Red Bull Formula 1 Team Drops Liam Lawson And Replaces Him With Yuki Tsunoda

Red Bull dropped Liam Lawson as the teammate of Formula 1 champion Max Verstappen after just two rounds of the season and replaced him with Yuki Tsunoda on Thursday.

Lawson was given the Red Bull seat despite not having previously driven a full F1 season and struggled immediately. The New Zealander did not score any points, crashed out of the season-opening Australian Grand Prix and qualified in last place for the Chinese Grand Prix and its sprint race.

Tsunoda moves up from Red Bull's second team, Racing Bulls, in time for his home Japanese GP next week. Lawson will take Tsunoda's place at Racing Bulls alongside rookie Isack Hadjar.

The change is a sign of how cut-throat F1 can be and an admission that Red Bull made the wrong choice in picking Lawson . He completed only 11 career F1 races before this season and was typically slower than Tsunoda across their six races as teammates last year.

"It has been difficult to see Liam struggle with the car at the first two races and as a result we have collectively taken the decision to make an early switch," Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said in a statement.