Red Bull chief drops a damning verdict amid Liam Lawson-Yuki Tsunoda saga

Red Bull has been at the center stage after the Chinese Grand Prix but for the wrong reasons, as Liam Lawson's career with the team has been pushed into uncertainty. While paddock chatter has asserted that the Kiwi will be ousted before the Japanese Grand Prix weekend, Red Bull supremo Christian Horner gave his verdict on the two Red Bull drivers not performing at par with each other.

Lawson spent the early half of the 2024 season on the sidelines with a promise from Red Bull for a seat on the 2025 grid. However, the New Zealander was given a call-up mid-season after Daniel Ricciardo was sacked by the senior figures.

The 23-year-old was able to convince Horner & Co. that he was the right candidate for the job at Milton Keynes and took on the Australian Grand Prix weekend with high hopes. Anyhow, his debut weekend did not go as planned as he crashed out of the rain-affected race and hoped to mend ways in China.

The Chinese Grand Prix further made his case worse as he was unable to score any points, despite the weekend being a dry one. Moreover, Max Verstappen has been carrying Red Bull in the constructors' standings, a job that Liam Lawson was brought in for to ease the burden on the Dutchman.

Reflecting on the current situation at the Milton Keynes-based squad, its team principal, Christian Horner asserted that his team's one hand cannot be tied behind its back while fighting for the elusive title, and said (via Formula 1):

"I think the one thing McLaren proved to everybody last year is you can have a troubled start to the year but still be very competitive. We’re eight points behind in the Drivers’. The [Teams’] Championship is a very tough ask, and we need to make significant progress with the car in order to even challenge for that. You have to have two cars scoring, that obviously hurt us badly last year."

"We have to have two cars in there, and even to compete for the Drivers’, you’ve got to have another car in play. It’s vitally important for the team to ensure that we have both drivers running as close to the front as we can," he added.

Meanwhile, Liam Lawson being replaced by Yuki Tsunoda is almost a done-deal according to the speculations looming the paddock.

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Red Bull could be flirting with the 'driver limit' by the sacking Liam Lawson

Liam Lawson (L) and Yuki Tsunoda (R) at the F1 Grand Prix of Netherlands - Practice - Source: Getty

If the reports are true, Liam Lawson will hold the title of fastest driver to get the call-up to Red Bull from its junior team (11 race starts) and getting sacked by the senior team with the fewest races given to prove his worth (2 race starts).

On the other hand, Red Bull's trigger happiness could come to bite them back during the 2025 season. Yuki Tsunoda is poised to become the third driver for the Austrian giant in a 24-race calendar, after Verstappen and Lawson.

However, if a situation arises in which the team wants to make another driver change in case of any reason, it would already be maxing out its allocation of four drivers allowed for each team in a F1 season.

So, the six-time constructors' champions will need to tip-toe during the 2025 season to avoid any unnecessary driver changes, unless the team will have to call back a former driver (like Liam Lawson) or only be allowed to race one car during Grand Prix weekend.