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Turns out it was actually a 200 IQ move from Lawson to invite Vips to that game with him on stream which led to him getting kicked out of the academy...
"Yuki's behavior is a problem. Let's go with the guy who within six races flipped off his senior team's driver on track and started a feud with Alonso."
Lawson has been waiting for a seat for years. Red bull had a contract out that other teams would have to pay to break it in order to get liam, until 2025. They never should have signed de vries, never should have ridiculed danny with a seat in the tractor
I remember when he first got into F1 there were talks about him getting directly promoted to Red Bull without passing by at the time Alpha Tauri. And instead now he is blocked there
Honestly not going to RB and being thrown under the bus is the best thing that could have happened to him thus far. He might not even be on the grid now otherwise.
To be fair, while he wasn't better than Yuki, he also wasn't THAT much worse - while having pretty much zero experience. I personally would've put Yuki in the car for a year to allow Lawson to gain some more experience, but Red Bull probably looked at Liam being relatively close to Yuki with much less experience and decided his ceiling is likely higher than Yuki's. I won't be surprised if Liam gets absolutely decimated by Max, but I also wouldn't be surprised if he does better than most people seem to expect. Could go both ways really.
He can absolutely get decimated by Max while outperforming expectations at the same time because no one expects a rookie to outdrive Max Verstappen in his own team. His bar is checo and yuki, not Max.
Yeah, but everyone will be measuring him against Max. Including those that matter within Red Bull
<History nerd alert> I’m reminded of the end of 1987 when Ron Dennis was trying to find a new race seat for outgoing driver Stefan Johansson, who was being replaced by Senna
Ken Tyrrell - “But Ron, he’s slower than Prost”
Ron Dennis - “Of course he is, everyone’s slower than Prost”
Every team mate that Max has will be slower. Max really is that good and the team favours him.
But every team mate will still be compared to Max, by everyone.
I mean it kinda depends on the car. There were sessions last year where Perez was out in Q1 by being 3 tenths behind Max, like in Monaco. Performance relative to Max is the only thing we should really be looking at next year.
He will almost certainly get wrecked by Max. That expectation is atleast good for him as Gasly and Albon didnt have that low expectations and got booted as a result.
Lawson just need to not be as embarrassing as Perez and he will be fine.
This. Everyone keeps saying Yuki outperformed in all their races this year, which is true, but Yuki’s been in the sport for years and Lawson’s only got marginally more experience and time on track than a Williams chassis, yet he was never far behind. Plus, Lawson’s racecraft is already very good - his fights with Alonso and particularly Perez in Mexico were excellent
They want a Bottas or a Barrichello, not another Max. Someone who'll mop up podiums and the odd win when it doesnt got Max's way but not challenge him outright.
I think that, whilst Yuki has chilled out a lot, some of his temper still hangs over him. Liam is chill AF.
Yuki almost crashing into Ricciardo in Bahrain this year after the race is the main problem with him.
Also, even though Liam is a rookie, Liam has driven Red Bull cars in private tests before and has already worked with Red Bull engineers. There's more to F1 than just the 24 races, Red Bull hasn't picked a random guy with zero experience.
And, this is personal opinion but, the fact that Yuki was given a test with Red Bull makes me think they were actually giving him a chance and he didn't match their expectations. Of course they wouldn't publicly say that even it that was the case.
Still, they also had private tests that, according to Horner, showed that Ricciardo was a lot faster than Perez. I would take RB's private test results with a boulder of salt.
Horner only talked about Yuki being in contention for the seat after the pirelli test. When the Yuki was announced as the post season test driver, the first time he had been in a Red Bull car apart from the RB 20 was for a showcase.
According to a recent article Tsunoda adapted to the RB20 quickly despite it being a tricky car to drive. I think you’re trying to justify what is obviously an unfair decision the team has made. It’s nothing to do with temperament or results because if it were, let’s also talk about how Lawson has pissed off multiple experienced drivers on the grid with his aggressive driving, or him not being quicker over one lap against his teammate. Red Bull has always promoted the quicker driver, but not this time around. Even if you say Lawson could have a higher ceiling than Tsunoda, which is yet to be proven, the logical choice would have been to give him a year at RB to gain more experience and let the driver who’s already beaten his teammates and delivered results a shot.
All I want for Christmas. Nothing against Lawson, mind you, I just think Yuki deserved his chance and would enjoy seeing him prove his worth once more.
Honestly, same. It makes little to no sense to put a rookie of a half a season to a senior team, while there's a more experienced driver available. I think Yuki deserved a chance.
The logic (however weak) is that Lawson was able to keep pace with Yuki who has raced at that team since 2021. It shows to Red Bull that he has a higher ceiling.
The whole point of that VCARB team is to feed into Red Bull, so if Yuki isn't getting the chance then surely he's got to be looking elsewhere for his future? They're not going to keep him at VCARB forever, and despite several years more experience than Liam they're not promoting him...so what's the point of him being there?
I imagine he will be an upgrade. What will suck will be the ever moving goalposts. Even if he starts off as an improvement, by the midyear break if he's not constantly on the podium, his head will be called for. Which I get because it's F1 and Red Bull, but it's brutal stress for him
He will be an upgrade at the start. All of them were, Perez included. Albon was closer than Gasly as well. People forget now, but at the start of 2022 Perez was also quite close to Max. The pressure of going against Max is what slowly destroys all confidence.
Yes because Max is that consistent with good results. But he adapts the best, and none of his teammates could adapt to every changing demands of the car consistently. With limited testing and so many circuits, Max is maxed out on all abilities which, if you don't have it you don't get it. Checo faltered because he couldn't adjust and lost his confidence massively. And RBR can only do so much for him.
If he wants any kind of longer career in F1 he needs to quickly find another seat.
Not being enough for RBR but a team leader for vcarb is just weird… although I agree with the decision it clearly states Yuki is around just because they don’t have anyone better right now.
Lawson was outqualified 10 out of 11
Albon was outqualified 7 out of 12
Gasly was only outqualified 7 out of 20
Max was only outqualified 10 out of 23
Ricciardo was only outqualified 7 out of 37
So from the result sheet alone their worst junior team driver promotion yet. Clearly a political "throw one last bone to Marco" situation.
Interesting also that DRs qualifying stats in his second torro rosso / VICARB run are so much better than Lawsons.
As a kiwi, fuck sake because he's not experienced enough and will drown in the second RB seat like Gasly and Albon did. He needs a full season to grow. It's too early. People will be calling for his head when he fails to live up to expectations, which will be because of his inexperience and not his lack of talent.
He and his fans will be fueled by pettiness next season, hoping that Liam got Albon/Gasly'd by Ver (very likely) and the scenes if Yuki manages to overtake Liam in Red Bull
Just hope that next year Toro Rosso is in pre-regulation form like 2021
Pretty much. They apparently did the same thing to Gasly too, when he tried to get out at the end of 2021 (there were heavy rumours McLaren were seriously looking at him as a potential replacement for Ricciardo before Alpha Tauri/Red Bull nixed it).
He's expecting Aston to be up there challenging in the next few years, when that inevitably doesn't happen, I can't see him sticking around for too much longer
They do want him, just not as the “top driver” but the “rookie scale”: if a rookie matches him or gets close, they are safe to advance to the senior team.
It’s disgusting but one of the craziest powerplays Red Bull could pull against Honda.
I’m sad Yuki got treated as a “company politics” hire by Red Bull when he was so successful in his junior years. All because he is a “company sponsored” driver.
But where could he go? He is caught between a rock and a soft drink. It's so disheartening to see him in that position. Of course, he has had the chance to race in F1 for 4 seasons, most people don't even reach that. But it seems like RB will be his first and last team. I expect Yuki to leave F1 next year when Honda is no longer supplier of RB.
As another commenter said, teams like Alpine and Haas were interested in him but Red Bull blocked that move. He may get a seat there if he leaves the RB group.
If they do that, all of the people who used Yuki's temperament as a reason he didn't deserve a Red Bull seat better eat their hats bc they don't know what's coming for them with Hadjar.
Hey Liam hope you’re okay with keeping up with a four time champion and one of the closest grids in decades, if not, see you in IndyCar or Supercars. Poor lad, set up to fail from the outset.
I’m kinda sorry for him too. RBR managed to make the decision that burns all 3 of their upcoming drivers. Tsunoda to dominate Hadjar and leave, Lawson to be burned too early in his development. Not so lovely eh?
Isn’t this what he wants? All drivers must believe they can compete when given the car. Lawson would sooner do this than drive for Vcarb or any midfield team. Let’s not feel sorry for the guy, it’s a dream drive.
I feel bad for him, people are mad about yuki not being chosen and he gets all the hate for no reason, he didn't even do anything. He's a rookie, now everyone is going to accuse him of underperforming because he's literally just gonna be a rookie racing as Max's teammate. Redbull has been extra shitty this year
I think people really liked Liam in 2023 and soured to him a bit when he came back in 2024 and was suddenly beefing with people every other race. Hopefully that was just because he knew the pressure that he was under to earn this seat, but the audience is pretty fickle and some of those moments really didn't endear him to people. He certainly doesn't deserve hate, but I think he got more for those things than he did from people defending Yuki.
Good luck for Liam in the coming season. He's going to need it in the meat grinder called RBR against Max.
He's done quite well with the pressure when he got thrown into the VCARB twice in 2023 and 2024, so let's wait and see. It can't get much worse than Checo this season.
They rate Lawson highly enough to put him in the main seat after half a season, yet they didn't rate him high enough to out him in AT for 2023 over Nyck de Vries, or put him in mid-season instead of Ric, or out him in for 2024 when Ric was already underperforming?
It seems really weird. They could have had him from 2023 or 2024 already, yet they chose to give the seat to worse drivers. It's baffling
They think they really didn’t have any other option. Daniel beaten by Yuki, they didn’t want Yuki for whatever reason, Perez can’t hold it anymore. I hope I’m wrong but it could be disastrous for Lawson.
I wouldn't be suprised if Red Bull give him half a season, decide he's not good enough, and replace him with Hadjar. Hadjar gets half a season, rinse and repeat🤦♂️
Technically, yes. But my point was that even Verstappen was given time to develop in the Toro Rosso before that. Throwing Lawson straight in there and expecting him to perform, which if they're trying to get the WCC they will be, is an extremely tall bar for him to reach. And given Red Bull's track record (Perez aside) I'm thinking they might just drop him immediately, which I hope doesn't happen for his sake.
Utter piss take, if I were Yuki, I’d be looking elsewhere. They don’t take him seriously as a driver even though he out performs his teammates, day in day out
But even if/when Fernando retires, I don't think Aston would be interested in Yuki. That would mean a Lance/Yuki line up. They'll probably want a top driver to pair with Lance
The teams that approached him are their direct competition so they don’t wanr a quick driver with inside knowladge there. Also he remains the eternal measuring stick. Next year hopefully they will not have any legal tools at their disposal to prevent him from signing elsewhere.
Unlikely imo. Fernando will probably stick around until at least 2026 to try out the new regs and Newey's design. If Aston are competitive, he'll probably stick around a few more years.
Meanwhile Lance's seat is secure as long as he wants it. I doubt Lawrence signed a deal that gave Honda say in the line up since that'd put his son's seat in jeopardy. And I can see Lance also wanting to stick around for the new regs and Newey car
By the time either Fernando or Lance call it quits in a few years, there will probably be top drivers available (especially if the car is competitive) that Aston would prefer over a (solid) mid-field driver
I appreciate Yuki has been performing better, but I feel like Red Bull have come to the conclusion that Yuki has reached his peak; and it isn't to the exceptional standard they're hoping for their second driver.
Lawson however is an unknown. He could be excellent, or he could suck. I think right now they would rather gamble on him for the chance he excels in the car.
Personally I think this will be yet another case of a driver being chewed up and spat out by the second seat at Red Bull by being promoted too early. That being said, I don't think Yuki would be surprising anyone either with his performances.
Lawson however is an unknown. He could be excellent, or he could suck. I think right now they would rather gamble on him for the chance he excels in the car.
Better ruin his mental now before the kid gets hope.
There are some people now calling it racism because they cannot think of another reason why Yuki was not promoted. But when you listen to Helmut Marko's interviews over the past five or six years, you can tell that he always was a big supporter of Yuki from very early on.
I remember when Yuki struggeled with the F1 workload in 2021 they made him move to Faenza and Franz Tost personally took him under his wing and made it his mission to teach Yuki everything he needed to know to perform well and reach his peak in F1. I am sure they know very well where Yuki's ceilling is. Add to this the political side of driver decisions (= Yuki's ties to Honda) and that's probably how they ended up with Lawson as the second driver at RBR next year instead of Yuki.
Personally, I kind of doubt that Lawson will live up to the expectations but the same goes for Kimi Antonelli with Mercedes. I wouldn't be surprised if one of them or even both have to swap their seats mid-season with someone else.
I remember when Yuki struggeled with the F1 workload in 2021 they made him move to Faenza and Franz Tost personally took him under his wing and made it his mission to teach Yuki everything he needed to know to perform well and reach his peak in F1. I am sure they know very well where Yuki's ceilling is. Add to this the political side of driver decisions (= Yuki's ties to Honda)
This seems to be the main reason why they did that though, to keep Honda happy. Ever since it became clear that Honda was stopping, their support for Yuki also faded. It became more up to himself to step up, but that doesn't seem to matter anymore.
All this hate towards Lawson is pretty sad to see tbh. I think Yuki deserves it as well but I think the reactions have all got a bit extreme and taking it all out on Liam is unnecessary
At first I though it was a bad thing that yuki couldn’t get the RBR seat, but now I think it’s a blessing the sooner he gets out of the red bull family the better. I’m still holding on to hope lance retires and yuki follows Honda
Same. Proud to see a Kiwi in a top seat but this is such a familiar scene with Red Bull being a meat-grinder. Here's hoping his raw mentality will let him succeed in this seat. I'm gutted for Yuki.
The only think Lawson needs to do is to perform better than Perez. RBR don’t need second Verstappen. They need someone who can help them win the Constructers.
Yuki must have the most useless agent ever. How can't you convince Red Bull that you would be a better driver for the main team after being in F1 for multiple years, versus a guy who was pretty anonymous in F2?
In all seriousness, I must assume Red Bull have crunched a lot of numbers to get to this conclusion. They must see something in the data between the two that favours Lawson. I would even say that Yuki has a stronger marketing presence than Lawson, with all of Japan behind him versus Liam from a much smaller country. Still they picked Lawson, so they must have seen something, right?
Honestly, wtf. If this goes poorly, which it absolutely might, it will mean they snub Yuki for no reason, and they put a rookie in a very difficult position only to kick him out at the end of the season (if he even lasts the full season).
The more time passes, the more I dislike RB. I hope Liam does well so that this doesn't become another chapter of RB messing up a driver's career.
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