Liam Lawson axed by Red Bull in favour of Yuki Tsunoda for F1 Japanese Grand Prix

Kiwi Formula 1 racer Liam Lawson’s stint as a Red Bull driver has come to a screeching halt, axed from the team after just two grands prix.

Lawson, 23, was promoted to Red Bull in the off-season to partner four-time world champion Max Verstappen.

But the New Zealander will be sent back to Racing Bulls, Red Bull’s sister team, in favour of Honda-backed Japanese driver Yuki Tsunoda, ahead of next week’s Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka.

Lawson drove 11 grands prix for Racing Bulls (formerly AlphaTauri and RB), when he filled in for Daniel Ricciardo in 2023 after the Australian broke his wrist, then permanently replaced Ricciardo for the final six rounds of 2024.

The Kiwi was Tsunoda’s teammate for all 11 race weekends and was favoured ahead of the Japanese driver after Red Bull elected to pay Mexican Sergio Perez a large sum of money to replace him in 2025, despite having one year left on his contract.

But across poor weekends in Australia and China, Lawson has not been up to speed.

While world champion teammate Verstappen has finished second and fourth in the grands prix, and second in a sprint race at China, Lawson is yet to score a championship point.

In both qualifying sessions for China’s sprint race and grand prix, Lawson was dead last, while Verstappen was battling for pole position.

In contrast, Tsunoda has been terrific for the junior team through the two weekends.

Tsunoda has exceeded expectations in qualifying, driving his Racing Bulls car into the top 10 for both grand prix qualifiers and the sprint qualifying. 

He missed out on points in both grands prix, cruelled twice by poor strategy calls from his team.

He placed sixth in the sprint race to score three championship points — a valuable haul for a team who finished seventh in last year’s constructors’ championship with 46 points total.