13-time F1 race winner David Coulthard has opened up about the reason that prompted Red Bull to promote Liam Lawson from RB into its senior team instead of signing Yuki Tsunoda.
After the season-closing Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Red Bull announced that Sergio Perez would leave the team despite his existing contract. The Milton Keynes-based outfit then confirmed that Liam Lawson will partner four-time F1 world champion Max Verstappen in 2025 F1 season.
While Yuki Tsunoda made his F1 debut with Red Bull’s Faenza-based outfit four years ago, the company elected to promote Lawson into its senior team despite his short spell in F1.
The New Zealand native joined the Red Bull Junior Programme in 2019 and after multiple junior formula successes made his Formula One debut with Scuderia AlphaTauri at the 2023 Dutch Grand Prix, in place of the injured Daniel Ricciardo.
He scored his first championship points in just his second outing at the Singapore GP and completed five races in all for the team. After taking up his Reserve Driver role with both teams at the start of 2024, Lawson returned to Grand Prix racing with Visa Cash App Racing Bulls with a points-scoring finish at last year’s United States Grand Prix.
Reflecting on Red Bull’s decision to promote Lawson to the senior team instead of Tsunoda, 13-time F1 race winner David Coulthard stated the Milton Keynes-based operation based its final call on the wealth of data it has on its drivers.
“Yuki [was] understandably disappointed that having had a very strong season, he wasn’t given the chance at Red Bull Racing. But I guess ultimately for Red Bull, they asked the question, do they think he’s a future World Champion? Do they think he’s a Max beater? And again, as always, this isn’t opinions, this is facts. They’ve got all the data on him.”
“On [the] one hand, you could say if Yuki had better options outside of what is now the renamed Racing Bulls team, then he would have taken it.
“So, I think at the end, this is a big opportunity for all these guys and it’s going to be very interesting to see how they perform when they’re out on track,” concluded Coulthard.
