Yuki Tsunoda has showed that he is ‘a hundred in keeping with cent ready’ to step up and pressure for Red Bull must the group want him. The Japanese racer will be the first in line, must Christian Horner and Helmut Marko determine to awl Liam Lawson in the course of the early days of his time with the Milton Keynes squad.
The selection to update Sergio Perez with Lawson, no matter the New Zealander dropping out six-nil in qualifying to Tsunoda closing year, sparked tremendous backlash and debate withinside the paddock.
Now, the noise round Red Bull’s 2nd seat is handiest amplifying. Lawson has didn’t get away Q1 throughout Grand Prix qualifying periods and a dash shootout in 2025 and became the slowest vehicle in Saturday’s consultation on the Chinese Grand Prix.
With McLaren, Mercedes and Ferrari all boasting regular motive force line-ups, Red Bull threat dropping out on hundreds of thousands of kilos with a fourth-vicinity Constructors’ Championship finish.
Addressing Lawson’s destiny in an interview with Sky Germany, Red Bull marketing consultant Marko said: “Formula One is a aggressive sport, and withinside the end [performance] is what counts.
“We are taking the time to examine this, and there are nevertheless a few [drivers] who’re recommending themselves. I would not say it is pushy, however thank God we’re in a very good position. This isn’t always what we had imagined, however we are able to examine it calmly.
“If we study the positive: the Racing Bulls. Isack Hadjar has in no way pushed in this music before. He statistics amazing instances and makes no mistakes. Success and failure are near together, and we are able to see what happens.”
If Red Bull do determine to component methods with Lawson over the approaching races, Tsunoda may be the person first in line to update him. The 24-year-vintage turned into one of the standout performers in Melbourne closing weekend and opened his factors account for the season with a wonderful force withinside the dash race on Saturday.
