The hard lessons Yuki Tsunoda and Liam Lawson learned after swapping F1 seats

In recent years the second Formula 1 seat at Red Bull has become the proverbial poisoned chalice – coveted by many, and yet ultimately toxic.

Mid-season driver changes have almost become the norm, a question of ‘when’ rather than ‘if’ – and while the faces change, the difficulty in exploiting the car’s theoretical potential remains an ominous common denominator.

All the more so when the benchmark on the other side of the garage is Max Verstappen – who makes the act of driving the car quickly look, if not easy, at least possible.

It’s a tough comparison – so much so that Red Bull itself, as its ‘driver advisor’ Helmut Marko has emphasised often, does not set the target of matching or beating world champion Verstappen. The second driver’s task is to stay within an acceptable lap time deficit and rack up points for the constructors’ championship.

And yet even this looks like an impossible labour most of the time. For that reason, Red Bull dropped the struggling Liam Lawson after two grands prix in 2025, replacing him with Yuki Tsunonda, whom it had evaluated but decided against just five months earlier.

Yet another new face in the second seat, then, if earlier than expected – and in the circumstances it’s difficult to regard the change as anything other than a sticking-plaster solution. One which hasn’t taken, since Tsunoda’s 10 points in seven rounds is clearly not what the team was hoping for, while on the other side, Lawson is trying to rebuild the certainties he lost in just a few months at sister squad Racing Bulls.

Tsunoda struggles to predict the unpredictable

Yuki Tsunoda, Red Bull Racing Team

Photo by: Steven Tee / LAT Images via Getty Images

A Red Bull opportunity had been Tsunoda’s dream for many years, so the enthusiasm and optimism which accompanied his first statements was understandable – to the point that he emphasised how, in the simulator (a tool at Milton Keynes which has long shown some correlation issues), his feeling with the RB21 was good and that he was hoping for a podium in Suzuka, his first race in the car.

Expectation quickly met reality. Once in the RB21 he encountered the same difficulties as those who came before him: a car whose balance changes unpredictably at the limit, and which has a very small set-up ‘sweet spot’. Although it’s true that in the last three races he hasn’t had all the latest upgrades – owing to his crash at Imola, the first round of the triple-header – the trend still offers some telling insights.

Lawson’s short stint at Red Bull highlighted two main issues: underwhelming performance and significant difficulty in fully exploiting the car’s potential. It’s no surprise that his fastest laps in qualifying rarely came on the final attempt, since the RB21’s ‘nervous’ and unpredictable nature manifests itself when drivers push hardest.

This is something Tsunoda is also struggling with. In qualifying it’s crucial to extract everything from the car but the closer the RB21 gets to the limit, the greater the risk of making a mistake, as seen in Jeddah and Imola.

The crash at Imola is the most telling, precisely because – as Tsunoda himself admitted – it was caused by underestimating the RB21’s unpredictability. An incident that, in his opinion, would never have happened with the Racing Bulls car, which by then had almost become like a second skin for him.

“In recent years with Racing Bulls, I knew what was going to happen – I didn’t even have to think about it much,” said Tsunoda, who had been with the sister team since his F1 debut in 2021.

Yuki Tsunoda, RB F1 Team

Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images

“I reacted naturally and drove fast. I think those things will come with time. I believe the Imola incident made me realise how much I still have to understand about the Red Bull.

“I was probably underestimating just how important it is to really know certain details.”

Qualifying remains a problem for Lawson

It’s no secret that the Racing Bulls car is fast for a midfield team – but above all it’s relatively benign, something especially evident when driven by Isack Hadjar, a rookie who continues to impress.

On the other side of the garage, however, Lawson is struggling: not so much with gaining confidence in the car, but with unlocking the pace and putting everything together.

Looking at the data – even excluding Bahrain, where he had a DRS issue – the average qualifying gap to Hadjar has been around three and a half tenths. Only on one weekend, in Saudi Arabia, was Lawson faster, though he failed to score points. The New Zealander has consistently said he doesn’t lack confidence in the car, but rather the ability to execute a clean performance.

The only weekend where he seemed to manage that was in Monaco, where he scored his first points in eighth. Even then, however, the gap to his team-mate was around two tenths.

“In Monaco, from free practice we improved and put ourselves in a good position for qualifying,” he said.

Liam Lawson, Racing Bulls, Isack Hadjar, Racing Bulls

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images via Getty Images

“But I wouldn’t say I felt anything different during the weekend. It wasn’t like something suddenly clicked inside me.

“That feeling has been there in every race. It’s just that we had a clean weekend – the first all season.”

As Lawson admitted, qualifying hasn’t been his strong suit this year, and the results back that up. But there’s a problem: that average three-tenths gap is hugely significant in the midfield, where teams are tightly packed.

Even with good race pace, making up ground becomes complicated because it’s harder to overtake on track. It’s clear that a significant step forward is needed – especially as his future no longer seems so secure.

There is, however, an interesting statistic: looking at the best lap times overall (excluding Bahrain for Lawson and Imola for Tsunoda), the difference between the two is only two tenths – smaller than the gap between Lawson and Hadjar.

That’s not entirely surprising, considering Lawson has started ahead of Tsunoda on four occasions since they swapped seats, confirming how difficult the Red Bull car is to handle.

Liam Lawson, Racing Bulls

Photo by: Steven Tee / LAT Images via Getty Images

It’s a case of adapt or get lost. Tsunoda’s difficult qualifying session in Spain is a prime example: complaining of a lack of grip throughout the weekend, he went down a rabbit hole in terms of set-up while trying to dial out the problem, and at the crucial moment was slowest of all.

Paradoxically, Lawson and Tsunoda’s situations bear some comparisons, yet they are deeply different. Stringing together a qualifying lap is the chief obstacle, but while Lawson’s problem is failing to execute cleanly, Tsunoda hasn’t got to the point where he no longer has to consciously think about what the car will do next.

Looking ahead to Canada, Tsunoda revealed he’ll try something new in the simulator, hoping to make progress.

“It’s something we’re going to try,” he said. “I’m looking forward to it and hope it can make a difference. It can’t get any worse – so let’s see.”