Co-Author: Chiara Martin
Helmut Marko reflects on Red Bull’s decision to promote Liam Lawson instead of Yuki Tsunoda for the 2025 F1 season, pitting the Kiwi against Max Verstappen.
Tsunoda’s golden season
Quite an impressive season for Yuki Tsunoda, the one that just ended.
The Japanese managed to get his Racing Bull to Q3 in half of the 24 Grands Prix and score 30 points that were worth the 12th place in the driver’s standings.
He outscored both of the teammates – Daniel Ricciardo and Liam Lawson – he encountered during the season, especially in qualifying, where he pulled off a rather impressive performance that put him up to P3 on the starting grid in Brazil.
And to close it off he got to drive the RB20 around Yas Marina in the post-season tests in Abu Dhabi.
Undoubtedly his best season so far, as he recalls himself, but not enough to convince Red Bull to sign him for next season.
Max Verstappen’s new teammate, after Sergio Perez’s departure, will be 22-year-old Liam Lawson.
What made Red Bull go for Lawson
Lawson took Daniel Ricciardo’s place back in September and drove the 6 remaining races of the season alongside Tsunoda at Racing Bulls. A brief parenthesis in F1 – during which he scored points in Austin and Sao Paulo – that was worth the step up to Red Bull.
In Milton Keynes however, they have no doubts Tsunoda’s abilities would have made him the best fit for 2025. What concerns them to the point of preferring Lawson is the way Tsunoda manages eventual setbacks.
“In terms of speed, at the moment, he [Tsunoda] is certainly the faster of the two, especially with his ability to dive deeper into performance. However, he lacks the necessary consistency and continues to make mistakes,” Helmut Marko told RTL.
“Unfortunately, in Mexico, there were two unnecessary crashes,” he argued.
One in the final moments of Q2 when he lost control at Turn 12 and went into the barriers and the second one when he had a contact with Alex Albon around the first corner of the first lap of the race, resulting in a DNF for both drivers.
An unfortunate weekend in a season full of good moments. And indeed it’s not this that made Red Bull decide on Lawson, but rather the fear Tsunoda would have trouble managing challenging moments while driving alongside Verstappen, according to Marko.
“While his outbursts have improved significantly, they remain a factor. When things go wrong, he loses control, becomes slower, and gets thrown off his rhythm,” explained the Austrian.
“We believe these traits could lead to significant emotional challenges if he were driving alongside Max and realises he can’t beat him—or even come close to what he envisions.”
