Helmut Marko's ex-ally rips into Red Bull for Liam Lawson farce

Former AlphaTauri (now Racing Bulls) team principal Franz Tost has called out the decision to initially promote ahead of , suggesting that the New Zealander could drive for '100 years' without delivering the speed that his Japanese counterpart possesses. Tost worked with Tsunoda during the early stages of the 24-year-old's F1 career as he honed his skills as a rookie alongside Pierre Gasly, who has since moved to Alpine. After showing steady progress and development, the Kanagawa-born driver emerged as the team's biggest threat by 2023.

Tsunoda has since dominated the intra-team battles against Nyck de Vries and Daniel Ricciardo, both of whom were dropped mid-season as a result. When Lawson arrived at VCARB after the 2024 Singapore Grand Prix, he was beaten six-nil in qualifying by his new team-mate. Despite this, when Red Bull dropped Sergio Perez in December, they turned to Lawson instead of Tsunoda, sparking widespread debate in the F1 paddock. Unfortunately for the New Zealander, his stint alongside Max Verstappen lasted just two Grand Prix weekends.

After failing to score a point or escape from Q1 in both Melbourne and Shanghai, Christian Horner demoted Lawson and handed Tsunoda the call-up. He will make his Red Bull debut in front of an adoring home crowd at the Suzuka Circuit on Sunday.

Speaking to ORF about the driver swap saga, Tost said: "I would have done with Yuki Tsunoda from the start. I said that already, I made it clear last Autumn. Why?

"Yuki is much faster than Lawson. You could give Lawson 100 years, and he still wouldn't be as fast as Yuki - and Yuki is more experienced. So what's the issue? It's a very simple decision."

Tost wasn't the only one to disagree with Red Bull's decision-making over the winter, either. McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown described the decision to promote Lawson as "strange" at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.

"I think it's going to be a very exciting year," Brown told Sky Sports F1. "Yuki did a great job, [he's] probably the guy that should be in the Red Bull if you look at how he's performed. But they seem to make some strange driver choices."

On the surface, the odds seem stacked against Tsunoda at Red Bull. Before him, Gasly, Alex Albon, Perez, and Lawson all failed to get their machinery under control and to extract pace. However, in free practice on Friday, the home hero was instantly within a tenth of Verstappen's lap times, inspiring hope that times may be changing in Milton Keynes.