F1’s cruel side is on show as Red Bull to fire Liam Lawson after 2 races
Being Red Bull Racing 1 teammates with Formula 1 driver Max Verstappen is a hard ask. The Dutch driver took his fourth consecutive world championship last year, dominating the sport to such an extent that he led the points table across a 63-race, 1,029-day streak that only ended with McLaren and Lando Norris' victory in Australia earlier this month. Now we believe he's going to have his second teammate of the year, after just two races, as Red Bull gets ready to drop Liam Lawson for Yuki Tsunoda.
For three of its championship years, Red Bull built the fastest car in F1, and Verstappen's teammate Sergio Perez scored race wins and plenty of points to help the team secure the constructors championships in 2021, 2022, and 2023. But Red Bulls' designers have been evolving a concept that even its former design boss Adrian Newey thinks is flawed, and in 2024, we saw Perez' form evaporate after the first handful of races that year.
Verstappen was able to fight for the title thanks to his considerable skill in the car. But the team lost out to both McLaren and Ferrari in the constructors' standings, something that will have had a very considerable impact upon the end-of-year bonuses for Red Bull's hundreds of employees.