Piastri's Rise, Lawson's Fall: The Sharp Edges of F1 Success

02 April 2025

“F1's not a finishing school”

Yuki Tsunoda has replaced Liam Lawson to partner World Champion Max Verstappen at Red Bull Racing ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix. To discuss the fall out from the first two races, look ahead to Japan, and consider all things F1, Edward Russel met with This Sporting Planet colleague Suhail Chandhok and his brother, who just happens to be former Formula One driver and broadcaster Karun Chandhok.

“To be honest,” Karun says, “the whole thing is just messy. I am a bit disappointed with the way it's been handled in some ways, but, also in the way it's turned out for Liam, because I really thought over the winter that he was the right choice for the team, over Yuki, if I'm honest. You know, I thought he was an equal to Yuki, having only done 11 races and Yuki in four years, so his trajectory was clearly on the up.”

Karun’s view is that rookie drivers don’t always get the preparation they need to take the step up to Formula One. The fact of the mater is, there’s very little grace period in this game – maybe three or four races where a new driver can get away with being maybe three or four tenths of a second off the pace of their teammate, but that’s it.

“F1's not a finishing school. You have to arrive as the finished product. You're there to be one of the 20 best drivers in the world. You're not there to listen and learn.”

Red Bull’s decision, which could be seen as brutal, to demote Lawson mid-season, is a matter of financial imperatives: teams that don’t have big money backing really need results.

In contrast to the unfortunate Lawson, another youngster, Oscar Piastri, had an excellent first season in F1 and is looking superb at the start of his second campaign. The 23-year-old Australian, who secured his maiden pole position in China and edged his teammate in the race to earn a one-two for McLaren, is putting pressure on his teammate Lando Norris.

“If you look at the whole season so far,” Karun says, “Piastri’s had one bad corner when the rain came down in Melbourne. Otherwise you know he looked quicker than Lando in the race. So, really he got unlucky being on the wrong tires when the rain came down. He’s been outstanding this year. And I'm excited to see- Lando is a super fast driver, no doubt about it, he's exceptionally fast. But we saw in China he made mistakes in both the qualifying sessions. Made a mistake on the opening lap of the sprint. As the season unfolds, he'll have to stop making those mistakes.”

If Mclaren are in the position of having to impose team orders when they have two drivers in exceptional form, well, Karun says, that’s the sort of headache any team would love to have!

New Ferrari man, Lewis Hamilton, won the sprint race in China. Cue huge celebrations.

“It was amazing. He looked energized. He looked motivated. The crowd were going nuts. See, he's clearly the biggest star we have on the planet. And the fan club was out of force.”

Once the main event came the following day, the Ferraris were still off the pace. This season is building up to be a real nail-biter: Mclaren seem to have the edge right now, yet the competition is fierce.