Lawson, Tsunoda or someone else? The ideal F1 line-up for Red Bull teams
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- Ludo van Denderen
Sergio Perez is currently in talks with Red Bull over terminating his contract with the Austrians. Once those terms are finalised, the final decision on who to promote to which team could be announced. While rumours suggest different things, according to GPblog, this would be the most logical line-up selection by the Red Bull family for the upcoming 2025 season.
Max Verstappen is expected to have Liam Lawson as his teammate at Red Bull Racing in 2025. In that case, Yuki Tsunoda will remain at Racing Bulls, where Isack Hadjar - graduating from Formula 2 - will become his partner at the Faenza-based team. On paper, however, there seems to be a more logical line-up for the two teams.
Red Bull Racing
Max Verstappen is obviously undisputed as the number one driver for the team, but Red Bull would do better to put Yuki Tsunoda alongside the Dutchman, The Japanese has been showing it for years that he deserves a promotion, but for some reason team principal Christian Horner does not see that in him. Rather, Horner would like to promote Lawson, but there is a big risk involved. The New Zealander has only 11 Grands Prix to his name and this promotion could just come too soon for him.
After all, being Verstappen's teammate is not a fun task. There is a good chance that the inexperienced Lawson will be completely outperformed on a weekly basis, similarly to what happened to Pierre Gasly and Alexander Albon, who joined Red Bull Racing way too early. It would be much smarter to put the more experienced Tsunoda alongside Verstappen. Should the Japanese not perform at the expected level, the Austrians can still make the switch and give the seat to Lawson mid-season. The driver from New Zealand would then have some extra Grands Prix to his name and gained more experience.
Racing Bulls
As described, it would be beneficial for Lawson to drive a full season at Racing Bulls. It has also already been pointed out that the chances of that are slim, and it will probably be Tsunoda who leads this team again. With hot-head Tsunoda, it would not be wise to put another driver with similar traits alongside him. Isack Hadjar is a Tsunoda 2.0, as last F2 season proved. The French-Algerian can explode at any minute, and he could do that even worse than when Tsunoda sometimes does.
Moreover, there are question marks over whether Hadjar is the talent Red Bull thought they saw in him for years. Even in his second season, for instance, he failed to become champion in Formula 2, while rookie Gabriel Bortoleto (who will drive for Sauber in 2025) did. However, there is a driver ready who has a bit more experience and seems to be a smarter choice: Ayumu Iwasa. The Japanese driver competed in Formula 2 for two season and last year in the strong Super Formula (where he finished in P5 in the standings).
In the past, Liam Lawson took a similar path, and he is now a highly-regarded f1 driver. For Hadjar, it would be better to spend an extra year learning in the shadows - in Super Formula or else as a full-time test and reserve driver - before making his way to F1. He would then also have all the time he needs to take a course in controlling his emotions.
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