Mercedes Formula 1 chief Toto Wolff believes the series would look ‘silly and erratic’ if it were to introduce V10 engines before 2031 and reduce the planned five-year period for the 2026 hybrids.
The return of V10 power units has been placed on the agenda by FIA president Mohamed Ben Sulayem, with various options under discussion at this stage.
The most straightforward idea is to stick to the current plans to run the all-new hybrid engines for a five-year period between 2026 and 2030, and switch to a radically different formula from 2031 onwards.
But some parties are also pushing to introduce V10s as early as 2028, with the secondary question becoming what to do with the 2026 power units that convinced the likes of Audi and Honda to sign up.
The FIA’s single-seater director Nikolas Tombazis, for example, said at last weekend’s Chinese Grand Prix: “I think the right way to go about it is: do we want three or four years later to go to a different type of power unit? If the answer to that is yes, then there’s question number two – what we do in the intervening period.
“The progress with sustainable fuels has led to views that maybe the engines could be simpler. The world economy does lead to views that maybe we should try to cut costs a bit more, and the current power units are way too expensive. That’s why the president made the comments about a V10 engine in 2028 and so on.”
The European V10
Photo by: Minardi Formula 1
But speaking in an exclusive interview with Autosport, Wolff says it would not reflect well to backtrack from the 2026 regulations that were meant to be used for five years, as F1 needs to be a “reliable partner” that manufacturers can build around.
Asked if he could accept the new regulations only being used for two or three years, Wolff replied: “If there are the right arguments on bringing it forward.
“We are looking a little bit silly as Formula 1 when we are attracting the likes of Audi and we are pitching a great hybrid engine with sustainable fuels, and then suddenly we are saying we actually only want to keep it three years and not five.
“We need to be a stable and reliable partner that says: ‘These are the regulations, that is the investment budget, you need to calculate for it’. And then people can join or not.
“But – before regulations have even started – to say let’s look at the next engine and power unit, I just think it makes Formula 1 look a little bit erratic.
“And that is why we all have the same interest between the FIA, Formula 1 and the teams; we want the sport to be great, rather than looking at the success of a single race or season. There needs to be a long-term plan and everybody is pulling on the same side.”
Audi CEO Gernot Dollner and Mattia Binotto, CEO and CTO, Stake F1 Team KICK Sauber
Photo by: Motorsport Images
Without directly mentioning Red Bull, which faces the huge task of developing its own in-house engines for 2026, Wolff suggested Mercedes’ fierce rival is stirring up the idea of curtailing the upcoming rules and fast-tracking V10 engines as it is worried about its own performance with the new hybrids – a suggestion Red Bull has publicly denied.
“I think it’s people that have the feeling that they are maybe not as competitive as they would wish for next year,” he said.
“Remember 2014, the same people talked down the engine regulations back in the day because their power unit supplier wasn’t competitive at the beginning.
“Now they are doing their own engines and I think there is a lot of fear there that it isn’t going that well and that’s why suddenly the manipulation business starts and the V10 comes up as an idea.”
But Wolff did reaffirm that Mercedes is open minded about where F1 should go next with its future power units, as long as there is a proper process in place to ensure all interested manufacturers are aligned.
“As Mercedes we are always open to having these discussions,” he explained. “What is the engine of the future? Is it a V8, is it a V10, what kind of hybrid system does it have on the car? Sustainable fuel clearly is going forward, is it a naturally aspirated or turbo engine?
“Any challenge that comes up is fine for us, as long as there is proper governance on how this engine is being decided upon. That governance is in place today, so let’s stick our heads together with all the engine manufacturers and see what it is we want to have beyond 2030, and then come up with a plan that is good for Formula 1.”
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Is it fair to Liam Lawson to drop him after just two races into the season? No, it’s probably not. After all, you can’t help but feel he hasn’t been given a chance to learn and even try to improve. At least giving him a race at Suzuka, a track he knows and likes, would’ve been more understandable. Just one last chance.
Is it harsh? It is. No doubt about that. No need to elaborate.
But equally, is it fair for the other thousand-plus employees of Red Bull to keep someone who’s not just underperforming, but wasting their work?
On Sunday evening in Shanghai, Christian Horner talked about data. He said there are 400 engineers working hard to make the car quicker – and there are 600 sensors monitoring its performance. And if all of them point to one cause for underperformance, there’s nowhere to hide. And if all agree there’s no reason to expect a sudden change, isn’t it the duty of team leaders to act?
Horner and Helmut Marko would be the last to admit it was a mistake to promote Lawson. It was their idea to bring the New Zealander into the main squad, after all.
It would be foolish to think that they enjoy torturing another driver. It would be silly to imagine they enjoy watching the world laugh and cry at their inability to solve the problem of the second driver. It would be naive to point out that the car is tailored from nose to tail to Max Verstappen as a primary problem and advise them to solve that first before blaming the poor souls tasked with taming such a capricious machine.
They know that better than anyone. But they also know Verstappen brought them four consecutive titles, and he’s their only hope of delivering another one this year. And if they want that to happen, they have no choice but to act. Trying to be fair or not too harsh isn’t on the agenda. It’s not just Lawson who didn’t have time to make it work – it’s them too.
The Lawson and Tsunoda swap goes far beyond the performance levels of the two drivers
Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool
If they’d seen a single straw of hope for Lawson to perform drastically better at Suzuka or elsewhere, they’d probably wait at least a few more weeks. If they’ve decided to drop him now, it means they don’t hear a single RB21 sensor crying out for them to wait.
But it’s not only Lawson’s data they must have studied. It must have also been Tsunoda’s strong start to the year – and more importantly, his reaction to what happened over the winter – that played a massive role in them considering a swap.
The decision last December to leave him in Faenza was harsh too. It also wasn’t fair.
Tsunoda had consecutively beaten Nyck de Vries, Daniel Ricciardo, and then Lawson. He could be forgiven for feeling disrespected and unjustly demoralised after outperforming all of his recent team-mates. It wouldn’t have been surprising if he lost all motivation, desperately trying to find an answer to the inevitable question: what more could he possibly have done to deserve that Red Bull seat?
He swallowed it. He went back and worked on himself instead of choosing to blame an unfair world. And he came back stronger.
When we sat down in Racing Bulls’ hospitality in Bahrain, on the evening after the second day of testing, he knew all the right answers. He didn’t show any sign of bitterness, he didn’t sound ungrateful. Instead, he talked about how motivated he is to help and lead his Racing Bulls squad. Yet he didn’t try to hide that he still wants that Red Bull seat.
It wasn’t more than half a joke back then when we offered him to imagine Helmut Marko appearing as Morpheus from The Matrix, holding two pills in his palm: blue – symbolising another Racing Bulls contract, and red – a chance to join Red Bull, knowing it might end very quickly.
“The red one,” he laughed without a second thought. Back then – hard to believe it was less than a month ago – even imagining that Tsunoda would have that choice seemed nearly impossible.
Tsunoda has outperformed all his most recent team-mates at the Red Bull sister squad but was still overlooked
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
On Friday morning in Shanghai, Laurent Mekies gave Motorsport.com a great insight into how Tsunoda dealt with what he must have felt was an injustice.
“When he came back to Europe, honestly, we saw straight away that he was in super strong spirits,” said the Frenchman. “Already in the opening weeks of work in Faenza, in the simulator, he was in very, very strong spirits straight away. High motivation, very focused, down to the details, hard willingness to work even harder than what he was doing. And then we went to the Bahrain test, and after those three days, we looked at each other and we said, ‘We have another Yuki’. That’s what we said to each other internally.
“We saw he’s doing stuff that he was not doing last year – in terms of what he was reporting from the car, in terms of what he was doing in the car, and in terms of how much more of a leadership role he was taking in the team. And we said it to each other, and also to him.”
When the recording stopped and we continued to chat about “another Yuki”, Mekies had nothing more to add than what he’d already said on record: Tsunoda responded in the best possible way his boss could’ve hoped for.
After all, he’s been here before. When Pierre Gasly was freed from his Red Bull contract shackles and moved to Alpine, it wasn’t Tsunoda whom Marko and then-team boss Franz Tost proclaimed as the new team leader in Faenza. It was Red Bull’s new Dutchman, de Vries – an F1 rookie, but a driver with experience in other categories. Even before the 2023 season started, there was plenty of talk that Red Bull could end up with an all-Dutch line-up. That didn’t last long: Tsunoda effectively ended de Vries’ F1 career by outqualifying and outscoring him across 10 races.
Yet once again, Tsunoda wasn’t seen as Red Bull’s next hope – that role went to the returning Ricciardo. The Japanese driver remained just a benchmark to assess the Australian’s form.
He swallowed it back then too. And worked on himself to become stronger.
Rather than sulk over unfair treatment, Tsunoda improved himself over the winter to be ‘another Yuki’
Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool
When Ricciardo failed his mission, and Sergio Perez’s performances opened the floodgates of speculation about his potential dismissal, Tsunoda still wasn’t considered a real candidate – despite beating the Australian in their intra-team battle. He was re-signed for RB, but once again labelled too weak to be considered for the Red Bull seat. And when Ricciardo failed post-summer break too, the general conclusion was that it was him, the Australian, who was no longer the same – not that Tsunoda was now ready to step up.
Then Lawson came on the scene and managed to get close to Tsunoda – and it didn’t take long before he became the favourite to replace Perez.
Every single time, Tsunoda had every reason to be frustrated and angry – and every single time, he responded by stepping up again. Perhaps there’s never been another driver in Faenza team history who’s been under such prolonged polishing as Yuki.
His speed was never in doubt. But he crashed too much. He was inconsistent. Too emotional. Not mentally strong enough. Loud on the radio. You name it all.
He worked on all of it – and maybe that final snub last winter left him no other option but to eliminate his remaining weaknesses. Who knows – maybe it was just the final part of Marko’s masterplan to turn Tsunoda into the ultimate warrior. Or maybe just a blessing in disguise. If he still wanted to have a future in F1 – let alone keep dreaming about a Red Bull seat – that was the last push he needed.
His 2025 campaign is really strong. He should have more than the three points he earned in the Shanghai sprint. He should have finished sixth, if not higher, in Melbourne after outqualifying both Ferrari drivers and running in the top 10 for most of the race. He should’ve scored more in Shanghai, if not for a poor strategy call and a broken front wing.
What comes next, though, is the job so often described as the toughest in F1. To even be respectably close to Verstappen in a car built entirely around him is an immense task – one Tsunoda probably can’t yet imagine.
Matching Verstappen in a car developed to his preferences is Tsunoda’s next major challenge
Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool
“The car is faster,” he laughed on Saturday when teased by journalists in the media pen about possibly driving a Red Bull at Suzuka, before Racing Bulls’ PR rep dragged him away.
It may be faster, indeed. But it must be driven the way only Verstappen knows how.
It’s absolutely unrealistic to expect Tsunoda to do much better than Lawson did. After all, they were almost a match for each other last year, and Horner and Marko concluded Lawson was more suited to the task. It will require Tsunoda not only to use all the hard lessons learned in Faenza, but to dig deeper and work even harder. He’ll need to improve his consistency and eliminate errors – even tiny ones like his Q3 mistake in Shanghai, when he slid off the track on his last flying lap.
The circumstances aren’t ideal either, with Tsunoda facing the task of jumping into the RB21 without any pre-season testing – and straight into a grand prix in front of his home crowd, which will inevitably add pressure. Ralf Schumacher might be right: in Tsunoda’s current position, there’s more risk than potential reward in such a move. But the difference between Morpheus and Marko is that the Austrian usually comes with just one pill – and he’s ready to thrust it down a driver’s throat before they even open their mouth to whisper an answer.
Even if Tsunoda wanted to say no to the Red Bull opportunity now, that’s not an option. He’s got to make it work. But it’s not only Tsunoda who needs to work harder and apply lessons learned. Red Bull does too.
If the team really wants it to work, a change in approach is required. Relying on someone who’s supposed to be “tough” hasn’t worked. Lawson’s resilience wasn’t enough to survive the Red Bull environment – so perhaps the environment itself needs to change. Because otherwise, there’s no one left to choose from.
Tsunoda is almost the last hope.
Will this driver swap cause a change in approach from Marko and Horner?
Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images
Maybe it’s time to stop piling on the pressure just to see if the driver cracks – because not everyone is a Verstappen. If they want this to work, they’ll need to protect that new driver from the crushing weight of expectation before burning through yet another one. Maybe it’ll even require Horner to unequivocally confirm that Tsunoda’s seat is safe at least until the end of the year. Maybe the team’s PR department could try and stop spreading the narrative that it’s Honda’s money – not Tsunoda’s performance – that tipped the scales in his favour. That might show the team has learned something from the Perez era, too.
Because if it doesn’t work with Tsunoda, there are still too many races left this year to risk ruining Isack Hadjar’s or even Arvid Lindblad’s careers too.
And for Lawson… it’s probably fair to say he can learn from all this as well – including from his former team-mate. Because there’s arguably nothing better for him to do now than to swallow it, go work on himself, and come back stronger.
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If you are looking for a short answer on why Helmut Marko has played such an influential role in the careers of dozens of drivers, it could be: Jochen Rindt. The two grew up together in Graz, tearing up the roads in the Styrian Alps in a Volkswagen Beetle in the early 60s while planning road trips to the Nurburgring to watch Formula 1 cars up close.
“We drove all night, parked in the woods and slept in the car,” the now 81-year-old Marko told the F1 website. “We woke up the next morning from the noise of the Formula 1 cars. Jochen immediately said: ‘That’s for me, that is what I want to do!’”
Rindt eventually did make it all the way to the top in F1, becoming one of the leading drivers until that fateful 5th of September 1970, when he died at the Italian Grand Prix, becoming F1’s only posthumous world champion.
“Jochen infected me with the racing bug,” said Marko. “We both were always interested in racing, but didn’t have the self-confidence. But then Jochen went to England and succeeded – so I thought: ‘If he can do it, I can do it too! Why not? He paved the way.”
Marko did indeed follow in his fellow Austrian’s footsteps, making his debut at the 1971 German Grand Prix. But his biggest success came at that year’s Le Mans 24 Hours, taking the overall victory alongside Gijs van Lennep in the Porsche 917K, the second consecutive triumph for Porsche.
Marko eventually made nine grand prix appearances, but his racing career was curtailed by an incident at the 1972 French Grand Prix when a rock pierced his visor, leaving Marko blind in his left eye aged 29. “I knew back then that I would never again be able to compete on a competitive level and I didn’t want to end up as a ‘gentleman driver’,” he recounted. “Now I have to say that I am really happy and lucky that I survived that period with only the loss of an eye…”
Gijs van Lennep, Dr. Helmut Marko, Martini International Racing Team, Porsche 917K
Photo by: Rainer W. Schlegelmilch / Motorsport Images
Marko’s replacement at BRM was another Austrian, a certain chap called Niki Lauda who ended up doing pretty well for himself too…
With his racing days over, Marko found other ways to stay involved in the sport, managing the careers of fellow Austrians Gerhard Berger and Karl Wendlinger. Wendlinger would compete for Marko’s own F3000 team RSM, with other names on his roster including the mercurial Juan Pablo Montoya and triple Supercars champion Craig Lowndes.
In 1990 he would also first come in contact with Red Bull supremo Dietrich Mateschitz, who was keen on using motor racing’s high octane image to promote his Red Bull energy drinks brand. Mateschitz appointed Marko as his advisor, and the pair founded the Red Bull Junior Team, which would go on to produce numerous F1 drivers.
That role became a lot more hands on when Mateschitz wanted to move from being a team sponsor to team owner, and the opportunity arose to take the struggling Jaguar off Ford’s reluctant hands. Alongside team principal Christian Horner, Marko would have Mateschitz’s ear and continue to have a say regarding driver line-ups of Red Bull and its sister team (nee Toro Rosso), launching the careers of generations of racing drivers that were snapped up by the junior teams that sported its iconic liveries in feeder series around the world.
He developed a reputation for his uncompromising sink or swim approach, and his antiquated world view also landed him in hot water in recent years. But as the Red Bull team churned through dozens of talents, some of whom made it to F1 and others who were ruthlessly cast aside, most would later admit that they would have never had a career in motor racing without Red Bull’s crucial backing.
Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull Racing RB6 celebrates becoming 2010 world champion
Photo by: Charles Coates / Motorsport Images
Sebastian Vettel was the Red Bull programme’s first major win, with the German recalled to drive for Toro Rosso after an impressive debut in 2007 on loan at BMW, going on to become a quadruple world champion. Others who passed through the scheme to flourish into grand prix winners include Daniel Ricciardo, Carlos Sainz and Pierre Gasly.
Red Bull found a successor to Vettel in Dutch prodigy Max Verstappen, although the Dutchman didn’t pass through the junior team itself. A prized asset at age 17 after blitzing the karting and junior formula scene, Verstappen spoke to several F1 teams, but only Marko and Red Bull were able to guarantee him a race drive in 2015, at Toro Rosso. Verstappen’s rapid promotion from F3 showed Marko and Horner were not afraid to take bold decisions, and thus it was only a mild surprise when Verstappen was swapped into Red Bull’s main team ahead of the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix at the expense of Daniil Kvyat.
The rest is history, of course, with Verstappen now a four-time world champion. But his mid-season promotion to Red Bull was the first of what ended up becoming a freehanded approach to how Red Bull and Toro Rosso seats were assigned. Using Marko’s ruthless philosophy, rookies were steam-pressed at Toro Rosso before being either jettisoned or promoted to the main team, which caused a backlog of talents that never made it there and departed for new pastures, like Sainz, or those who had to abandon their F1 dreams altogether like Formula E champion Antonio Felix da Costa.
Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing, 1st position, with Jos Verstappen and Helmut Marko, Consultant, Red Bull Racing, in Parc Ferme
Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images
But with Verstappen, Marko built up a loyal bond, the strength of which came to light this time last year. Marko lost a key ally when his long-time friend and guarantor Mateschitz died in 2022, and in the wake of the Red Bull co-owner’s passing, a power struggle between Horner and the Austrian side threatened to tear the team apart, potentially driving Verstappen away. The Dutchman made it very clear that his future was directly linked to Marko’s fate, with the Austrian remaining on board as tensions have eased.
Verstappen is still there, but following Ricciardo’s departure to Renault in 2019, Horner and Marko have found it much harder to find a suitable team-mate for the world champion and his unique driving style. Gasly was tried and demoted mid-season in 2019, while Alex Albon also didn’t make the grade after a season-and-a-half. Sergio Perez used his experience to last for four seasons, but he, too, drowned once Red Bull’s car handling issues became too much. Along with question marks around the wider issues plaguing Red Bull’s current F1 machinery, the team’s cavalier handling of Liam Lawson and Yuki Tsunoda raises further questions over its driver decision making, with Lawson’s two-race stint for Red Bull a new, unenviable record.
“With time it’ll come, but I just don’t have time,” Lawson said after qualifying last at the Chinese Grand Prix. When Motorsport.com put Lawson’s quote to Marko, the Austrian ominously said: “He’s right. It was disappointing, and we have to go through and analyse everything, and then we see. It’s all depending on performance, and he didn’t deliver.”
Now the axe has swung yet again, and while Tsunoda gets his — fraught — chance of a lifetime, Marko is already looking towards the next generation of talent to find the next Vettel and Verstappen.
They better learn how to swim.
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Filip Cleeren
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There’s a famous saying – “In Formula 1, you are either giving pain or taking it.” And, after just two rounds of this year’s world championship, there are plenty of examples of that.
In the latest edition of the James Allen on F1 Podcast, we’ll dig into what’s gone wrong for Liam Lawson and why, after just two races, he will seemingly no longer be Max Verstappen’s team-mate at Red Bull.
And we’ll look ahead to the rest of the season, based on some of the key talking points from China. We’ll discuss Oscar Piastri’s complete weekend and Lando Norris’s “will they or won’t they work?” brake dramas. We’ll also ask where does Ferrari go from here after a sprint win and a double disqualification and analyse why George Russell will keep up the scoreboard pressure on the leaders.
And we also say goodbye to the inimitable Eddie Jordan.
With James in the studio are Autosport and Motorsport.com F1 correspondents Jake Boxall-Legge and Ronald Vording, who was one of the team in Shanghai that broke the Lawson story.
Remember to take part in the Global F1 Fan Survey, which we are running together with F1. Make your voice heard about F1, what you like and what you’d like to change and who your favourite teams and drivers are.
And don’t miss the chance to compete against our writers on Motorsport.com’s hugely popular F1 Fantasy League.
Send your comments or questions to: @jamesallenonf1 on X/Twitter or [email protected].
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Red Bull’s impending swap between Liam Lawson and Yuki Tsunoda feels particularly brutal coming just two grands prix into the 2025 Formula 1 season – but history shows the company is not shy of shaking up its driver line-ups.
Not counting its agreement with Christian Klien and Vitantonio Liuzzi in its maiden 2005 campaign, Red Bull has rotated its driver carousel for performance reasons on several occasions.
In some instances, the decision to try its luck with the next big talent proved to be a smash hit. On others, the lack of continuity left its two teams back where they started. Here’s a look back at how the previous changes played out.
2006 – Klien vs Doornbos (Red Bull)
Robert Doornbos, Red Bull Racing with David Coulthard
Photo by: Gareth Bumstead
After leaving four races to Liuzzi the previous year, Klien managed to make the Red Bull seat his own for 2006, alongside David Coulthard.
But, having struggled to match the 13-time grand prix winner, he was dropped before the end of the season when he publicly refused Red Bull’s offer of an IndyCar drive the following year, which Klien said drew the ire of Helmut Marko.
“I said no to that offer, and probably the mistake I did back then is that I did that publicly on Austrian television,” he told F1’s Beyond the Grid podcast.
“That didn’t go down very well with Helmut and then, after the race in Monza, he said: ‘OK, Christian. We finish it now!'”
In his stead Red Bull promoted third driver Robert Doornbos, who had plenty of experience with the car as at the time teams outside the top four were allowed to enter a third car in Friday practice.
Doornbos did an adequate job over the remaining three rounds, but reverted to being a test driver after that and found more success in IndyCar.
2007 – Speed vs Vettel (Toro Rosso)
Sebastian Vettel, Scuderia Toro Rosso
Photo by: Sutton Images
The 2007 season was an unmitigated disaster for Toro Rosso, with Red Bull weighing up whether to replace Scott Speed, Liuzzi, or both at its B-team.
An opportunity came up when its junior driver Sebastian Vettel, on loan at BMW Sauber, made a surprise debut at the United States Grand Prix in lieu of the injured Robert Kubica, after the Pole’s horror crash in Canada.
Vettel qualified seventh at Indianapolis and grabbed the last point in eighth, the youngest pointscorer ever at the age of 19. Vettel’s debut performance came at the right time as Speed’s relationship with the team broke down and, after three more retirements for the American, Red Bull brought Vettel back into the fold for the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Vettel finished fourth at the Chinese Grand Prix towards the end of the year, and was kept for the following season alongside IndyCar star Sebastien Bourdais. Vettel grabbed a pole-to-flag debut win for the midfield team at the 2008 Italian Grand Prix, earning him promotion to the main outfit for 2009.
And the rest is history, as they say, with Vettel and Red Bull enjoying the brand’s first dominant spell in F1 between 2010 and 2013. Needless to say, the swap was a massive success.
2009 – Bourdais vs Alguersuari (Toro Rosso)
Jaime Alguersuari, Toro Rosso STR04
Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images
Bourdais carried on but, despite his considerable talent and pedigree, the Frenchman struggled to match his driving style to the Toro Rosso, and started slipping behind rookie team-mate Sebastien Buemi. Bourdais’ lack of results, paired with junior team graduate Buemi’s solid debut, prompted Red Bull to put another academy graduate in the car.
Reigning British F3 champion Jaime Alguersuari thus became the youngest ever F1 driver at 19 years and 125 days – curiously still finishing his ongoing season in the World Series by Renault.
The inexperienced Alguersuari initially didn’t fare much better than Bourdais in 2009, but both he and Buemi did enough to keep their drives throughout 2010 and 2011. However, with Toro Rosso being a breeding ground for Red Bull, neither driver convinced the leadership that they were the right picks for promotion to the main team.
And, with a conveyor belt of Red Bull junior talent waiting in the wings, the team decided to replace both for 2012 with Daniel Ricciardo and Jean-Eric Vergne. In the end Alguersuari was a solid enough performer, although it is hard to label this swap much more than a draw for Red Bull.
Famously, Alguersuari retired from racing at 25 to focus on his burgeoning DJ career, one swap that did turn out to be a success.
2016 – Kvyat vs Verstappen (Red Bull)
Christian Horner, Team Principal, Red Bull Racing, Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull Racing, Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing, 1st Position, and the Red Bull team celebrate his first and record breaking F1 win
Photo by: Andrew Hone / Motorsport Images
Stability at the A-team with Vettel and Mark Webber meant there were few opportunities for junior drivers to advance past Toro Rosso, with Ricciardo next in line in 2014.
But, once Vettel left for Ferrari and Red Bull’s first dominant era came to an end, there was a brief transitional period that featured several drivers fighting for their chance.
Daniil Kvyat initially replaced Vettel after one year at the sister squad, but in Carlos Sainz and teenage sensation Max Verstappen, two young challengers were already nipping at the Russian’s heels.
Despite his youth and lack of experience, Verstappen soon emerged as a generational talent and, once Kvyat started having a wobble and made a series of mistakes, Red Bull wasted little time swapping the two ahead of the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix.
Verstappen won on his Red Bull debut, becoming by far the youngest ever grand prix winner aged 18 and the team finally found its heir to Vettel – emulating the German with four consecutive drivers’ titles to date. A reasonable success then, that swap.
2017 – Kvyat vs Gasly vs Hartley (Toro Rosso)
Pierre Gasly, Scuderia Toro Rosso and Brendon Hartley, Scuderia Toro Rosso
Photo by: Sutton Images
Kvyat was officially sent back to Toro Rosso to regain his form and confidence but, as Verstappen and Ricciardo formed a strong partnership at the main team, the Russian was stuck in limbo at the Faenza squad.
Meanwhile, GP2 champion Pierre Gasly became the next in line for an F1 nod. Gasly replaced Kvyat from Malaysia 2017 onwards, with Kvyat returning for one more race when Carlos Sainz left for Renault and Gasly dovetailed F1 with his Super Formula campaign.
The team also brought in Porsche’s Le Mans winner Brendon Hartley for the Austin race alongside Kvyat, and promptly decided to keep the New Zealander as Sainz’s permanent replacement.
While Hartley never managed to establish himself at the team, Gasly went on to become a grand prix winner with AlphaTauri and later a valued team leader at Alpine, so at least that part of the swap was a resounding success. His Red Bull career, not so much.
2019 – Gasly vs Albon (Red Bull)
Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing, Alex Albon, Red Bull Racing
Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images
With Ricciardo replacing Sainz at Renault in 2019, Red Bull needed a new team-mate for Verstappen, who had matured into a formidable opponent.
Red Bull turned to Gasly as the solution but, while Ricciardo was able to run Verstappen close, the Frenchman had a much tougher time, qualifying over half a second per lap off his team-mate on average.
As Gasly’s disappointing performances continued, Red Bull decided to pull the trigger after 12 grands prix, swapping him with Toro Rosso’s Alex Albon ahead of the Belgian Grand Prix.
But, as rookie Albon had even less experience than Gasly, he too struggled to keep pace with Verstappen in the difficult to handle Red Bull that was tailored towards the Dutchman’s unique driving style.
Albon ended up losing his seat at the conclusion of the 2020 campaign and, while he turned into a key pillar of the Williams team, the swap with Gasly itself was a failure from Red Bull’s point of view.
2023 – de Vries vs Ricciardo (AlphaTauri)
Nyck de Vries, Scuderia AlphaTauri
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
If Gasly lasting only 12 races at Red Bull was a new record across the Red Bull family’s two teams, then that dubious accolade was broken by Nyck de Vries in 2023.
De Vries was the latest outsider brought in at Red Bull’s B-team as its junior squad went through a rough patch, while the Dutchman impressed on a one-off outing in Monza with Williams the previous year.
But de Vries found it harder to get along with the AlphaTauri and a couple of early crashes swiftly piled on the pressure. With Red Bull struggling to see much progress, De Vries was unceremoniously dropped after a 10-round stint.
A Silverstone test convinced Red Bull to give its prodigal son Ricciardo a second lease on life in F1, replacing de Vries from Hungary onwards.
But Ricciardo’s comeback was soon thwarted when he suffered a fractured hand in practice for the Dutch Grand Prix and, while the Australian proved a clear upgrade over de Vries, he couldn’t convince Red Bull that he would be a good fit for a return as Verstappen’s team-mate at the main outfit. He was axed after the 2024 Singapore Grand Prix.
2024 – Ricciardo vs Lawson (Racing Bulls)
Liam Lawson,VCARB
Photo by: Erik Junius
Ricciardo was replaced by Red Bull’s latest junior team hotshot Liam Lawson, who had already made a solid impression as the Australian’s replacement while he recovered from his Zandvoort injury.
Lawson was evenly matched with team-mate Yuki Tsunoda, as the pair competed for a chance to dislodge Sergio Perez as he too struggled to keep up with Verstappen.
In the end, Red Bull decided to promote Lawson over the more experienced Tsunoda for 2025, citing that Lawson’s lack of experience meant he had a bigger potential upside, and feeling he was better equipped to deal with the demands of the Red Bull pressure cooker.
After only two disappointing weekends, it appears Red Bull is now ready to row back on that decision in what would be its most ruthless driver swap of the lot.
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Filip Cleeren
Formula 1
Red Bull Racing
RB
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Red Bull’s impending swap between Liam Lawson and Yuki Tsunoda feels particularly brutal coming just two grands prix into the 2025 Formula 1 season – but history shows the company is not shy of shaking up its driver line-ups.
Not counting its agreement with Christian Klien and Vitantonio Liuzzi in its maiden 2005 campaign, Red Bull has rotated its driver carousel for performance reasons on several occasions.
In some instances, the decision to try its luck with the next big talent proved to be a smash hit. On other occasions, the lack of continuity left its two teams back where they started.
2006 – Christian Klien vs Robert Doornbos (Red Bull)
Robert Doornbos, Red Bull Racing with David Coulthard
Photo by: Gareth Bumstead
After leaving three races to Liuzzi, Klien managed to make the Red Bull seat his own for 2006, alongside David Coulthard.
But having struggled to match the 13-time grand prix winner, he was dropped before the end of the season when he publicly refused Red Bull’s offer of an IndyCar drive the following year, which Klien said drew the ire of Helmut Marko.
“I said no to that offer, and probably the mistake I did back then is that I did that publicly on Austrian television,” he told F1’s Beyond the Grid podcast.
“That didn’t go down very well with Helmut and then after the race in Monza, he said: ‘Okay, Christian. We finish it now!'”
In his stead Red Bull promoted third driver Robert Doornbos, who had plenty of experience with the car as at the time teams outside the top four were allowed to enter a third car in Friday practice.
Doornbos did an adequate job over the remaining three rounds, but reverted to being a test driver after that and found more success in IndyCar.
2007 – Scott Speed vs Sebastian Vettel (Toro Rosso)
Sebastian Vettel, Scuderia Toro Rosso
Photo by: Sutton Images
The 2007 season was an unmitigated disaster for Toro Rosso, with Red Bull weighing up whether to replace Scott Speed, Liuzzi, or both at its B-team.
An opportunity came up when its junior driver Sebastian Vettel, on loan at BMW Sauber, made a surprise debut at the United States Grand Prix in lieu of the injured Robert Kubica, after the Pole’s horror crash in Canada.
At Indianapolis Vettel qualified seventh and grabbed the last point in eighth, the youngest points scorer ever at the age of 19. Vettel’s debut performance came at the right time as Speed’s relationship with the team broke down, and after three more retirements for the American Red Bull brought Vettel back into the fold for the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Vettel finished fourth at the Chinese Grand Prix towards the end of the year, and was kept for the following season alongside IndyCar star Sebastien Bourdais. Vettel grabbed a pole-to-flag debut win for the midfield team at the 2008 Italian Grand Prix, earning him promotion to the main outfit for 2009.
And the rest is history, as they say, with Vettel and Red Bull enjoying the brand’s first dominant spell in F1 between 2010 and 2013. Needless to say, the swap was a massive success.
2009 – Sebastien Bourdais vs Jaime Alguersuari (Toro Rosso)
Jaime Alguersuari, Toro Rosso STR04
Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images
Bourdais carried on but despite his considerable talent and pedigree the Frenchman struggled to match his driving style to the Toro Rosso, and started slipping behind rookie team-mate Sebastien Buemi. Bourdais’ lack of results, paired with junior team graduate Buemi’s solid debut prompted Red Bull to put another academy graduate in the car.
Reigning British F3 champion Jaime Alguersuari thus became the youngest ever F1 driver at 19 years and 125 days – curiously still finishing his ongoing season in the World Series by Renault.
The inexperienced Alguersuari initially didn’t fare much better than Bourdais in 2009, but both he and Buemi did enough to keep their drives throughout 2010 and 2011. However, with Toro Rosso being a breeding ground for Red Bull, neither driver convinced the leadership that they were the right picks for promotion to the main team.
And with a conveyor belt of Red Bull junior talent waiting in the wings, the team decided to replace both for 2012 with Daniel Ricciardo and Jean-Eric Vergne. In the end Alguersuari was a solid enough performer, although it is hard to label this swap much more than a draw for Red Bull.
Famously, Alguersuari retired from racing at 25 to focus on his burgeoning DJ career, one swap which did turn out to be a success.
2016 – Daniil Kvyat vs Max Verstappen (Red Bull)
Christian Horner, Team Principal, Red Bull Racing, Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull Racing, Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing, 1st Position, and the Red Bull team celebrate his first and record breaking F1 win
Photo by: Andrew Hone / Motorsport Images
Stability at the A-team with Vettel and Mark Webber meant there were few opportunities for junior drivers to advance past Toro Rosso, with Daniel Ricciardo next in line in 2014.
But once Vettel left for Ferrari and Red Bull’s first dominant era came to an end, there was a brief transitional period that saw several drivers fight for their chance.
Daniil Kvyat initially replaced Vettel after one year at the sister squad, but in Carlos Sainz and teenage sensation Max Verstappen, two young challengers were already nipping at the Russian’s heels.
Despite his youth and lack of experience, Verstappen soon emerged as a generational talent and once Kvyat started having a wobble Red Bull wasted little time swapping the two ahead of the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix.
Verstappen won on his Red Bull debut, becoming by far the youngest ever grand prix winner aged 18 and the team finally found its heir to Vettel – emulating the German with four consecutive drivers’ titles to date. A reasonable success then, that swap.
2017 – Daniil Kvyat vs Pierre Gasly vs Brendon Hartley (Toro Rosso)
Pierre Gasly, Scuderia Toro Rosso and Brendon Hartley, Scuderia Toro Rosso
Photo by: Sutton Images
Kvyat was officially sent back to Toro Rosso to regain his form and confidence, but as Verstappen and Ricciardo formed a strong partnership at the main team the Russian was stuck in limbo at the Faenza squad.
Meanwhile, GP2 champion Pierre Gasly became the next in line for an F1 nod. Gasly replaced Kvyat from Malaysia onwards, with Kvyat returning for one more race when Carlos Sainz left for Renault and Gasly dovetailed F1 with his Super Formula campaign.
The team also brought in Porsche’s Le Mans winner Brendon Hartley for the Austin race alongside Kvyat, and promptly decided to keep the New Zealander as Sainz’s permanent replacement.
While Hartley never managed to establish himself at the team, Gasly went on to become a grand prix winner with AlphaTauri and later a valued team leader at Alpine, so at least that part of the swap was a resounding success. His Red Bull career, not so much.
2019 – Pierre Gasly vs Alex Albon (Red Bull)
Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing, Alex Albon, Red Bull Racing
Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images
With Ricciardo replacing Sainz at Renault in 2019, Red Bull needed a new team-mate for Verstappen, who had matured into a formidable opponent.
Red Bull turned to Gasly as the solution, but while Ricciardo was able to run Verstappen close, the Frenchman had a much tougher time, qualifying over half a second per lap off his team-mate on average.
As Gasly’s disappointing performances continued, Red Bull decided to pull the trigger after 12 grands prix, swapping him with Toro Rosso’s Alex Albon ahead of the Belgian Grand Prix.
But, as rookie Albon had even less experience than Gasly, he too struggled to keep pace with Verstappen in the difficult to handle Red Bull that was tailored towards the Dutchman’s unique driving style.
Albon ended up losing his seat at the end of 2020, and while he turned into a key pillar of the Williams team, the swap with Gasly itself was a failure from Red Bull’s point of view.
2023 – Nyck de Vries vs Daniel Ricciardo (AlphaTauri)
Nyck de Vries, Scuderia AlphaTauri
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
If Gasly lasting only 12 races at Red Bull was a new record across the Red Bull family’s two teams, then that dubious accolade was broken by Nyck de Vries in 2023.
De Vries was the latest outsider brought in at Red Bull’s B-team as its junior squad went through a rough patch, while the Dutchman impressed on a one-off outing in Monza with Williams the previous year.
But de Vries found it harder to get along with the AlphaTauri and a couple of early crashes swiftly piled on the pressure. With Red Bull struggling to see much progress, De Vries was unceremoniously dropped after a 10-round stint.
A Silverstone test convinced Red Bull to give its prodigal son Ricciardo a second lease on life in F1, replacing de Vries from Hungary onwards.
But Ricciardo’s comeback was soon thwarted when he suffered a fractured hand in practice for the Dutch Grand Prix, and while the Australian proved a clear upgrade over de Vries, he couldn’t convince Red Bull that he would be a good fit for a return as Verstappen’s team-mate at the main outfit. He was axed after the 2024 Singapore Grand Prix.
2024 – Daniel Ricciardo vs Liam Lawson (RB)
Liam Lawson,VCARB
Photo by: Erik Junius
Ricciardo was replaced by Red Bull’s latest junior team hotshot Liam Lawson, who had already made a solid impression as the Australian’s replacement while he recovered from his Zandvoort injury.
Lawson was evenly matched with team-mate Yuki Tsunoda, as the pair competed for a chance to dislodge Sergio Perez as he too struggled to keep up with Verstappen.
In the end Red Bull decided to promote Lawson over the more experienced Tsunoda for 2025, citing that Lawson’s lack of experience meant he had a bigger potential upside, and feeling he was better equipped to deal with the demands of the Red Bull pressure cooker.
After only two disappointing weekends, it appears Red Bull is ready to walk back that decision in what would be its most ruthless driver swap of the lot.
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Filip Cleeren
Formula 1
Red Bull Racing
Racing Bulls
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In our analysis of rookie debuts, thanks to the bumper crop of newcomers trickling into the field across the past six months, there’s been a lot to discuss. Andrea Kimi Antonelli and Gabriel Bortoleto got their appraisals last week but, given Hadjar registered a Did Not Start in the Australia opener, it was impossible to delve into the Racing Bulls driver’s debut run beyond the environs of qualifying.
Thankfully, China offered the Franco-Algerian racer two bites at the cherry to showcase his worth and atone for his blunder Down Under. It’s probably fair to say he achieved that; although he received an unjust reward of nil points owing to his team’s over-commitment to the two-stopper, Hadjar demonstrated great speed and capable race pace throughout the Shanghai weekend and had looked set for a debut top 10.
In outqualifying Yuki Tsunoda for the grand prix, no mean feat in itself, Hadjar proved that underlying pace. It helps that the VCARB 02 appears to be a well-mannered machine – a distinctly different customer to Red Bull’s RB21, which has the same powertrain/gearbox/suspension basis but very little similarity in its on-track characteristics. Still, the 20-year-old’s performance was plenty encouraging for the squad, particularly as Tsunoda has largely dominated his team-mates in recent seasons.
Here’s what we learned about Hadjar’s first full F1 weekend.
Qualifying pace – Hadjar’s bravery leads to tiny margin over Tsunoda
Isack Hadjar, RB F1 Team, Yuki Tsunoda, RB F1 Team
Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool
Both Hadjar and Tsunoda broke through into Q3 in setting the grid for the Chinese Grand Prix. And, after their opening runs, Hadjar was 0.19 seconds faster despite conceding time in the opening sector. Tsunoda was quicker through the winding Turn 1-2-3 complex and took a bit more speed into the Turn 6 braking zone, but this compromised his exit and allowed Hadjar to get on the throttle a smidgen sooner. Interestingly, Hadjar lifted through Turn 7 slightly sooner than his more experienced team-mate, but not by quite as much.
GPS data shows his throttle hovering around the 85% mark, while Tsunoda lifted later and dropped to about 70% throttle in the meantime. As a result, Hadjar simply carried more speed through this section and the momentum swing worked in his favour by about a tenth.
Overall, Hadjar just seemed to be happier in tacking on the throttle earlier through the quicker corners, and incrementally built up speed out of Turn 12/13 as he hit full pedal travel sooner than Tsunoda. And, although Tsunoda was much happier in braking later for Turn 14, the later throttle application was a net laptime penalty; he went in with a 0.1s deficit and exited with a 0.2s one. Slow in, fast out worked nicely for Hadjar.
Before Tsunoda lost adhesion in Turn 13 on his final flyer and sustained a snap of oversteer at the rear, he was tracking at about a tenth behind Hadjar’s second Q3 effort out of the second sector. Perhaps an attempt to use more throttle in the long right-hander went awry; either way, the less experienced driver had the run of pace through the circuit.
Hadjar believed that there was more time available; having been comfortable in Q1 and, having clocked a 1m31.162s at the death of the session to get the second fastest time, the Frenchman felt that wind in Q2 and Q3 had hurt the balance of the car slightly as the circuit was improving. His Q3 headliner was only a tenth faster than that Q1 time, suggesting that the changing wind conditions rather nullified the effect of a grippier track.
“I could never find the same balance, so I was struggling a bit more with the car and I knew I was losing out – I think there was more lap time, more positions to gain,” said Hadjar.
It wasn’t all peachy on one lap; Hadjar fluffed his lines in sprint qualifying, although had been quicker than Tsunoda in SQ1 by – again – a smidgen. The speed is there, and the execution got better through the weekend. There’s something about Shanghai and Hadjar’s style that just seemed to chime, especially as his Racing Bulls’ front end had looked very manageable in the longer corners.
Race pace – Middling sprint, improvements in grand prix, but questions about killer instinct
Esteban Ocon, Haas F1 Team, Isack Hadjar, RB F1 Team, Yuki Tsunoda, RB F1 Team
Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images
After lining up 15th for the sprint, Hadjar lost a position to Pierre Gasly off the line, although enjoyed a relatively lengthy battle with his countryman throughout the race. But it was clear that being stuck in the pack was detrimental to tyre life in the sprint, as a 19-lap stint on mediums arguably surpassed the limit of the tyres, and thus Hadjar had to be relatively careful.
He made up a place in the opening flurry of laps with a move on F2 title rival Bortoleto, then collected another midway through the sprint when Carlos Sainz pitted. Hadjar collected 13th when Oliver Bearman ran out of tyres towards the end and began to ail.
By comparison, Tsunoda spent the entirety of the race fending off Antonelli, who had coveted the Japanese driver’s stranglehold over sixth place. A fleet-footed start brought Tsunoda ahead off the line, and Lando Norris’ Turn 6 excursion yielded a further upgrade in position. From there, his race was spent containing a potential Antonelli assault; although having clear air ahead made the job slightly more manageable in a tyre management respect, it denied him the chance to match the Italian with DRS assistance. In that vein, Tsunoda’s defence was commendable.
Hadjar admitted after qualifying that he wanted to emulate Tsunoda’s prowess off the starting grid, but was unable to do so; although he expected to lose a position to Antonelli at the start, watching his team-mate also steal past was not on his wishlist. It was a struggle for Hadjar to stick with Tsunoda in DRS range, even if the two drivers were relatively well-matched on the medium tyre.
But the split between the two on race pace with the hard diverged more; although the pace delta wasn’t huge, Tsunoda’s ability to squirrel away time over Hadjar on seemingly every lap allowed his advantage to snowball over the second stint. What’s more is that Tsunoda managed to bank three extra laps on his hard-tyre stint, although the team committed to the two-stopper and effectively took itself out of the running.
In that second hard stint, Tsunoda had just picked up the pace over Hadjar when his front wing decided to spontaneously snap and pulled him out of the running for points. It would have been a tough ask for both drivers to make their way back into the top 10, given that Lance Stroll didn’t manage it on immediate pace from a similar position (albeit later benefitted from disqualifications).
Towards the end of that final stint, Hadjar’s pace is a bit all over the place; his battle with Jack Doohan being the main contributing factor. By rights, he should have passed the Australian given his car and tyre advantage, but ended up getting blocked and run out of road on a couple of occasions. It’s in those moments, and at the start, where Hadjar perhaps appears to lack that spark to make the pinch-points work for him. That’ll come in time, particularly as he gathers greater mental acuity as less of his bandwidth is being used to consciously drive the car, but these moments suggest that he doesn’t possess a completely natural feeling at the moment.
The final laps have been omitted from our graph as Hadjar’s aren’t comparable to Tsunoda; the latter’s broken wing had forced him to pit for a third time on lap 46 – and Racing Bulls decided to fit some old mediums for the final throes of the race in the event it could benefit from any force majeure. Hadjar did not have to endure that fate, but Doohan was holding him up.
In brief, Hadjar’s ‘proper’ debut was largely mistake-free, and should go some way to dispelling the languid slip into the wall on Australia’s formation lap. The gaps to Tsunoda will be an encouraging starting point, particularly as Tsunoda has been relatively keen to help Hadjar bed into the team. Of the key plus points, that confidence in the Racing Bulls package in qualifying will serve Hadjar well in circuits where the corner radiuses are longer; Melbourne seemed to be more of a struggle versus his team-mate, suggesting Tsunoda might be happier in more rear-limited conditions.
Hadjar has likely bought himself plenty of time to get acquainted with the rigours of managing race pace in F1, and having the latitude to make the right decisions in the moment on-track to carry out passes and maximise starts, pitstop entries, and the like. It’s all about the little details, after all. Yet, given expectations of Hadjar were probably quite low to begin the year with, he’s been pleasantly surprising thus far.
Read Also:
In this article
Jake Boxall-Legge
Formula 1
Yuki Tsunoda
Isack Hadjar
RB
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In our analysis of rookie debuts, thanks to the bumper crop of newcomers trickling into the field across the past six months, there’s been a lot to discuss. Andrea Kimi Antonelli and Gabriel Bortoleto got their appraisals last week but, given Hadjar registered a Did Not Start in the Australia opener, it was impossible to delve into the Racing Bulls driver’s debut run beyond the environs of qualifying.
Thankfully, China offered the Franco-Algerian racer two bites at the cherry to showcase his worth and atone for his blunder Down Under. It’s probably fair to say he achieved that; although he received an unjust reward of nil points owing to his team’s over-commitment to the two-stopper, Hadjar demonstrated great speed and capable race pace throughout the Shanghai weekend and had looked set for a debut top 10.
In outqualifying Yuki Tsunoda for the grand prix, no mean feat in itself, Hadjar proved that underlying pace. It helps that the VCARB 02 appears to be a well-mannered machine – a distinctly different customer to Red Bull’s RB21, which has the same powertrain/gearbox/suspension basis but very little similarity in its on-track characteristics. Still, the 20-year-old’s performance was plenty encouraging for the squad, particularly as Tsunoda has largely dominated his team-mates in recent seasons.
Here’s what we learned about Hadjar’s first full F1 weekend.
Qualifying pace – Hadjar’s bravery leads to tiny margin over Tsunoda
Isack Hadjar, RB F1 Team, Yuki Tsunoda, RB F1 Team
Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool
Both Hadjar and Tsunoda broke through into Q3 in setting the grid for the Chinese Grand Prix. And, after their opening runs, Hadjar was 0.19s faster despite conceding time in the opening sector. Tsunoda was quicker through the winding Turn 1-2-3 complex and took a bit more speed into the Turn 6 braking zone, but this compromised his exit and allowed Hadjar to get on the throttle a smidgen sooner. Interestingly, Hadjar lifted through Turn 7 slightly sooner than his more experienced team-mate, but not by quite as much.
GPS data shows his throttle hovering around the 85% mark, while Tsunoda lifted later and dropped to about 70% throttle in the meantime. As a result, Hadjar simply carried more speed through this section and the momentum swing worked in his favour by about a tenth.
Overall, Hadjar just seemed to be happier in tacking on the throttle earlier through the quicker corners, and incrementally built up speed out of Turn 12/13 as he hit full pedal travel sooner than Tsunoda. And, although Tsunoda was much happier in braking later for Turn 14, the later throttle application was a net laptime penalty; he went in with a 0.1s deficit and exited with a 0.2s one. Slow in, fast out worked nicely for Hadjar.
Before Tsunoda lost adhesion in Turn 13 on his final flyer and sustained a snap of oversteer at the rear, he was tracking at about a tenth behind Hadjar’s second Q3 effort out of the second sector. Perhaps an attempt to use more throttle in the long right-hander went awry; either way, the less experienced driver had the run of pace through the circuit.
Hadjar believed that there was more time available; having been comfortable in Q1 and having clocked a 1m31.162s at the death of the session to get the second fastest time, the Frenchman felt that wind in Q2 and Q3 had hurt the balance of the car slightly as the circuit was improving. His Q3 headliner was only a tenth faster than that Q1 time, suggesting that the changing wind conditions rather nullified the effect of a grippier track.
“I could never find the same balance, so I was struggling a bit more with the car and I knew I was losing out. I think there was more lap time, more positions to gain,” said Hadjar.
It wasn’t all peachy on one lap; Hadjar fluffed his lines in sprint qualifying, although had been quicker than Tsunoda in SQ1 by – again – a smidgen. The speed is there, and the execution got better through the weekend. There’s something about Shanghai and Hadjar’s style that just seemed to chime, especially as his Racing Bulls’ front end had looked very manageable in the longer corners.
Race pace – Middling sprint, improvements in grand prix, but questions about killer instinct
Esteban Ocon, Haas F1 Team, Isack Hadjar, RB F1 Team, Yuki Tsunoda, RB F1 Team
Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images
After lining up 15th for the sprint, Hadjar lost a position to Pierre Gasly off the line, although enjoyed a relatively lengthy battle with his countryman throughout the race. But it was clear that being stuck in the pack was detrimental to tyre life in the sprint, as a 19-lap stint on mediums arguably surpassed the limit of the tyres, and thus Hadjar had to be relatively careful with his stint.
He made up a place in the opening flurry of laps with a move on F2 title rival Gabriel Bortoleto, then collected another midway through the sprint when Carlos Sainz pitted. Hadjar collected 13th when Oliver Bearman ran out of tyres towards the end and began to ail.
By comparison, Tsunoda spent the entirety of the race fending off Antonelli, who had coveted the Japanese driver’s stranglehold over sixth place. A fleet-footed start brought Tsunoda ahead off the line, and Lando Norris’ Turn 6 excursion yielded a further upgrade in position. From there, his race was spent containing a potential Antonelli assault; although having clear air ahead made the job slightly more manageable in a tyre management respect, it denied him the chance to match the Italian with DRS assistance. In that vein, Tsunoda’s defence was commendable.
Hadjar admitted after qualifying that he wanted to emulate Tsunoda’s prowess off the starting grid, but was unable to do so; although he expected to lose a position to Antonelli at the start, watching his team-mate also steal past was not on his wishlist. It was a struggle for Hadjar to stick with Tsunoda in DRS range, even if the two drivers were relatively well-matched on the medium tyre.
But the split between the two on race pace with the hard diverged more; although the pace delta wasn’t huge, Tsunoda’s ability to squirrel away time over Hadjar on seemingly every lap allowed his advantage to snowball over the second stint. What’s more is that Tsunoda managed to bank three extra laps on his hard-tyre stint, although the team committed to the two-stopper and effectively took itself out of the running.
In that second hard stint, Tsunoda had just picked up the pace over Hadjar when his front wing decided to spontaneously snap and pulled him out of the running for points. It would have been a tough ask for both drivers to make their way back into the top 10, given that Lance Stroll didn’t manage it on immediate pace from a similar position (albeit later benefitted from disqualifications).
Towards the end of that final stint, Hadjar’s pace is a bit all over the place; his battle with Jack Doohan being the main contributing factor. By rights, he should have passed the Australian given his car and tyre advantage, but ended up getting blocked and run out of road on a couple of occasions. It’s in those moments, and at the start, where Hadjar perhaps appears to lack that spark to make the pinch-points work for him. That’ll come in time, particularly as he gathers greater mental acuity as less of his bandwidth is being used to consciously drive the car, but these moments suggest that he doesn’t possess a completely natural feeling at the moment.
The final laps have been omitted from our graph as Hadjar’s aren’t comparable to Tsunoda; the latter’s broken wing had forced him to pit for a third time on lap 46 – and Racing Bulls decided to fit some old mediums for the final throes of the race in the event it could benefit from any force majeure. Hadjar did not have to endure that fate, but Doohan was holding him up.
In brief, Hadjar’s ‘proper’ debut was largely mistake-free, and should go some way to dispelling the languid slip into the wall on Australia’s formation lap. The gaps to Tsunoda will be an encouraging starting point, particularly as Tsunoda has been relatively keen to help Hadjar bed into the team. Of the key plus points, that confidence in the Racing Bulls package in qualifying will serve Hadjar well in circuits where the corner radiuses are longer; Melbourne seemed to be more of a struggle versus his team-mate, suggesting Tsunoda might be happier with in more rear-limited conditions.
Hadjar has likely bought himself plenty of time to get acquainted with the rigours of managing race pace in F1, and having the latitude to make the right decisions in the moment on-track to carry out passes and maximise starts, pit-stop entries, and the like. It’s all about the little details, after all. Yet, given expectations of Hadjar were probably quite low to begin the year with, he’s been pleasantly surprising thus far.
Read Also:
In this article
Jake Boxall-Legge
Formula 1
Isack Hadjar
Yuki Tsunoda
Racing Bulls
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For RebelDot, the devil is in the detail – or, more specifically, in the data. All seven megabytes pour in from each Racing Bull every second, that is.
It is becoming increasingly common for Formula 1 teams to have their own partners who deal with data, intelligent automation and insights, crunching numbers at such speed that they can cover in an hour what a human would struggle to process in a lifetime.
RebelDot partnered with Racing Bulls before the start of the 2025 season and, with its CEO and founder Tudor Ciuleanu being a fan of motorsport while his son is a keen karter, once F1 became a potential space in which to operate, the deal was a chance to show what a smaller operation could do at the very top.
“At RebelDot, we don’t follow; we lead,” said Ciuleanu. “Formula 1 is the ultimate arena where engineering, speed, and strategy meet at the edge of human and technological potential. While the mechanics and aerodynamics have been fine-tuned for decades, we see an opportunity to push boundaries on the digital front.
“For us, this isn’t just sponsorship; it’s about redefining the grid and breaking the limits of what’s possible through innovation.”
RebelDot builds from the ground up. When it agreed a partnership with the Red Bull sister squad, it was not marketing a specific commodity. It is the commodity, as its head of F1 strategy and partnerships, Alastair Liddell, explains to Autosport.
“I think what it comes down to is there is now tangible value that can be delivered if the right tools are put into place,” he said.
Alastair Liddell, RebelDot
Photo by: RebelDot
“That could be something as simple as internal processes when building technology. Or during a race, you now have these massive dumps of data at seven megabytes a second coming off a car, which is colossal.
“It is a bit contentious, but the answers to podiums, race wins, championships, it is somewhere within that big pool of data. That is just a fact. But it doesn’t mean it is easy to find.
“Our job now is to really become an integrated partner with the team and be able to bring our expertise into that and push where it hurts.
“It’s not all about hugs and kisses or drinking champagne, it is quite the opposite. It’s going in and saying these processes will deliver better results in terms of that building.
“So a lot of it is going to come down to how we help them build new sources of information, because we’re a custom builder. This is where we’re very integrated. We’re not coming with a product. The product is RebelDot.”
Liddell is an integral part of the RebelDot operation having met Ciuleanu on one of his many visits to Cluj to visit his now wife, Casandra, and he believes Racing Bulls was the perfect place for RebelDot to set out its path into F1.
“We are sort of trying to be the flag bearer for the small guy,” he said. “Our overarching campaign for season one is the ‘challenger’s code’, which is defined by the different ways in which we work, the mentality which we work with.
Isack Hadjar, RB F1 Team, Yuki Tsunoda, RB F1 Team
Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images
“It is ‘Rebel’ for a reason. There is a rebel in there. We tend not to conform to just how others do it and through experience, try and do things differently.
“I opened up the conversation (with Racing Bulls) saying, ‘look, we’re not Oracle, we’re not IBM, far from it.
“But what we are is exceptionally talented and with a big data and AI focus’ and it all really linked up with what Laurent (Mekies, Racing Bulls boss) was envisaging for the team.
“So, for RebelDot the goal is to help them be faster on and off the track but at the same time it is for us to challenge the status quo on those big brands.
“You don’t have to spend tens of millions to deliver good quality. It is true that size doesn’t matter. It’s not sticking a logo on a car. It’s not that at all. It’s quite the opposite.”
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Ferrari had a day to forget at Formula 1’s Chinese Grand Prix with a double disqualification for Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton, but fake team order drama further added to team boss Fred Vasseur’s misery.
Hamilton and Leclerc were running fourth and fifth respectively after their pitstops around lap 20 when fans were first alerted to team orders being in play, and the seven-time world champion appearing not best pleased by them.
“We are swapping cars in Turn 14,” Hamilton’s race engineer Riccardo Adami instructed him, with the Briton’s reply: “When he’s closer, yeah.”
It was the first message picked up by the world feed, with broadcasters then speculating Hamilton was not too keen on letting his team-mate past. That was followed by Adami’s “we will swap this lap”, with Hamilton’s curt reply: “I’ll tell you when we swap” presented on the broadcast just as the Briton let his team-mate through.
That further caused a stir in tifosi living rooms, especially with Leclerc nursing a broken front wing, even though it soon proved to be the correct decision. Hamilton continued to struggle for pace and eventually pitted again to finish well behind the Monegasque, before technical infractions caused both drivers to be thrown out of the results.
Unbeknownst to the TV audience though, it was Hamilton himself who first suggested swapping places. “I think I’m going to let Charles go, because I’m struggling,” he said. But that radio message, a crucial piece of missing context that would have prevented TV commentators from speculating, never made it onto the broadcast.
In his media debrief, Vasseur was not happy with what he felt was rights holder FOM manufacturing drama around his team, one week on from Hamilton’s conversations with Adami also being blown out of proportion.
Frederic Vasseur, Team Principal and General Manager, Scuderia Ferrari
Photo by: Ferrari
“I think this is a joke from FOM, because the first call came from Lewis,” he told reporters afterwards. “Lewis asked us to swap, but to make the show, to create the mess around the situation, they broadcast only the second part of the question. I will discuss with them.”
Autosport understands F1 has since reached out to Vasseur to have that conversation, explaining that its omission of Hamilton’s first message was not a deliberate decision to mislead viewers, but an oversight.
An F1 spokesperson confirmed: “There was absolutely no intention of presenting a misleading narrative regarding the Ferrari team radio. Due to other situations developing during the race the message from Lewis was not played but this was not intentional.”
Speaking about how Hamilton’s adaption to Ferrari has been portrayed, Vasseur said: “[The media] made a huge mess last week on the messages between the engineer and Lewis. Honestly, when Lewis came back to the briefing room he said to this engineer ‘good job’.
“But because they were discussing about how to use K1 and he said, ‘Don’t speak when I am in the fight’, I had tons of questions.
“It’s Lewis who asked to swap. I’m not even sure that you will have this kind of situation 10 times during the season in other teams. From the pitwall we really appreciated the call from Lewis to say, ‘Guys, I’m losing the pace, I’m keen to swap.’ The collaboration between the two guys is mega, I can’t complain a single second about something.”
Hamilton opened his Ferrari account with a first sprint pole on Friday, followed by a dominant sprint race win on Saturday morning.
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