Promoting Liam Lawson without a full season of experience was a mistake, says former F1 driver Karun Chandhok

Ahead of this weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix, former F1 driver and TV commentator Karun Chandhok feels Red Bull Racing had no option but to drop Liam Lawson for Yuki Tsunoda after giving the former just two races.

Lawson, who was promoted from Racing Bulls to Red Bull for 2025, has now been shunted back to his old team following his disastrous performances in the opening rounds of the 2025 season.

Karun, one of only two Indians to have raced in F1, felt that Red Bull was wrong in promoting Lawson, who had just 11 races under his belt in the first place.

“I rate Liam, in terms of pure talent, but promoting him to the top team without giving him a full season of experience, I thought was a mistake, and it’s proved to be the case,” said Karun.

“To be honest, I am a bit surprised and disappointed with how far off Liam has been because I thought, based on last year, he and Yuki were very evenly matched. Liam has only done half a season of F1, and I thought the trajectory he was on in terms of his learning would take him higher than Yuki, who’s had four years of experience. But in the end, it’s not worked out so well for him,” he added.

The 41-year-old also pointed out the difference between how Mercedes has groomed Andrea Kimi Antonelli and said it was something Red Bull should have followed.

“Mercedes has shown this by giving Antonelli a full 10,000 kilometres of mileage to test and develop. They are showing a good way in terms of how to develop drivers, and Red Bull, I think, should have signed either (Carlos) Sainz or (Alexander) Albon alongside Max and left Liam and Yuki in the junior team and had Isaac Hadjar doing 10,000 kilometres of testing this year to gain experience. That would create the feed into the future.”

While calling the decision to drop Lawson harsh, Karun stressed that Red Bull had no choice but to cut its losses early in the year.

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“Has Red Bull done the right thing by swapping after two races? It’s quite harsh, to be honest, especially after taking Liam to two tracks where he’s not raced at before. At least Suzuka is a track he’s been to before. He knows it quite well and is a first sort of normal track. So it’s quite harsh, but Formula One is a tough business, is a harsh business, and they have given Yuki an opportunity at his home race to be with the big team.”

Karun, who has also competed in Formula E and the World Endurance Championship, felt Tsunoda is in good form going into his debut race for Red Bull on home soil.

“There’s no doubt that Yuki has massively improved. I think he was quite raw. He always had speed, but maybe he didn’t have the consistency in his early years. But he’s developed and improved a lot over the four seasons he’s had at the junior team. And he’s driving very well; he’s in good form. Is he a better bet than Liam? We’ll find out. But I think what is clear is Red Bull is not willing to wait around as long as they did with (Sergio) Perez last year. They are not willing to wait for Liam to develop.”

“In the big team, they need to make changes early in the season so they don’t lose ground.”