Yuki Tsunoda has reignited discuss of a potential Crimson Bull F1 promotion by claiming he’s “100%” prepared to interchange the under-pressure Liam Lawson.
Scrutiny is already mounting on Lawson after his nightmare begin to his Crimson Bull profession continued as he ended up slowest of all in qualifying for the Chinese language Grand Prix.
It marked the second time in two days that Lawson certified P20, including to his disappointing Q1 elimination ultimately weekend’s season-opener in Melbourne.
Lawson’s Crimson Bull teammate Max Verstappen has not certified exterior the highest 4 to date this season.
The 23-year-old Kiwi was chosen by Crimson Bull to interchange the underperforming Sergio Perez for 2025, having been promoted from sister crew Racing Bulls regardless of solely making 11 grand prix begins unfold over two years.
Lawson additionally didn’t comprehensively out-perform Tsunoda throughout their transient spell as Racing Bulls teammates, although Crimson Bull nonetheless opted to miss the Japanese driver.
In distinction to Lawson, Tsunoda is having fun with a superb begin to the season.
Tsunoda was was ninth-quickest in Saturday’s common qualifying session, which adopted an eye catching P5 on the grid in Australia.
The 24-year-old gave a convincing “all the time” response to being requested if he could be pleased to tackle the problem of driving the Crimson Bull.
Pushed if he could be prepared to take action on the subsequent spherical in Japan if Crimson Bull made a driver change, Tsunoda informed media together with ESPN: “In Japan? Yeah, 100%. I imply, the automotive is quicker.”
Crimson Bull not ruling out driver change
Crimson Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko didn’t rule out the opportunity of a driver swap throughout the season.
“Method 1 is a aggressive sport and finally that is what counts,” Marko informed Sky Germany, including that Lawson’s efficiency was “not what we anticipated, however we’ll focus on it calmly.”
Crimson Bull crew principal Christian Horner admitted to Sky Sports activities: “It has been a troublesome day within the workplace for him right now so we’ll have a superb take a look at it and undergo it and clearly try to give him the very best automotive for tomorrow.”
Following his newest disappointment, Lawson conceded “I don’t actually have time” to seek out confidence within the RB21.
“Sadly I do not actually have time, but it surely’s simply a type of issues,” he informed Sky Sports activities.
“I imply to drive a Method 1 automotive, it takes 100% confidence in what you are doing and it isn’t that I do not really feel assured, however the window’s so small that proper now I simply appear to overlook it. It is that that I simply have to get a deal with on.
“So yeah, I do not know the way else to place it actually, it is simply not adequate.”
