Even before the 2025 Formula 1 season began, there was talk about Red Bull moving on from Liam Lawson, given his "messy affair" in preseason testing. The first two Grand Prix weekends of the 24-race campaign have only amplified those rumors.
Lawson failed to make it out of Q1 before crashing in the Australian Grand Prix, and his performance in qualifying at Shanghai International Circuit made his Albert Park Circuit showing look sensational, as he qualified last for both the sprint and the Chinese Grand Prix.
As we all know, rumors are just that: rumors. But whenever rumors are brought up about Red Bull making an in-season driver change due to one driver's lack of performance, special attention needs to be paid to them, given the history of the Milton Keynes-based team.
Many were upset that Red Bull opted to replace Sergio Perez with Lawson as opposed to the much more experienced Yuki Tsunoda, who has competed for sister team Racing Bulls since 2021 and spent 11 races alongside Lawson in 2023 and 2024 when Lawson was filling in for Daniel Ricciardo.
Tsunoda has said that he is 100% ready to replace Lawson if the call comes, and he would appear to be the obvious go-to replacement for the struggling 23-year-old New Zealander.
But apparently somebody else is in the mix as well.
Isack Hadjar, Tsunoda's rookie teammate, has shown impressive speed in his own first couple of Grand Prix weekends, even managing to outqualify Tsunoda for the Chinese Grand Prix and beat the Mercedes of fellow rookie Kimi Antonelli in the process.
While the hot rumor is that Red Bull could make the switch as early as the Japanese Grand Prix, which is the home race for both Tsunoda and Honda, team advisor Helmut Marko seems to be looking further down the road than two weeks from now.
Marko praised Hadjar for his speed thus far and noted that he plans to continue monitoring his performance closely, suggesting that Tsunoda is not the shoo-in for the second Red Bull seat in the event that Lawson is sent back to Racing Bulls.
It's a curious suggestion, given the fact that Lawson's own inexperience seems to have bitten Red Bull, and Hadjar is inexperienced himself. And let's not forget that Lawson put together a number of strong performances when he was with the sister team the last two years also, and that obviously hasn't translated.
Red Bull made a similar decision in 2019, replacing the struggling Pierre Gasly with rookie Alex Albon instead of his much more experienced teammate Daniil Kvyat. Albon ended up being dropped altogether after his first full season with the team in 2020.
The fact that anybody other than Tsunoda would even be in consideration, however, is even more curious, and not just because of his four-plus years of experience.
It adds credence to the overarching belief that his role with Red Bull is primarily due to his Honda ties, and with Honda set to leave for Aston Martin after the 2025 season, some already believe that Tsunoda won't be back with the Red Bull organization at all in 2026.