After a "messy affair" in preseason testing at Bahrain International Circuit, all Liam Lawson needed to do was run a quiet race in his Red Bull debut at Albert Park Circuit to quiet some of the skeptical talking heads already foaming at the mouth to see him replaced at the Milton Keynes-based team.
Instead, he had a disastrous weekend. A mistake in qualifying prevented him from advancing out of Q1, and he was nowhere close to the pace of four-time reigning Formula 1 world champion teammate Max Verstappen during the Australian Grand Prix itself.
Of course, nobody realistically expected him to come close to Verstappen, especially not one season after Verstappen became the first driver to win a world championship with the constructor championship's third place finisher since 1983. But he also did himself no favors when he ultimately spun out and failed to finish the Grand Prix.
The sprint qualifying session at Shanghai International Circuit went even more poorly, with Lawson qualifying 20th (last) for the Chinese sprint race.
There were already those who questioned Red Bull's decision not to give Yuki Tsunoda the seat that had been occupied by Sergio Perez since 2021. Tsunoda, despite being just one year older than Lawson, has four extra years of experience, and his results have spoken for themselves.
A fifth place qualifying effort in Australia was a further exclamation point for the Racing Bulls driver. Some even joked that perhaps the Racing Bulls seat was the top Red Bull seat after all.
But given Tsunoda's ties to Honda, the writing has seemingly been on the wall for the Japanese driver for a while now. With Red Bull set to move to Ford and Honda poised to leave for Aston Martin after the 2025 season, there is speculation that Tsunoda won't have a seat again until 2026.
After Lawson's performance, there are two other former drivers whom fans want to see in the second Red Bull car.
The first one is obvious: Perez. Nobody was louder over the weekend than the Mexican fans disgruntled over the fact that their man, who last summer signed a contract to remain with Red Bull through 2026, was replaced by Lawson after the 2024 season.
Perez was by no means a world beater with Red Bull, but he was also up against one of the greatest drivers in the history of the sport.
Yes, Verstappen more than doubled his point total in 2023, but Perez still finished second in points. And yes, Perez only finished P8 in last year's drivers standings. But only because of Verstappen's strongest all-around championship campaign yet did Red Bull manage to not finish P4 in the constructor standings.
There was already a ton of hype about Verstappen winning the title in the third fastest car, yet you could even really go a step further and argue he did it in the fourth fastest.
Sure, Perez had his fair share of bad outings. But he was also dealing with the non-stop pressure and media rumors of losing his seat, rumors that began all the way back in the summer of 2023. Eventually, they proved true.
And then there is the fan-favorite Australian himself: Daniel Ricciardo.
Many thought that Ricciardo was given a raw deal when he was replaced by RB for Lawson before the 2024 season ended.
Yes, Ricciardo lost a step following his ill-advised Red Bull departure after the 2018 season. But considering the fact that he is the only teammate to ever even come close to matching Verstappen, him losing a step still probably places him above what we saw from Perez last year, and most definitely what we saw from Lawson in this year's season opener.
And him "losing a step" still included a stretch at McLaren during which he won a race ahead of teammate Lando Norris in second place.
He took the third driver role at Red Bull in 2023 with the hope of returning as Verstappen's teammate in 2025, and he very well could have done that after making an unexpected return to the grid as Nyck de Vries' replacement later in 2023. Unfortunately for him, the team chose Lawson.
Of course, it would be an overreaction to say that Lawson should be replaced after one round. But we all know Red Bull's history when it comes to being quick to move on from struggling drivers. We saw it in the middle of the 2019 season, when Pierre Gasly was replaced by Alex Albon before getting the chance to complete a full season with the team.
But don't be surprised to see "Sergio Perez" and "Daniel Ricciardo" trending louder than ever if further struggles from Lawson transpire as the season progresses. And given just how bad his Red Bull debut went, it's admittedly hard to envision further struggles not taking place.
Race number two of the 2025 Formula 1 season is scheduled to take place this Sunday, March 23. The Chinese Grand Prix is set to be broadcast live on ESPN from Shanghai International Circuit beginning at 2:55 a.m. ET. Start a free trial of FuboTV and catch all of the action!