Liam Lawson’s seat in immediate peril as Red Bull lines up overlooked F1 star as replacement for his home Grand Prix

Max Verstappen could have a new Red Bull teammate as soon as the next Grand Prix as Liam Lawson endured a horrific outing in China. Yuki Tsunoda, who was overlooked for the Red Bull seat in the winter, could finally get his shot alongside Verstappen. Moreover, what's more interesting is Red Bull might be willing to make the switch as soon as the next race at Tsunoda's home race.

Multiple sources along the paddock have reported about the move after Lawson's embarrassing opening two rounds in the season. Furthermore, Tsunoda has also out-qualified Lawson in all nine races since the Kiwi star returned to the grid, replacing Daniel Ricciardo.

Helmut Marko also praised Yuki Tsunoda's performance in China post-qualifying. The Red Bull taskmaster said:

"Yuki is a different Yuki from the years before. He is in the form of his life. Obviously he changed his management. He has a different approach. He's more mature. It took a while, but now it looks like it's working." (Quotes via Motorsports.com)

Tsunoda put in a fine qualifying performance by qualifying P5 in Australia and followed that up with a P9 result in China. The Japanese star has been knocking on the door for a shot alongside Max Verstappen for a long time now and it looks like he might finally be getting his shot at his home race.

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New Zealand driver Liam Lawson talks about "not good enough" qualifying results

Liam Lawson at F1 Grand Prix Of China - Source: Getty

Liam Lawson is facing the brunt of being Max Verstappen's teammate early on in his F1 career. Like many others, Verstappen is making his Kiwi teammate look bang average in comparison as Red Bull continues to miss out on crucial points against rivals in WCC.

Liam Lawson was the first person to raise his hand and admit the results were unacceptable. He said after the Chinese Grand Prix qualifying:

“I have a whole lot of things to sort out myself before I can look at getting a little bit of traffic and things like that. It’s just frustrating.” (Quotes from F1.com)

He continued:

“Unfortunately, I don’t really have time but it’s just one of those things. To drive an F1 car, it takes 100% confidence in what you’re doing. It’s not that I don’t feel confident, the window is just so small... and it’s that I need to get a handle on."

"I don’t know how else to put it really, it’s just not good enough.”

Lawson was dead last in the Chinese Grand Prix qualifying and P18 in Australia. Qualifying that low in a Red Bull when Max Verstappen is consistently challenging Red Bull's rivals will surely make the team question its choice of promoting Lawson so early in his career.