Airline Ryanair trolls Red Bull with a savage reaction to rumors of Liam Lawson being replaced

Airline Ryanair has trolled Red Bull with a savage joke via X, suggesting just like them, the Austrian F1 team also assigns seats on a random basis. This joke was made in the context of reports suggesting Liam Lawson's seat at the team may already be under threat, with Yuki Tsunoda as the favorite to replace him.

After Liam Lawson had a second poor weekend again in China in as many races with his new team, reports came out of the Red Bull camp that the Kiwi driver may be replaced even before the Japanese Grand Prix, which is the next round of the F1 season.

Ryanair has been known to use self-deprecating humor on its social media, and is also used to trolling big teams and organizations on a regular basis. This time, Red Bull has been caught in the crossfire, as the low-cost airline decided to make a joke about the team's second driver situation.

Speaking about Lawson's reported exit, Ryanair's Spanish account on X poked fun at the Austrian F1 team, suggesting they also just randomly assign their race seats to anyone, just like the airline does:

"Red Bull 🤝 Ryanair

Random assignment of seats" [translated via Google]

Lawson was brought into the second Red Bull seat for 2025, replacing Sergio Perez, who had a poor 2024 season, finishing eighth in the Drivers' standings while his teammate Max Verstappen won the championship. The Mexican's loss of form was one of the reasons why the Austrian side was unable to defend their Constructors' title.

Many F1 fans and experts had expected Yuki Tsunoda to get the nod ahead of Lawson for a seat on the senior team, as the Japanese driver performed better than Lawson when the pair were teammates for the latter part of last season. But now, Tsunoda may well be in with a chance of getting that seat, after just two races in 2025.

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Red Bull team boss Christian Horner had his say on Lawson's exit speculation

Christian Horner on the Red Bull pit wall during the Chinese Grand Prix - Source: Getty

Red Bull chief Christian Horner mentioned that the team will try to 'support' Liam Lawson following a poor start to life at the team, but failed to give a clear answer when asked about the Kiwi driver's future at the team. Horner also shared that the Chinese GP race was primarily used as a data gathering session for the second car.

Speaking to the media after the race on Sunday, Horner did not provide a straightforward answer to end the speculations about Lawson's seat. He said:

"I think Liam has had a tough couple of races, a tough weekend here. We elected to take him off the grid, out of Parce Ferme, to do a significant set-up change, so we managed to get 56 laps of reasonable data from that. Obviously, we’ll take that away, we’ll have a good look at it, and as a group we’ll do our best to support him." [via Formula1.com]

When pressed further about the driver change speculation, Horner said:

"There’s always going to be speculation in the paddock. As I say, we’ve only just finished the race here, we’ll take away the info and have a good look at it."

While Horner brushed the rumors off as mere 'speculation', he did not put a rest to the gossip, as he chose not to give a clear answer. This has further instigated the rumors that a choice may well be made before the Japanese Grand Prix in April.