{"id":31971,"date":"2025-03-23T11:11:26","date_gmt":"2025-03-23T15:11:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/?p=31971"},"modified":"2025-03-23T11:11:26","modified_gmt":"2025-03-23T15:11:26","slug":"christian-horner-fails-to-rule-out-tsunoda-and-lawson-swap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/03\/23\/christian-horner-fails-to-rule-out-tsunoda-and-lawson-swap\/","title":{"rendered":"Christian Horner fails to rule out Tsunoda and Lawson swap"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Things change quickly in Formula 1, and even quicker at Red Bull. Barely one week into the 2025 season, Liam Lawson&#8217;s position is under significant threat &#8211; with <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/03\/23\/yuki-tsunoda-could-replace-liam-lawson-at-the-japanese-gp\/\" target=\"_self\">Yuki Tsunoda<\/a> being considered to replace him at the next round.<\/p>\n<p>Over the last nine months, Christian Horner has been very clear about his belief in Lawson&#8217;s abilities.<\/p>\n<p>Still, even the Red Bull team principal <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/03\/22\/f1-red-bull-considering-lawson-mid-season-swap\/\" target=\"_self\">cannot guarantee the Kiwi driver will race for Red Bull<\/a> in Japan.<\/p>\n<h4>Why Red Bull must react quickly<\/h4>\n<p>With five rookies in F1 this year, there are several drivers acclimatising to the demands and requirements of their new teams.<\/p>\n<p>In most cases, from <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/02\/26\/kimi-antonelli-fastest-in-first-morning-session-of-bahrain-tests\/\" target=\"_self\">Kimi Antonell<\/a>i to Gabriel Bortoleto, the latest arrival to the grid are proving competitive &#8211; both in absolute terms and relative to their teammates.<\/p>\n<p>This certainly isn&#8217;t the case at Red Bull, with Liam Lawson regularly finishing around P20 in competitive session this year.<\/p>\n<p>It would be overly reactionary to dismiss Lawson&#8217;s obvious speed. He showed strong pace in tricky circumstances during his previous stints at VCARB.<\/p>\n<p>However, putting aside the fact <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/03\/21\/tsunoda-has-made-quantum-leap-in-performance-says-marko\/\" target=\"_self\">Tsunoda was faster in the same machinery<\/a>, competing at Red Bull is an entirely different proposition.<\/p>\n<p>With only 11 races under his belt prior to 2025, the 23-year-old&#8217;s lack of experience is being exposed in brutal fashion.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, when his promotion was announced, Lawson was adamant he could deliver results. It was much the same when Pierre Gasly and Alex Albon (with similarly limited experience) where put alongside Verstappen.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately for the Kiwi, 2025 has been a brutal awakening.<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"O8NTm2aTSSVqtdF_6nmjYQ\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/2206312002\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'O8NTm2aTSSVqtdF_6nmjYQ',sig:'X83N9EePOSXiZ4S-GPgwoeU6jrla7YSUTn3yS1mtiew=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'2206312002',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<h4>Tsunoda could be promoted before round 3<\/h4>\n<p>The situation at Red Bull is alarming, with Max Verstappen once again carrying the burden of scoring points alone.<\/p>\n<p>Christian Horner and <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/03\/22\/it-will-be-difficult-to-keep-verstappen-without-a-winning-car-marko\/\" target=\"_self\">Helmut Marko<\/a> will spend the next few days evaluating whether Tsunoda should replace Lawson at round three.<\/p>\n<p>Although making a driver swap after two races is unheard of, the deficit between the two RB21 cars is too big to ignore.<\/p>\n<p>If only for Lawson&#8217;s confidence, let alone Red Bull&#8217;s prospects in the standings, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/03\/22\/liam-lawson-under-pressure-after-poor-results-with-red-bull\/\" target=\"_self\">putting Tsunoda alongside Verstappen<\/a> is the logical option.<\/p>\n<p>This was true twelve months ago, when the Japanese driver was outperforming Daniel Ricciardo.<\/p>\n<p>Tsunoda remains the obvious choice in the early stages of 2025.<\/p>\n<p>When speaking to De Telegraaf&#8217;s Erik van Haren, Horner was honest about the situation:<\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;We will study all the data and do our best to support Liam.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;But at the same time, we also need two drivers who score points.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a id=\"IoyZ7uXmRAlJ-laXyPopZA\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/2205961870\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'IoyZ7uXmRAlJ-laXyPopZA',sig:'TXPVhjOOrccU8m4rUFPXciOKBykEa30rhNjdA4bJnC4=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'2205961870',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Considering that Red Bull have promoted drivers too quickly in the past, it cannot be said that Lawson&#8217;s predicament is a surprise.<\/p>\n<p>Sergio Perez, though understandably criticised for his results, had over a decade of F1 to draw upon.<\/p>\n<p>For Perez to struggle to consistently (albeit to a lesser degree) was evidence of the challenge Lawson would face.<\/p>\n<p>Red Bull spent much of the winter break <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/03\/14\/max-verstappen-does-not-expect-red-bull-to-fight-for-wins\/\" target=\"_self\">trying to make their 2025 challenger more drivable<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Not only was this to address Verstappen&#8217;s complaints, but also to give Lawson a more compliant car.<\/p>\n<p>They have evidently failed in this respect, putting them in a tough position to start their 2025 campaign.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Things change quickly in Formula 1, and even quicker at Red Bull. Barely one week into the 2025 season, Liam Lawson&#8217;s position is under significant threat &#8211; with Yuki Tsunoda being considered to replace him at the next round. Over the last nine months, Christian Horner has been very clear about his belief in Lawson&#8217;s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4927,"featured_media":31972,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[2452,1755,78,1581],"class_list":["post-31971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-formula-1","category-news","tag-f1-2025-season","tag-liam-lawson","tag-red-bull-racing","tag-yuki-tsunoda"],"modified_by":"Jaden Diaz-Ndisang","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4927"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31971"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31971\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31973,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31971\/revisions\/31973"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}