Ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix this Sunday, the higher-ups at Red Bull made a big decision. Helmut Marko and Christian Horner, two of the main people involved in this decision, moved Yuki Tsunoda (Red Bull) from Visa CashApp Racing Bulls, their junior team, up to Red Bull. Liam Lawson (VCARB) was moved back down and will now be racing alongside Isack Hadjar (VCARB).
While Lawson did not perform as well as now former teammate Max Verstappen (Red Bull), there have been a lot of mixed feelings from fans about this decision. On one hand, fans were upset when Tsunoda wasn’t brought up to Red Bull in the first place. Tsunoda has been on the VCARB team since 2021, when it was called Alpha Tauri. Many other drivers got their chance at Red Bull before him, so fans were very upset when 2025 wasn’t his year to move up after Checo Perez (formerly of Red Bull) left Formula 1.
Even so, fans are not happy with how the switch was handled and how quickly Lawson was dropped. While many other second drivers have been dropped, including current grid members Pierre Gasly (Alpine) and Alex Albon (Williams), none have been dropped as quickly as after two races. There has also been some speculation that even Verstappen himself isn’t too happy with how small of a chance Lawson was given at the second Red Bull seat.
This whole situation has fans begging the question: is the second Red Bull seat cursed? Many drivers have tried to drive alongside Verstappen at Red Bull, and many have failed. The assumption is that the Red Bull car is extremely difficult to drive, and only Verstappen has been able to effectively master it. So why aren’t the engineers making a more “other driver-friendly” car?
Overall, fans are just hoping that Tsunoda performs well and that we will not see another seat change anytime soon. It’s his home race, so fingers crossed he gets on the podium! That hasn’t happened since 2012 with Kamui Kobayashi!