[ad_1]
Liam Lawson has suffered one of the most ruthless eliminations in Formula 1, and its replacement will need to overcome a temperamental car and a dysfunctional equipment or be at risk of a similar destination.
Red Bull officially announced on Thursday that Kiwi Lawson, a young driver of only 11 Grands Prix and promoted the team in the low season, is being replaced after only two rounds.
The dreamed work for a team that wants to compete for world titles was a nightmare without mitigating for Lawson, which did not get points in Grand Prix or in Sprint’s career in China.
By justifying Lawson’s elimination for Japanese driver Yuki Tsunoda, Red Bull Chief Christian Horner, said:
“We have the duty to take care and develop Liam and together, we see that after such a difficult beginning, it makes sense to act quickly so that Liam can gain experience, since his F1 career continues with … Racing Bulls, an environment and a team that knows very well.“
Horner can call the change a “duty of care”, but this dismissal of Red Bull is not an accusation of Lawson, but an obvious failure of the team.
It is this failure in which Tsunoda is stomping and must overcome to survive the curse of being Max Verstappen teammate.
When Tsunoda goes to the network next week in front of his local fans in Suzuka, he will be the fifth team different from Verstappen since 2019.
More alarming, he will be the fourth to come from the Junior team of Red Bull.
Red Bull is unique in the world of F1: controls two teams.
In theory, Racing Bulls (previously known as RB, Alphatauri and Torro Rosso) should serve as a springboard so that drivers in the Red Bull program enter F1 and open their way to the main team of Red Bull Racing.
It is an advantage that no other F1 team has, but seems to fail again and again.
At least that is the plan.
While Verstappen, Sebastian Vettel and Daniel Ricciardo succeeded in the Junior team to the greats, for most, it has been their fall.
Japanese driver Yuki Tsunoda will debut for Red Bull at the Formula 1 Grand Prix of his house. (Getty Images: Rudy Carezzzevoli)
Pierre Gasly was abandoned after only 12 races in 2019, after passing through the Junior team. The Frenchman was replaced by Alex Albon, who lasted 26 races before Red Bull released it.
And the problems go back more, with Daniil Kvyat he was abandoned at the beginning of his second season, replaced by Verstappen, who rubbed the salt in the wounds by gaining his debut career for the superior team.
Lawson is only the last driver who chews and spit, and the evidence would suggest that Tsunoda could be in a similar world of pain.
It is a sign that something does not work in Red Bull, a surprising thought considering that Verstappen has won the four previous championships of the four pilots.
But with a rotating cast of teammates who are being well beaten by the Dutch Ace, he begins to feel that Verstappen’s brilliant shine has been masking fundamental failures in the team.
It was only two years ago until the day that the F1 world descended to Melbourne for the 2023 Australian Grand Prix.
Red Bull had a history season in 2022, and their pilots, Verstappen and Pérez had each in the first two rounds.
The rest of the field was not inside Red Bull’s COO-EE.
In that 2023 season, people did not tune in F1 to see who was going to win. They wanted to see for how much Red Bull, mainly Verstappen, would win.
The 2023 Bull network was much better than the rest of the F1 field that was almost ridiculous. The other nine teams were competing in a different category to world champions.
Since then, Red Bull’s car has acted as if he had its own mind.
Red Bull suffered a spectacular fall in 2024. After it seems to go to the championship of other builders after 10 rounds, the wheels seemed to fall and the team was third, behind McLaren and Ferrari.
The Red Bull Max Verstappen pilot has won the four previous championships of F1 pilots. (AP: Other pen)
At one point it seemed that the Verstappen pilots championship was under threat, despite winning seven of the first 10 big prizes: two sensational units in Brazil and Qatar assured that at least the pilot championship would stay with Red Bull.
Behind the scene, Red Bull has crossed the stirring agitation in the last 18 months, with a text messages scandal, rumors of a power struggle and the departure of the F1 Adrian Newey Automobile Design Master.
This year’s Red Bull car, RB21, has difficulties that need to address.
The chaotic nature of the Red Bull car was abundantly clear in the Chinese Grand Prix last weekend when Verstappen was well out of the rhythm to start the race, then his car became life and sometimes it was the fastest on the track.
But with a regulation review next season, the team will increasingly prioritize the Challenger 2026 as it advances this year.
The inconsistency of the car will be an obstacle to Verstappen to overcome in its attempt to gain races, but for Tsunoda, like Lawson, it could be an obstacle to him even keep the team.
Tsunoda is clearly Red Bull’s second option, after the team paid Sergio Pérez Mexicano a lot of money to break his contract at the end of 2024.
The Japanese pilot had four years of experience with the Junior team, but Red Bull chose the Kiwi with only 11 races in two seasons.
Although Tsunoda drives brilliantly to start this season, cruel in both great prix for bad strategy calls of his team, the passage towards the main team of Red Bull must want to try to accumulate Everest without food or water.
Unlike Lawson, again the driver Red Bull chose first, Tsunoda does not have the benefit of a complete preseason with the team. He has been preparing to drive the secondary car, which, despite being slower, seems much easier to drive.
RB21 has raw performance to compete for titles, but is not soft to drive. It may be that Verstappen is the only driver on the network that could succeed in the monster that is the RB21.
But what happens if Tsunoda does not start?
It is a scenario in which Red Bull will have to think because history suggests that it is a real possibility.
Other teams at the top of the sport have allowed young pilots to prosper.
McLaren has Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris shooting all the cylinders, while the teenager Andrea Kimi Antonelli has shone in her first two races with Mercedes.
Oliver Bearman, now with Haas, scored points in his debut last season when he completed for Ferrari in the short term, and Alpine pilot Reserve Franco Colapinto achieved two results among the 10 best when he was torn from F2 to the Williams team in mid -2014.
But Red Bull has not been a happy hunting field for most young drivers, and this is a problem that Red Bull needs to approach desperately, or risk being left behind his rivals when entering a new era of regulation in F1.
[ad_2]
Source link
