Liam Lawson rips into himself after another dismal qualifying performance as he finds himself last on the grid again at the F1 2025 Chinese GP, whilst Red Bull add to his woes as Helmut Marko hints he could be fired if he doesn’t improve.
The 23-year-old, in his first season as a full time Formula 1 driver, has now competed in three qualifying sessions and in all three of them hasn’t managed to get higher than 18th on the grid. Meanwhile Max Verstappen, his teammate, hasn’t qualified lower than fourth.
It’s a pattern all too similar to previous seasons for the team with the Dutchman extracting the maximum from the car whilst his now-former colleagues, Pierre Gasly, Alex Albon and Sergio Perez, all struggled to make the same kind of impression.
And the pressure is already mounting on the New Zealander as he insists he needs to improve after his 2025 Chinese GP woes, particularly as Red Bull begin to hint at being ready to fire him if he can’t find the pace they’re looking for.
“It is very, very tough,” Lawson told Sky Sports F1 of trying to drive the 2025 Red Bull car. “And yeah, I can get upset at the traffic issues and things like that, but it shouldn’t be the difference between me getting through or not.
“I have a whole lot of things to sort out myself before I can look at getting a little bit of traffic and things like that. So, it’s just frustrating.
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“I mean the [working] window is very small in this car, but it’s not an excuse. It’s just something I need to get a grip on.
“And we have sort of glimpses of it, where it feels good, but it’s just a very small window and I just need to get on top of it.”
Will Red Bull fire Lawson?
Red Bull have made it no secret they’re willing to bench people in the middle of the seasons. In 2019, Gasly was demoted before the summer break whilst in 2023 they dropped Nyck de Vries from the now-Racing Bulls team.
They then followed that up in 2024 by axing Daniel Ricciardo following the Singapore GP so the threat of being sent to the junior team, or even out of the sport entirely, is a very real prospect for the Kiwi to face.
“F1 is a competitive sport,” Marko cryptically told Sky Germany in China, as the key Red Bull figure hints the Lawson could be fired if he doesn’t step up his performances as Yuki Tsunoda and Isack Hadjar find themselves waiting on the wings.
Tsunoda continues to keep the pressure on after out-qualifying Lawson for the fifth race in a row, and he is also bringing that pace through into 2025 too.
The 24-year-old has been the fans’ pick for the seat for some time but Red Bull haven’t gambled on the Japanese driver yet. Is the time to do so soon?
And perhaps even more concerning for Lawson is that even if Red Bull aren’t too keen on bringing Tsunoda up, Hadjar just qualified seventh for Racing Bulls and got ahead of his colleague, suggesting he’s handy over one lap too.
