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The saga that surrounds Red Bull Racing and its pilots has dominated the news cycle of Formula 1, since the next chapter begins in the Japan Grand Prix this weekend.
Yuki Tsunoda will have his first race weekend in the Senior Red Bull team after an exchange of pilots with the New Zealand driver Liam Lawson, who has been degraded to Racing Bulls, the Junior team.
Lawson and Tsunoda were in dispute over the senior vacancy in the low season, but Red Bull chose to go with the Kiwi, which only had 11 Grands Prix, instead of Tsunoda, which had driven for the races (previously RB and Alphatauri) during the four previous seasons.
But only two races in the season, Lawson’s poor results led Red Bull to press the trigger and make a change, a brutal sack even according to F1 standards.
The pressure is now in Tsunoda, which will need to have an immediate impact to silence any question about whether Red Bull made such an instinctive reaction in the season.
But the Japanese driver, who already has the pressure of the expectation in front of his local fans, has said that he is ready to enjoy the opportunity.
Speaking in a function organized by the manufacturer of Automobiles Honda, who has strongly supported Tsunoda’s career, the Japanese driver said that making his debut in Red Bull in his country of origin “feels like destiny.”
“To be honest, I never expected to be competing for Red Bull in the Japanese Grand Prix,” Tsunoda said, as reported by the Motorsport editor.
“This is the last year of the Red Bull and Honda association, so getting to the race in Suzuka as a Red Bull Racing pilot feels like destiny. Everything has fallen in its place in the right way to stand here today.
“There are not many moments in the life where you face this type of extreme pressure and an opportunity as big as this, so I can imagine that it will be an incredibly exciting career.”
Red Bull finished third in the Constructors Championship last year, despite the fact that Max Verstappen claimed his fourth consecutive pilot championship.
Liam Lawson was fired from Red Bull Racing after two race weekends. (Reuters: Tyrone Siu)
It was the first time since 1983 that the pilot champion competed for a team that did not end first or second in the Construction Championship. That year, Brabahm-BMW finished third in the Construction Championship, while Nelson Piquet became a world champion.
In 2024, an eighth place for Red Bull Sergio Pérez pilot cost Red Bull the possibility of winning three consecutive builders.
Red Bull made Pérez’s change, believing that Lawson would help them fight with McLaren and Ferrari for the title.
Changing Lawson after there were no points of two Grands Prix and a Sprint race was because they no longer thought that Kiwi could help them win the world title this year, according to the head of the Red Bull Christian Horner team.
“It has been difficult to see Liam fight with the RB21 in the first two races and, as a result, we have collectively made the decision to make an early change,” he said in the statement last week announcing the driver’s exchange.
“We entered the 2025 season, with two ambitions, to retain the World Pilot Championship and claim the title of world builders and this is a purely sports decision.”
Verstappen has had a promising start for the second, being secondly in the Australian Grand Prix and the fourth in the Chinese Grand Prix.
A third place in Sprint’s career in China has the second defending world champion in the pilot championship after two rounds.
McLaren, the champions of the defenders, have had a beginning of the year.
Lando Norris was the winner in Australia, while his teammate Oscar Piastri led a perfect race to win the road grand prize.
The Japan Grand Prix, the third round of the Formula 1 2025 championship, will take place on Sunday, April 6.
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