WCC. Especially when it can laud that driver by pointing to the numpties in the other seat.
The Red Bull is clearly a car that is very difficult to extract the limit from and seems to prioritise peak pace over ease of use. Verstappen can live with it, many of the recent team mates can’t.
But I don’t think Red Bull are doing themselves any favors with the constant rotation of rookies in that seat.
He won't last the season. He always looked like the wrong choice and looks even more like the wrong choice now. He was promoted despite doing nothing in his second sub stint and being clearly outpaced by the guy who probably should have got it. But there's clearly a wider problem there too, would anyone else actually want to drive that car?
If a driver looks good in a Minardi but bad in a Red Bull, the problem might be the driver, or it might be the Red Bull.
If it happens repeatedly, then Occam's razor suggests that it has to be the Red Bull.
It's getting to the point where I'm wondering if it's deliberate. Red Bull gets more out of having one driver fight for the WDC title than two fighting for the WCC. Especially when it can laud that driver by pointing to the numpties in the other seat.
It’s a lot easier to look good in a slow car because the ceiling is much lower. Put Max in a racing bull and he will probably be max 2 tenths quicker than Yuki. Put Yuki in a Red Bull and Max will probably 4-5 tenths quicker.
This is why most drivers that perform decently in midfield cars usually perform badly in the best cars.
I genuinely think if you put Leclerc, Norris, Russell or Hamilton in the 2nd red bull they would barely look any worse than Max. Nobody would beat Max but you get my point. I actually think Russell would perform the best because he would have the highest chance of qualifying ahead of Max and being a little bit slower during races.
At Redbull they are making the car 100% fit Max Verstappen, Horner admited it, and his style is very unique, so why is it a suprize that everyone else struggles in the car? Are you guys really serious when you are so confussed about it?
At Redbull they are making the car 100% fit Max Verstappen, Horner admited it, and his style is very unique, so why is it a suprize that everyone else struggles in the car? Are you guys really serious when you are so confussed about it?
But there is being a couple tenths slower and then there is being 1s off the pace...
I honestly think you'll see a similar outcome with whoever you're putting the Red Bull 2nd seat now, for a couple of reasons. Obviously Max is an exceptional talent but I don't think that's the whole story for the huge gap you see. There's a video with Alex Albon where he gives a pretty thoughtful and insightful explanation into what the situation is at Red Bull being his teammate and essentially he says that Max has quite a unique driving style, liking an unusually pointy front end in the car. Not only is that hard to live with for other drivers coming into the team but as the season goes on Max wants even more front end dialed into the car and the problem just compounds for the second driver, trying too hard to make it work for them, crashing, losing confidence and never recovering.
With Max being at the team for so long now it's completely natural and correct for the team to have consciously and even subconsciously designed cars that are built around Max's driving style and preference. The quicker he goes, the more the car goes down that route with upgrades, it's natural. It makes sense if you think about it as although Max was beating Sainz and Ricciardo earlier in his career, he was never destroying them to the degree he has been to his other teammates at Red Bull since the cars would have been built around him more and more as the seasons went by.
Just my thoughts of course but it makes a lot of sense to me, more so than all these guys just being terrible drivers, or that Red Bull are designing midfield to back of the grid cars that Max is dragging to poles and wins. He's good but he's not THAT good. Lawson would be qualifying and finishing much higher if he was still in his RB for example.
Albon says everything in the first 3 minutes of this video for anyone that hasn't seen it before
But there is being a couple tenths slower and then there is being 1s off the pace...
Lawson was 5 tenths slower than Max during Q1 today. It just looks worse because the field is much closer.
Also, Lawson is teammate of a generational driver in his peak while Lawson hasn’t even done 10 races. Knowing Red Bull he won’t make the summer break, but there’s no driver in the midfield teams that would be any closer to Max.
Red Bull is sandbagging the constructors championship to maximise development time for Max. All ist working as intended, so he will stay and get a contract extension mid season.
I don’t think he was the right choice but the fact this keeps happening to the second red bull seat the team have to ask questions of themselves. Honestly wonder if they didn’t have max where there would be this year, or last for that matter.
Red Bull is sandbagging the constructors championship to maximise development time for Max. All ist working as intended, so he will stay and get a contract extension mid season.
If that was true they wouldn’t have refused Perez’s money
On his six GP-weekends last year at Racing Bulls Lawson failed to reach Q2 just once (P17 in Qatar, Yuki got P14).
Now he not only looks comparatively worse by being seated next to Verstappen, but he is objectively worse (at least for now).
Maybe some of this ist due to the fact, that the car is still too hard to drive (even though both drivers didn´t complain about driveability per se so far...).
I didn´t expect much, but i´m surprised that it turned out to be that bad.
If Lawson continues the bad form next weekend (he drove in Japan before, so there will be no excuses this time) as well and fails to make it out of Q1, they have to consider putting Yuki in, at least for a trial run, in Bahrain to see if he is closer to Max. If he is, suck it up and keep him in the car.
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