{"id":34355,"date":"2025-05-27T04:33:33","date_gmt":"2025-05-27T08:33:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/?p=34355"},"modified":"2025-05-27T04:33:33","modified_gmt":"2025-05-27T08:33:33","slug":"red-bulls-isack-hadjar-and-liam-lawson-conundrum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/05\/27\/red-bulls-isack-hadjar-and-liam-lawson-conundrum\/","title":{"rendered":"Red Bull&#8217;s Isack Hadjar and Liam Lawson conundrum"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Red Bull are notorious for making bold decisions with their driver academy programme, demanding results from all of their young talents.<\/p>\n<p>Liam Lawson, who was demoted from Red Bull after just two rounds, is the most recent casualty of the Austrian team&#8217;s cut-throat approach.<\/p>\n<p>After promoting <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/05\/08\/tsunoda-much-closer-to-verstappen-than-lawson-marko\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Yuki Tsunoda<\/a> to drive alongside Max Verstappen, Red Bull now face something of a predicament.<\/p>\n<p>Despite Isack Hadjar&#8217;s strong performances for <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/05\/12\/vcarb-work-to-bring-confidence-back-to-liam-lawson\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">VCARB<\/a>, promoting him to the main team would be extremely premature &#8211; and potentially jeopardise his development as a driver.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Liam Lawson&#8217;s future at Milton Keynes is unclear.<\/p>\n<p>Not just in the context of his briefest of Red Bull stints, but also in relation to Arvid Lindblad&#8217;s rise in Formula 2.<\/p>\n<h2>Hadjar and Lawson&#8217;s awkward position<\/h2>\n<p>For years, the Red Bull driver academy was the pinnacle of youth projects in Formula 1.<\/p>\n<p>Whilst often unforgiving, it managed to sign key talents like Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo &#8211; who contributed massively to their success.<\/p>\n<p>The team continue to benefit from Verstappen&#8217;s excellence over 10 years since he joined the team &#8211; a testament to his abilities and the benefits of acquiring the right talent.<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"g-mYQT-gTdR_CUX2E0s5MA\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/2216845464\" 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:'g-mYQT-gTdR_CUX2E0s5MA',sig:'lDTH1B4KQEBAbJNUYfLorZHOuRhWAQWptWuSEjI83ZU=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'2216845464',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<p>With that said, the Milton Keynes team have not enjoyed the same success in recent years.<\/p>\n<p>Pierre Gasly&#8217;s departure in 2022 triggered a series of abrupt and often short-lived moves in the Red Bull family.<\/p>\n<p>Nyck de Vries, Daniel Ricciardo and &#8211; most recently &#8211; Liam Lawson have all been demoted or outright dropped in the last two years.<\/p>\n<p>This has left their second team, VCARB, in a tricky position.<\/p>\n<p>Typically, the Faenza team prepares young talent with the intention of seeing them promoted <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/05\/26\/red-bull-hit-key-target-ahead-of-the-spanish-gp\/\" target=\"_self\">Red Bull.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>However, moving from VCARB to the senior team is increasingly becoming a challenge that threatens to damage the careers of young drivers.<\/p>\n<p>Lawson was dropped almost immediately this year, after finishing most competitive sessions in last place.<\/p>\n<p>Even Tsunoda, whose experience and pace are respected throughout the paddock, is currently being forced to settle for the lower end of the points.<\/p>\n<p>If the 24-year-old is encountering these difficulties, then promoting a youngster in the future &#8211; such as <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/04\/26\/helmut-marko-praises-revelation-isack-hadjar\/\" target=\"_self\">Hadjar<\/a> &#8211; appears doomed to fail.<\/p>\n<p>For the time being, both Hadjar and Lawson must work to deliver strong performances and cement their positions at Racing Bulls.<\/p>\n<p>After all, there is always the possibility of being promoted in 2026 or beyond.<\/p>\n<p>However, there are more fundamental questions about Red Bull&#8217;s second seat, which complicates what used to be a simple equation for its young drivers.<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"a9rkbQAPQNRSSz4OIGlqlQ\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/2216938829\" 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:'a9rkbQAPQNRSSz4OIGlqlQ',sig:'0Ntw8TaYF4_WcjLzGbSH8z3_zXFuucZB_2yqTDhyWS0=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'2216938829',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<h4>Lindblad threat<\/h4>\n<p>Arguably the biggest dilemma that Hadjar and Lawson face is the threat of a younger talent taking their places.<\/p>\n<p>Whilst Tsunoda is still finding his feet at Red Bull, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/05\/06\/christian-horner-mclaren-on-another-planet-in-miami\/\" target=\"_self\">Christian Horner<\/a> has already ruled out another driver swap at the main team in 2025.<\/p>\n<p>What is possible, however, is for Arvid Lindblad to convince the Austrian team he deserves to be in F1.<\/p>\n<p>The 17-year-old is already competing for race wins in Formula 2, despite being in his rookie season.<\/p>\n<p>Lindblad&#8217;s ascendance is a more direct threat to Lawson than Hadjar, with the Kiwi currently being outperformed by his younger and less experienced teammate.<\/p>\n<p>However, the British driver&#8217;s rise through the ranks is a reminder for the VCARB duo that their positions are always under threat.<\/p>\n<p>Neither driver is likely to be promoted, and frankly they might have worse results if they went in that second Red Bull seat.<\/p>\n<p>This means, for the near future, their best option is to simply tread water.<\/p>\n<p><em>Main photo: Zak Mauger\/LAT Images (Red Bull content pool)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Red Bull are notorious for making bold decisions with their driver academy programme, demanding results from all of their young talents. Liam Lawson, who was demoted from Red Bull after just two rounds, is the most recent casualty of the Austrian team&#8217;s cut-throat approach. After promoting Yuki Tsunoda to drive alongside Max Verstappen, Red Bull [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4927,"featured_media":34356,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_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":[2452,1594,2349,2246],"class_list":["post-34355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-formula-1","category-news","tag-f1-2025-season","tag-hadjar","tag-lawson","tag-vcarb"],"modified_by":"Jaden Diaz-Ndisang","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34355","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=34355"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34355\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34361,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34355\/revisions\/34361"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}