Yuki Tsunoda (left) will change Liam Lawson driving for Pink Bull. – Mark Thompson/Getty Photographs
Pink Bull introduced on Thursday it’s shifting its rotation round simply two races into the brand new season.
In a , the staff introduced that Yuki Tsunoda will change Liam Lawson as Max Verstappen’s teammate within the Pink Bull automobiles.
The 2 drivers will swap roles, with Lawson taking Tsunoda’s place within the Racing Bulls automotive – Racing Bulls is Pink Bull’s developmental staff.
“It has been tough to see Liam battle with the RB21 on the first two races and in consequence we have now collectively taken the choice to make an early change,” Pink Bull staff principal and CEO Christian Horner mentioned in a press release. “We got here into the 2025 season, with two ambitions, to retain the World Drivers’ Championship and to reclaim the World Constructors’ title and this can be a purely sporting resolution.
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“We acknowledge there may be a variety of work to be completed with the RB21 and Yuki’s expertise will show extremely useful in serving to to develop the present automotive. We welcome him to the Group and are wanting ahead to seeing him behind the wheel of the RB21.
“Now we have an obligation of care to guard and develop Liam and collectively, we see that after such a tough begin, it is sensible to behave shortly so Liam can acquire expertise, as he continues his F1 profession with Visa Money App Racing Bulls, an setting and a Group he is aware of very properly.”
Lawson was given the spot alongside Verstappen at Pink Bull after impressing through the latter phases of the 2024 season whereas alongside Tsunoda at Racing Bulls.
The choice for Lawson to exchange Sergio Pérez at Pink Bull got here as a shock to many, with Tsunoda a much more skilled driver as he entered his fifth F1 season whereas Lawson had simply 11 F1 races to his identify.
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The transfer has drawn astonishment throughout social media and motorsport pundits with BBC F1 correspondent Andrew Benson it “fairly merely, extraordinary” and “unprecedented.”
However since making the step up, the 23-year-old has struggled mightily. He crashed out of the primary race of the season on the Australian Grand Prix earlier than ending fifteenth on the Chinese language Grand Prix – over 81 seconds behind – though he moved as much as twelfth following the disqualification of Lewis Hamilton, Charles Leclerc and Pierre Gasly.
Lawson has struggled since making the step as much as driving for Pink Bull this season. – Mark Thompson/Getty Photographs
Conversely, Tsunoda completed twelfth in Australia and sixteenth in China. Lawson has but to attain a drivers’ championship level by two races whereas Tsunoda has three to his identify.
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Now, Tsunoda will line up alongside Verstappen beginning at his residence race, the Japanese Grand Prix, on April 6. The 24-year-old might be Verstappen’s sixth at Pink Bull.
Final season, Tsunoda collected 30 of Racing Bulls’ 46 factors, calling it “certainly one of his greatest” seasons.
Lawson returns to Racing Bulls the place he’ll associate rookie Isack Hadjar.
“We’re extremely happy with Yuki incomes his well-deserved transfer to Oracle Pink Bull Racing! His progress final yr, and extra lately from the very begin of 2025, has been nothing lower than sensational,” Laurent Mekies, staff principal of Racing Bulls, .
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“Personally, and collectively, it has been an immense privilege to witness these progresses for all of us in Faenza and in Milton Keynes. Yuki’s power and positivity has lightened up each nook of our factories and of our storage and he’ll all the time be a Racing Bull! We want him all of the success he deserves at ORBR.
“Everybody right here at VCARB is wanting ahead to working onerous with Liam to provide him one of the best setting doable for him to shine in our automotive and to precise the expertise everyone knows he has. He slot in so properly final yr, and we can not wait to problem ourselves and develop as a staff. With Isack having began so strongly with us already, we all know we have now a younger and robust line-up.”
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