Red Bull’s glaring Daniel Ricciardo mistake called out as Liam Lawson faces the axe

Liam Lawson’s early season struggles sees his spot in the Red Bull team already under threat as Red Bull are left to rue their Dan Ricciardo error.

Liam Lawson is in the gun after just two races in 2025, but the stunning scale of his struggles has seen fingers also pointed at Red Bull, who have been accused of creating an environment that sets others up for failure.

Lawson, who was preferred for the seat over Daniel Ricciardo, Sergio Perez and Yuki Tsunoda, had another shocker — and the team is starting to panic.

The Kiwi qualified last on Saturday night, and on Sunday the team started him from pit lane to run some extreme experiments with his set-up in a bid for a more drivable car.

The result was deeply uninspiring.

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Whereas Lawson at least had a little forward momentum in the sprint, in the Grand Prix he went nowhere. He took the chequered flag 15th ahead of only the penalised Jack Doohan, the backmarker Sauber duo and Yuki Tsunoda, whose front wing spontaneously exploded late it the race, requiring a late pit stop.

He finished 81 seconds off the lead and 64 seconds behind Verstappen.

Liam Lawson has struggled to produce in 2025 as Red Bull are left to rue their Daniel Ricciardo error. Image: Getty

“I think we definitely leant something,” Lawson told Sky Sports. “It just didn’t work today.

“Obviously there’s plenty that I’ve got to work on personally as well.”

Lawson has admirably shouldered responsibility for his poor form this season, even if the young gun has plenty to point to for his lack of form, even relative to other rookies.

Sky Sports’ Karun Chandhok said he feels sorry for Lawson, explaining why he believes Red Bull made development decisions that have ultimately not worked in his favour.

“They promoted him into the Racing Bulls and the argument could have been if you had left Daniel Ricciardo there to the end of last season and given Liam the 10,000km (of testing) that (Kimi) Antonelli had in a two-year old car, because you would have been allowed to do that test programme, it would have better prepared him,” he said.

“But they will counter it, I suppose, by saying ‘we gave him 11 races [in 2023-2024] instead of a test programme’.

“But Mercedes have raised the bar in terms of rookie preparation and I think it’s something that the others have to look at.”

Verstappen has also offered Lawson some leniency by decrying the RB21 as being too difficult to drive.

But as if the situation isn’t already feeling a lot like the final rounds of Pérez’s career, team principal Christian Horner found himself reaching for some of his best noncommittal lines when asked about Lawson’s problems by Sky Sports.

“Liam is a great little racer,” he said. “He gets his elbows out. He races hard. He’s just struggling at the moment finding the limit with this car, getting the most out of the car.

“Of course as a team, as a group, we’re looking to support him it the best way that we can.

“Formula 1 is a pressure business. There’s always time pressure. He knows that. Hopefully he’ll respond accordingly and we’ll see where we go.”

Red Bull motorsport adviser Helmut Marko has already confirmed Lawson’s future will be up for a discussion at a team meeting this week. Autosport has reported it’s more likely than not that he’ll be swapped with Yuki Tsunoda at Racing Bulls, giving the Japanese ace a sensational and unlikely last-minute call-up to the senior team.

But even in that whiplash scenario the biggest problem wouldn’t necessarily be solved.

Red Bull Racing has long been Verstappen’s team, but the experiences of Pierre Gasly, Alex Albon, Sergio Pérez and now Lawson suggest it’s Verstappen’s team to the exclusion of all other drivers.

That’s the problem posed by Lawson’s underwhelming Chinese Grand Prix.

Originally published as Red Bull’s glaring Daniel Ricciardo mistake called out as Liam Lawson faces the axe