Lawson's "mega" Austin return to push Tsunoda to higher level, says RB

Tsunoda faces his strongest challenger yet as RB's drivers fight for Red Bull Formula 1 promotion

Liam Lawson's impressive Formula 1 return at the United States Grand Prix will force Yuki Tsunoda to step up another gear, says RB team boss Laurent Mekies.

Lawson was brought back for the final six races of the 2024 season as Red Bull weighs up its options for the Red Bull seat alongside Max Verstappen for 2025 and beyond.

Incumbent Sergio Perez has not been consistent enough to help Verstappen and Red Bull defend their constructors' championship lead thus far so, despite the Mexican having a two-year deal, Red Bull could yet opt to make a change at any time.

Daniel Ricciardo was brought into its satellite RB squad as a potential replacement but failed to convince Red Bull, leading to the Australian's departure from Austin onwards.

Tsunoda now has another challenger in the form of Lawson, who made an impressive start to his second F1 stint after a five-race cameo in 2023.

Lawson made a statement by taking third in Saturday's Q1, setting a faster lap than Tsunoda managed during the entire qualifying session, and then recovered from a grid penalty to move up from 19th to ninth in the race as the only RB to score points.

Lawson's weekend was dubbed "just about perfect" by team boss Mekies, who says it was a reward for the New Zealander's 12-month long efforts behind the scenes to be ready to grab his chance with both hands.

"It's a mega impressive weekend," Mekies told Autosport. "We are very, very happy for him, because you don't get there by luck, you don't get there also just with talent.

"You think back to the full year that he has been doing in the engineering office, watching the onboards, watching the data, the hours in the simulator, the very little occasions to actually run the car. And you have to give him credit for the amount of hours he has put in it with little return.

"He was certainly 100% ready to jump in the car, so well done. It was already a mega statement in Q1, we thought that could be the statement of the weekend.

"But then a faultless race, the right pace. There is not much more you can ask, honestly. It's just about the perfect start."

There was no evidence of Lawson's racecraft being rusty either, given the aggressive way he defended against Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso in Saturday's sprint seemed to rattle the Spaniard.

"I think also that was refreshing, he was already not overthinking things and just defending his positions in the right way - that's what you want to see with this sort of guy," Mekies said.

"Not only has he not been driving in a race in a year, but also he has never been driving here in Austin."

Lawson's performance also seemed to tickle Tsunoda, who was frustrated at the 22-year-old's reverse one-stop strategy - starting on hard tyres instead of mediums - landing him ahead of his Japanese team-mate after the pitstops, before Tsunoda dropped to 14th.

Asked if he understood Tsunoda's frustration, Mekies replied: "Of course. It's not every day that an overcut happens.

"Obviously, the reverse strategy worked very well - certainly, for Liam, also for [Williams' Franco] Colapinto. They took some risk on the strategy.

"Obviously, it's a call that is easier to make when you are starting at the back, but it worked particularly well.

"The race was more frustrating for Yuki because of a bit more time in traffic, and it's always difficult when you are eighth in the first stint to find yourself outside of the points."

After easily getting the better of Nyck de Vries and Ricciardo, Lawson looks set to be Tsunoda's fiercest challenger yet as they vie for a potential Red Bull promotion.

"It is absolutely an opportunity for him to reach another level," Mekies agreed. "Again, it's exactly what we want, two team-mates that push each other, and one is going faster in this corner, one goes faster in this other corner, and they both are able to put in very consistent laps."

Having two drivers firing on all cylinders will be necessary for RB to see off the much-improved Haas team, which outscored the Anglo-Italian squad and is now leading the race for sixth place by two points. After going down the wrong update path over the summer, its latest upgrades in Austin appear to be working as the fight looks set to go the distance.

"We have run with two different set-ups, so there is a lot to learn through the new updates, which seem to work," Mekies added.

"In Barcelona, we had this update that didn't work and it sort of stopped our season. It took us some time to understand the roots of it, and it's probably the first time since Barcelona that we actually managed to get the car to behave differently.

"Hopefully, there is more potential in it. We are leaving here two points down on Haas, who also did a fantastic job with their cars this weekend. But it gives us good confidence that we can take up the fight with Yuki and Liam for the final five races."