Category: Formula 1

The dismissal of the New Zealander and his replacement by the more experienced Yuki Tsunoda illustrates fundamental problems with the RB21

Red Bull’s dismissal of Liam Lawson after only two races was a ruthless decision, brutal even by their standards. Yet while it was neither unexpected nor particularly surprising, there is more to it than simple dissatisfaction with an underperforming driver. Replacing him with Yuki Tsunoda was a U-turn that indicates fundamental problems the team are facing, ones to which they are unlikely to find a quick fix, and that Max Verstappen is unhappy at their performance and indeed their prospects for the new season.

Lawson, who had already looked shell-shocked by the close of the second race in China last weekend, was left entreating the team to give him just a little more time. Red Bull were not forthcoming. On Thursday morning they announced he would be replaced by Tsunoda from their sister team, RB, the Japanese driver having originally been passed over for the seat in Lawson’s favour at the end of last season.

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• Champion likes post describing change as ‘panic move’
• Rookie Lawson will go back to sister team RB for season

Max Verstappen has indicated disquiet and dismay with his Red Bull team after they confirmed they will replace their driver Liam Lawson with Yuki Tsunoda from sister team RB.

Lawson has been dropped for the season before next weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix after the New Zealander completed only two races for the team, while Verstappen remains dissatisfied with the team’s performance and their failure to bring a competitive car to the new season.

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• Lawson failed to earn a point in first two races of 2025
• New Zealander to swap seats with Racing Bulls’ driver

Red Bull are poised to replace Liam Lawson with Yuki Tsunoda after just two races of the Formula One season. Tsunoda would join Max Verstappen for his home grand prix in Japan next week, with Lawson likely returning to the Racing Bulls feeder team.

Lawson was promoted from Racing Bulls to replace Mexican driver Sergio Pérez but has struggled in his first two race weekends in Australia and China. The 23-year-old New Zealander was with Tsunoda in Red Bull’s feeder team for six races last season, after being drafted in as replacement for Daniel Ricciardo.

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Embarrassing disqualification of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc raises difficult questions for Scuderia

Before the Formula One season began Lewis Hamilton had taken his motorhome to Ferrari’s Maranello factory, living alongside his new colleagues in order to bond with them and better learn their methodologies in an effort to make his transition into the Scuderia as seamless as possible. After he and his teammate, Charles Leclerc, were disqualified from the Chinese Grand Prix on Sunday, he may have to consider taking up residence again, as a rocked Ferrari deal with a disheartening opening to the season.

Ferrari have never endured a double disqualification before in the 75 years they have participated in F1, an embarrassment for which they held up their hands. They conceded that the skid block on the floor of Hamilton’s car had been worn 0.5mm below the limit, while Leclerc’s ride was 1kg below the minimum weight requirement. The F1 governing body, the FIA, said Ferrari acknowledged a “genuine error” and the team said it was a “mistake” they would endeavour not to repeat.

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• McLaren pair had 1-2 finish in Chinese GP on Sunday
• Norris: ‘We’re two competitors who both want to win’

Lando Norris says his McLaren team will be “nervous” about the prospect of him going head-to-head with his teammate, Oscar Piastri, for the F1 title. Norris and Piastri have one victory each after the opening two rounds of the Formula One season.

The British team, seeking their first world champion since Lewis Hamilton claimed his maiden crown in 2008, have said their drivers are free to race each other. Although Norris has claimed McLaren are prepared for an intra-team duel, he acknowledged there could be bumps along the road.

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• Piastri wins Chinese GP from pole for first win of season
• ‘I feel like I deserved from last week,’ he says

Oscar Piastri was full of praise for his team after a triumphant weekend during which he redeemed himself from a nightmare end in Melbourne a week ago by emphatically winning the Chinese Grand Prix from pole.

The McLaren flyer never gave up the lead he earned in qualifying in Shanghai to win the third GP of his burgeoning career on Sunday. It adds to his triumphs in Hungary and Azerbaijan last year in what was a breakout season for the 23-year-old.

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• Team say they will learn from mistakes at Chinese GP
• Hamilton’s sixth place undone in second race for Ferrari

Ferrari have admitted they were at fault for the mistakes that led to the disqualification of both their drivers, Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc, from the Chinese Grand Prix on Sunday, in what was a disastrous close to the weekend for the Scuderia and a hugely disappointing outcome for Hamilton in only his second race for the team.

Leclerc and Hamilton had finished fifth and sixth respectively in the race, which was won by McLaren’s Oscar Piastri. However three hours after the flag, and in the wake of the usual post‑race inspection of the cars to ensure they are in compliance with regulations, Ferrari were found wanting over two clearly defined rules.

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• Australian first, with McLaren teammate Norris second
• Ferrari’s Hamilton and Leclerc disqualified after race

Now 18 years into his career and hoping to see it out with a flourish, it will not have gone unnoticed by Lewis Hamilton that while McLaren – with whom he started in Formula One all those years ago – are enjoying a breathless, heady run of form, his opening with Ferrari has been an altogether more frustrating affair. The teams’ fates in the Chinese Grand Prix could not have been in greater contrast and it is doubtful that it would give Hamilton occasion for so much as a wry smile.

In a processional race at Shanghai, McLaren’s Oscar Piastri won with a commanding drive from pole and with his teammate Lando Norris behind him they secured McLaren’s 50th one-two finish and the team’s first of the season. On this form, it will not be the last.

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• ‘People underestimated steep climb of joining new team’
• Piastri takes first pole ahead of Russell and Norris

Feisty, confident and feeling vindicated, Lewis Hamilton will, to an extent, be at ease with how he fares in Sunday’s Chinese Grand Prix. After his victory in the sprint race on Saturday, the seven-time champion was energised and assured he is on the right path with Ferrari and even a tough day in Shanghai will not detract from the sense he has seized the reins.

A long road lies ahead, but his condemnation of the “yapping” of criticism after a striking victory was the fighting talk of a man who feels he is just beginning to land some blows.

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• Seven-time world champion opens account with Formula One team
• Oscar Piastri finishes second, Max Verstappen third in 100km race

Lewis Hamilton celebrated his first Formula One win for Ferrari after leading a Chinese Grand Prix sprint from start to finish in only his second race for the Italian team on Saturday.

The seven-time world champion, on pole position, managed his tyres superbly to take the chequered flag 6.889 seconds clear of McLaren’s Oscar Piastri with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen finishing third in the 100km race.

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Muttering in pit lane over how F1 team have found such a sweet spot between aerodynamics and tyre wear

One race into the new Formula One season and the sport has been transfixed by how smartly McLaren have emerged from the blocks. A quick car is a surprise to no one but what fascinated about Lando Norris’s and Oscar Piastri’s ride is that their single greatest advantage apparently lay not in the science of aerodynamics but rather in the tyres and the dark art of mechanical grip. In which algorithms and alchemy, McLaren appear to have struck gold.

Norris’s win at the season opener in Australia caught the eye, not only with how much pace they showed but in how they achieved it, and it has the other teams worried.

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• British driver to start alongside Verstappen on front row
• Lando Norris in sixth after mistakes during qualifying

Lewis Hamilton landed his first pole position as a Ferrari driver by taking top spot for Saturday’s sprint race at the Chinese Grand Prix.

The 40-year-old, in only his second appearance for the Italian giants, saw off Red Bull’s Max Verstappen by just 0.018sec in Shanghai to ensure he will start from the front for Saturday’s 19-lap dash to the chequered flag. McLaren’s Oscar Piastri qualified third with Hamilton’s teammate Charles Leclerc fourth. George Russell took fifth for Mercedes, one place ahead of Lando Norris in the other McLaren.

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• McLaren superiority ‘bigger than Red Bull has ever had’
• Norris wants to stay calm after opening race win

George Russell has claimed that Lando Norris has the car to win every race this season and said McLaren’s advantage is even bigger than that which Red Bull enjoyed.

Norris cemented his status as the favourite to land his maiden world championship with a statement victory at last weekend’s rain-hit Australian Grand Prix.

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Eddie Jordan, the colourful former F1 team owner, has died at the age of 76. We take a look at his life in pictures

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• Irishman had revealed his cancer diagnosis in December
• Eddie Jordan gallery: looking back at his life in pictures

The former Formula One team owner Eddie Jordan has died aged 76, his family have announced. The Irishman revealed in December he had been diagnosed with bladder and prostate cancer which had spread to his spine and pelvis.

A statement from Jordan’s family read: “It is with profound sadness that we announce the passing of Eddie Jordan OBE, the ex-Formula 1 team owner, TV pundit and entrepreneur. He passed away peacefully with family by his side in Cape Town in the early hours of 20 March 2025 at the age of 76, after battling with an aggressive form of prostate cancer for the past 12 months.

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