The Formula One paddock thrives on speculation, but some rumours hit harder than others. In a surprising turn of events following the Chinese Grand Prix, murmurs have grown louder that Liam Lawson’s short-lived time under the Red Bull Racing banner may already be over.

What began as whispers has escalated into widespread reports from RTL/ntv, sport.de and other outlets suggesting the New Zealander could be ousted altogether – without even a lifeline from sister team VCARB (formerly AlphaTauri).

Just weeks into the 2025 season, 23-year-old Lawson finds himself at the center of a seismic shake-up within the Red Bull driver ecosystem.

 

 

Lawson dismissal 

If reports are to be believed, Red Bull’s swift dismissal of Lawson not only opens the door to a reshuffle, but potentially a bombshell signing from outside their traditional talent pool.

Enter Franco Colapinto, the Argentinian young gun with strong links to Williams and currently tied to Alpine as a reserve driver. If Red Bull’s rumoured pursuit of him is serious, it would mark an unusual and aggressive move for a programme that has historically relied on its in-house junior ladder.

The scenario unfolding behind the scenes could usher in a notable shift in Red Bull’s approach to driver development and recruitment – one that could begin to take shape as early as April’s Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka.

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Lawson’s sudden fall from grace

Lawson’s potential departure is not just unexpected – it is shocking, especially given his career to date.

Touted as one of Red Bull’s most promising young drivers, Lawson impressed many during his stint as a substitute for VCARB in 2023, scoring points in Singapore and generally holding his own against more experienced teammates. His full-time debut in 2025 was supposed to be the start of a long-term F1 career under the Red Bull umbrella.

However, according to sources, his performances over the first two race weekends have not lived up to expectations. While he hasn’t been dramatically off the pace, his inability to consistently get within a reasonable lap time of his team-mate or showcase his outstanding potential may have raised internal concerns.

It seems that Red Bull’s notoriously high standards – and low tolerance for underperformance – have quickly caught up with him.

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Lawson no fall back position?

What makes the situation even more perplexing is that, until recently, many believed Lawson was in line for Red Bull’s long term future planning.

Last year we saw Sergio Perez on a short leash and Yuki Tsunoda was making a strong impression at VCARB, the most plausible scenario was Tsunoda could be promoted to Red Bull Racing this year while Lawson continued to grow with the junior team. Red Bull instead promoted Lawson ahead of the Japanese driver and the team are now in the current predicament. 

Reports now suggest that Lawson may not even have VCARB as a fallback option. Instead of slotting into Tsunoda’s VCARB seat whilst the Japanese driver partners Verstappen, Lawson could be left out of the driver pool entirely – an abrupt and brutal turn for a driver once seen as a future star of the Red Bull system.

 

 

 

Lawson attacks Tsunoda

 

 

 

Red Bull’s sudden interest in Franco Colapinto

In the wake of Lawson’s rumoured departure, speculation is rife as to his potential replacement – and the name that is gaining traction is none other than Franco Colapinto.

The 21-year-old Argentinian may not be part of the Red Bull Junior team, but he’s been on the radar of several F1 outfits in recent years.

Colapinto caught the eye in 2024 when he stepped in for Logan Sargeant at Williams, showing composure and talent beyond his years. Despite impressing, he was unable to secure a full-time seat for 2025, largely because Williams had already signed Carlos Sainz to drive alongside Alex Albon.

Alpine wasted little time in snapping him up, signing Colapinto as a reserve driver in the hopes of integrating him into their long-term plans. But with Red Bull now reportedly circling, Alpine’s hold on the talented youngster could be tested sooner than expected.

The big question now is: how would Red Bull orchestrate a move for a driver already contracted to another team?

A bold move outside Red Bull’s traditional playbook

Historically, Red Bull has relied almost exclusively on its own junior development system to bring talent into F1. Sebastian Vettel, Daniel Ricciardo, Max Verstappen, Pierre Gasly and many others followed the same route: Formula 2 or even Formula 3, then a stint with the junior team and eventually a shot at the main squad if they proved themselves.

But recent years have seen cracks appear in this once flawless conveyor belt. With little top-level talent in the current Red Bull junior squad, and with VCARB serving more as a testing ground than a full-fledged race team, the company may be forced to rethink its strategy. Signing a driver like Colapinto – especially from a rival program like Alpine – would mark a significant departure from Red Bull’s conventional methods.

McLaren unhappy with China result

 

 

How can Red Bull get their man?

To make the move happen, Red Bull would likely have to either buy Colapinto out of his Alpine contract or negotiate a loan deal – something extremely rare in F1 these days, and even more so for a team like Red Bull.

The energy-drink giant has traditionally avoided swapping drivers or collaborating on talent development with rival teams. But desperation, ambition or a simple desire to shake things up could lead them to break their own rules.

Sources close to the situation, including motorsport.com, have described the potential move as a “true earthquake” in the F1 driver market – suggesting that the ramifications could stretch beyond just one team or driver.

 

 

What happens next?

The immediate focus is on Suzuka, where the Japanese Grand Prix on 4-6 April could provide the stage for this unfolding drama. If Lawson is indeed replaced, it’s not yet clear whether Colapinto would be ready to step in so quickly, or whether Red Bull would install a temporary replacement in the interim.

The timing would be dramatic: Suzuka is a favourite of drivers and fans alike, with its high-speed corners and rich history. A driver change at that stage would not only amplify media attention, but also signal Red Bull’s seriousness about correcting course early in the season.

Of course, all of this remains unconfirmed at the moment. Red Bull has yet to issue an official statement on Lawson’s status or any potential changes to its driver line-up.

Until they do, the rumour mill will continue to churn, and fans will be left wondering whether they’re witnessing a typical F1 reshuffle – or the start of something much bigger.

 

 

 

Implications beyond 2025

If Red Bull does indeed bring Colapinto into the fold, the implications could extend far beyond this season. Such a move would suggest a new, more pragmatic Red Bull – one willing to look outside its carefully curated development structure to poach rising stars from rival programmes. It could also open the door for other young drivers who’ve missed out on F1 seats due to contractual bottlenecks or timing issues.

It could also prompt Alpine to respond, either by promoting their other young drivers or by reassessing how tightly they hold on to reserve talent such as Colapinto. They could also push Doohan out and promote the Argentine to a race seat early.

The already competitive race for future F1 seats could become even more cut-throat as teams scramble to lock up promising drivers before rivals swoop in.

For Lawson, however, the outlook is bleak. If these reports are true and he’s left without a seat altogether, it would be one of the quickest and most ruthless exits in recent F1 history. A driver who just months ago was being touted as Red Bull’s next big hope could find himself out of the sport before he ever truly arrives.

The next few weeks will be crucial. Whether Red Bull confirm the rumours or surprise everyone with another move, one thing is certain: the 2025 F1 season is shaping up to be anything but predictable.

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MORE F1 NEWS – Hamilton knew of ride height issues before Chinese GP

Coming into the 2025 season, Ferrari were expected to have built upon the success they had towards the end of last year. The Scuderia had the quickest car over the final six race weekends of 2024, closing an almost 100 point gap to McLaren to just 14 come the chequered flag in Abu Dhabi.

Yet the team decided revolution, not evolution, would be the strategy for this yea’s F1 challenger and the evidence to date is that Ferrari have failed on their mission.

In Australia Leclerc and Hamilton were just slow, qualifying 7th and 8th respectively and finishing in 8th and 10th come the end of the weekend. Sprint qualifying in China proved to be a different matter with Hamilton claiming pole and then winning the race on Saturday morning.

 

 

 

Hamilton challenged over Ferrari ride height

Yet come Saturday afternoon in Grand Prix qualifying and once Ferrari appeared to have lost all of its pace. Hamilton admitted the team had made changes since the Sprint but was unsure of how successful they would be on Sunday.

Come the Grand Prix in Shanghai, Leclerc tangled with Hamilton into the first corner, leaving the front wing endplate missing from his car for the remainder of the race. While Lewis’ car suffered no damage, his pace was average in the race despite stopping twice for fresh rubber.

Prior to it being announced both He and Leclerc had been disqualified by the race stewards, Hamilton gave a revealing interview to Sky Italia in the media pen. He was asked whether it was more difficult to raise the ride height on the SF-25 than for other teams, a question he tried to duck but instead his body language gave away tell tale signs that the topic was a sensitive one within the team.

When it was put to him the SF-25 was more difficult “to raise” than the rest of the field, Hamilton sand bagged asking: “Who said that? I don’t know… who said that we lifted the car…” the immediate impression was the Italian reporter had stumbled across a hot potato in the camp of the Scuderia.

Ferrari disaster: Italy reacts

 

 

 

Lewis’ contradicts himself

Lewis then contradicted himself stating first that the ride height had not been adjusted by the team, before admitting it was in fact one of the changes made after the Sprint.

“No… [we didn’t change the ride height] we made some other changes mostly – as well as that [adjusting ride height] – but not massively just small amounts, but all the pieces put together made it quite a bit worse,” added Hamilton who appeared under pressure to say the right thing.

Lewis went on to throw Ferrari under the bus for the setup changes made for Grand Prix qualifying, claiming it was something he had never tried before. “Charles tested something in Bahrain, I hadn’t tested it, but we both went that way [with the new setup] and it was bad. I know not to do that again,” he concluded with a wry smile.

Clearly the excessive wear on Hamilton’s underfloor ‘plank’ which was discovered later indicated there was a problem with ride height at Ferrari. Yet Charles Leclerc’s ‘plank’ was fine, although his car was underweight. The arty line from Ferrari was that Hamilton having two stopped had pushed harder throughout the Grand Prix whilst Leclerc on a one stop wouldn’t then suffer the incremental wear under the floor.

Lawson attacks Tsunoda

 

 

 

Sprint weekends see big ride height adjustments

The last disqualifications for ride height transgressions came at the USGP in Austin, 2023. Again this was a Sprint weekend which drives the F1 engineers to run different run programmes than at a standard weekend with three practice sessions.

At one third of the distance of a Grand Prix, the Sprint requires just a third of the 100kg of fuel required on Sundays. With less weight, the teams can adjust the ride height accordingly, remembering the lower the faster these modern F1 ground effect cars go.

For the Grand Prix the height needs to be raised to cope with the additional weight of the fuel, so the Sky Italia question now becomes more pertinent. Do Ferrari struggle with raising their car more than other teams?

In fact the reality to Ferrari’s difficulties may be subtly different as the evidence was in Australia they were just not on the front runners pace. Albert Park, Melbourne is a bumpy circuit and all the teams ran their cars higher than in Shanghai to mitigate this circuit specific issue.

Lawson disaster: Red Bull at fault

 

 

 

SF25 aero platform “too peaky”

With Hamilton winning the Sprint all looked good for the Scuderia on the smooth and super grippy new surface in Shanghai. Come the race and it was a different story following the car being raised for the extra fuel load.

Bernie Collins, ex-engineer for McLaren and Aston Martin wonders whether the SF-25’s issues are related to “peaky ride height.” which she explains to Sky Sports, “means there’s a very small optimum ride height that you can have a good aerodynamic platform in, that is an issue for a car.

“You want to be fit to run a range of ride heights because of all these range of tracks. For example, in Austria there are intense kerbs so you want to add a bit of ride height there. Maybe the aero platform is too peaky,” Collins concludes.

Of course with just two sets of the hard tyre issued to the teams on a Sprint weekend, nobody had run the compound before Sunday. The hard tyres were saved for what was expected to be an attritional race, in terms of tyre wear, and so everyone was in the dark over how much the tyres would wear during the Grand Prix.

McLaren names biggest title threat

 

 

 

Italian media report fix for Japan

The result was more wear for the one stopping Charles Leclerc which led to his car being underweight. Hamilton with fresher rubber at the chequered flag, made the weight limit but his extra speed across the 57 laps saw his Ferrari taking bigger hits as it bottomed out.

The tell tale signs this is an issue Ferrari were already aware of is the fact they are bringing a new floor to the next race in Japan, which may reduce the peakiness in the SF25 and thus reduce the sensitivity to ride height.

Today La Gazette’s F1 technical writer, Paolo Filisetti reports: “The [Ferrari] project is still immature, but there is potential. Developments are planned for the floor to better manage the ride heights.”

Hamilton was indeed aware of the Ferrari ride height issues and was caught unawares that the information had become public knowledge in his Sky Italia interview.

Honda now key to scrapping 2026 engines

 

 

 

Vasseur’s distraction technique

The double disqualification of the Ferrari cars in Shanghai has left the team with just 17 points, while McLaren who lead the championship after two weekends have 78. The ruling from the stewards in China sucked in all the media bandwidth while masking another Ferrari issue which must be addressed. 

Hamilton and Leclerc have come together in both the first two race weekends of the year, without significant consequences so far, but this is something team boss Fred Vasseur needs to get across before more serious outcomes that could lie ahead.

Yet the Frenchman turned his angst against FOM TV instead, describing the sequencing of Hamilton’s radio messages broadcast, “a joke.” With Hamilton ahead of Leclerc in the first stint, he radioed the team to offer to allow his team mate through given he appeared to have more pace than Lewis.

This message was not broadcast by FOM. However, they did broadcast messages from Hamilton’s engineer telling him to move aside, something Lewis then responded to with displeasure. Hamilton repeated he would do so when he saw fit and the impression was created he was in dispute with team orders.

FOM never broadcast the entire conversations the drivers and teams are having during the race. They are selective in the messages they chose for the viewers to hear, something Vasseur knows all too well. By firing off a salvo across the bows of FOM, maybe Fred was merely seeking to distract from his teams appealing performance for most of the weekend in China.

Lawson SACKED

 

 

 

 

Red Bull chaos as Lawson decision creates division

If Formula One’s mercurial Dr. Helmut Marko is to be believed, Liam Lawson is already the walking dead. The 82 year old Austrian’s pet media outlet, F1-insider, has reported that Lawson will be sacked by Red Bull following a big pow wow in Milton Keynes this week.

The problem though for Red Bull runs deeper than who is Max’s team mate and the rights and wrong’s of dismissing Lawson are highly complex. There have been historical accusations that Red Bull Racing build their Formula One cars to suit Max’s driving style and that his team mate’s can’t cope with the skittish behaviour of the resulting designs.

But in all probability this is not the case as both Christian Horner and ex-Red Bull tech guru Adrian Newey have insisted in times past, they design the faster car and the drivers have to learn how to handle them best…. READ MORE