How Tsunoda-Lawson F1 controversial swap from Red Bull may already work

Although it is returned to the slower racing bulls car, Liam Lawson has overcome its replacement of Red Bull Yuki Tsunoda for the Japanese Grand Prix of Formula 1. But there are signs the ruthless Red Bull switch can already work.

Leaving aside the impressive Red Bull’s decision -making to downgrade Lawson after two difficult races on the circuits he did not know, which finally had to the team, is to have someone in the second car that could be a regular scorer of big points to stimulate the hopes of his manufacturers, and ideally as soon as possible.

If you take the qualification session on Saturday in isolation – in which Tsunoda ranked 15th in the second quarter behind the two racing bulls, including the pilot he replaced – you must say that the jury is still on the Japanese driver. Tsunoda took a bad start in his last round, deriving from the final chicane with the unstable Red Bull, which left him starting his leaflet on the rear foot, then leaving the tower shape 1. Afterwards, he said that he did not nail the heating of the tires that cost him dear.

“In Q1, I felt pretty good – I just missed the window, I suppose,” said Tsunoda. “I think the window in which this car can work (in) is very narrow – most things should be almost perfect, especially the warm -up.

“And, especially in the second quarter, I could not warm up that I wanted as the previous race, so that made a big difference at the end. I somehow recognized it, but it was a little too late, and I couldn’t put everything together when it was.”

Tsunoda said that it was “a great shame” that did not enter the third quarter, which had been his basic pre-Semaine objective. But what he should not feel ashamed is how he acquitted throughout the weekend as a whole.

Having been falling into the car without preliminary mileage in front of the fans of her house and the vigilant eye of Honda – on one of the most difficult circuits of F1 – The pressure on Tsunoda was immense. However, if he felt, he did not show it throughout the weekend. He directed the nearby teammate in the first free training – with the usual warning of unknown engine modes – and as others were derailed by the four red FP2 flags, which limited its race.

Having felt any strange behavior of the RB21 in the Milton Keynes simulator last week, the behavior aboard the knife of the Red Bull machine in 2025 made its entry once it had a first -hand experience. But, while Lawson estimated that he needed much more time to adapt, which he was cruelly offered, Tsunoda already seemed to face, fixing the fastest ninth time in FP3 and seventh in Q1 before his more disorderly Q2 performance.

Liam Lawson, Racing Bulls

Photo by: Clive Mason / Getty Images

The Red Bull has not only a narrower installation window than the line of cars in the car race to which the 24 years is used to, but its behavior on the nose also means that it is much more unstable, something Verstappen also complained despite its superb pole position.

“This car is on the edge with the rear but at least for the moment, I feel pretty good with stability,” said Tsunoda. “I would say that in terms of rear shift, I feel it but, at the same time, this kind of direction is the configuration that I have to drive to perform well in the car. I started to recognize it throughout the three practices, it was not enough at the end to put everything together.”

The director of the team Christian Horner, who has long been reluctant to promote Tsunoda, also seemed more impressed than he had been before. “It was a great shame for Yuki today because in fact, his Q1 was very competitive, he was a tenth,” Horner at F1 TV told. “He was building himself well (but) in Q2, he did not go faster than the first quarter and he had a great moment at the start of his knees.

“As you gave three, four tenths, you will never recover it here, so it was a shame because the qualifications do not represent the work he did to this point.”

He then extended to Sky: “I think he would have done the top 10 comfortably today. Until this point, I think he did very well, and I was happy to see Liam also settle in racing bulls.”

Lawson was also disappointed, claiming 14th on the grid while teammate Isack Hadjar took a superb seventh. But Lawson also demonstrated many more promises during his first competitive outing in the Bulls Racing than the result of the first quarter, and certainly felt much more comfortable than his two disastrous weekends with Red Bull.

“It was a delicate day-I felt really good, even stronger than yesterday in terms of comfort in the car,” he said. “It was good in the first quarter, then via T2, the balance sort of distant from us and I simply could not get much more.”

Yuki Tsunoda, Red Bull Racing

Photo by: Mark Thompson – Getty Images

Poetically, Lawson and Tsunoda will meet on the grid on Sunday, from the 14th and 15th respectively. But Lawson raised his shoulders of any additional meaning so that his “ Red Bull begins behind him with Tsunoda while driving: “No, it’s just another car. I mean, with the weather of tomorrow, it will probably be a fairly exciting race, so I’m just going to focus on the right start and move forward.”

In the past, Tsunoda wondered several times why he had not been promoted to Red Bull. And, although he was late gave his dream movement in difficult circumstances, he also woke up to the harsh reality of the difficulty of the Red Bull to drive and settle down, and perhaps how Verstappen appeared it despite the reproaches of the Dutchman.

But from the first day – and it is certainly a very small sample size – it does not seem that Tsunoda is struggling with the typical red bull weaknesses to the same extent as Lawson or other pilots of this seat.

“What is positive is that I started to understand the car,” he concluded after putting aside his initial disappointment. “It is quite difficult to operate this car properly, it’s quite narrow but at least I feel confidence in the car, and I know what to do for the future. I finished the T2 with finally reading the whole manual on the Red Bull, do you know what I mean?”

Make no mistake, Tsunoda has always had board to make his dream dream work and really make the seat. But if you look beyond the second quarter, its reference rate has already been stronger than its predecessor, just like his confidence in the car.

Japanese GP photos – Practical and qualification