Liam Lawson’s sudden expulsion from the main Red Bull team is the second harsh driver choice the Milton Keynes team has made in as many months.
Yuki Tsunoda now receives his long-awaited promotion to the six-time constructors’ champions, while the New Zealander was the beneficiary of the previous move when Daniel Ricciardo was jettisoned out of the RB seat after last season’s Singapore Grand Prix. However, he was marched back to Racing Bulls after just two rounds alongside Max Verstappen.
After a challenging time at McLaren, the Australian returned to the club with the hope of resuming the drive he gave up to sign with Renault for the 2019 season, but his F1 career ended abruptly.
Given Lawson’s difficulties, some are now starting to wonder if the 23-year-old should have been parachuted in at all, which ultimately led to Ricciardo’s death.
Nearly four out of five respondents to a recent RacingNews365 survey said that Lawson’s return to Racing Bulls is evidence that Red Bull erred in terminating the 35-year-old last autumn.
A little more than 20% of voters believed Ricciardo’s career in Formula One was over anyhow, implying that he would not have performed any better than Lawson beside Verstappen at the Australian and Chinese Grands Prix.
