BREAKING: Liam Lawson REPLACED by Tsunoda!

G'day, Liam Lawson out, Yuki Tsunoda in at Red Bull, and starting from Suzuka. I woke up to some stunning news this morning with confirmation that Liam Lawson would be leaving Red Bull and going to the sister team Racing Bulls with Yuki Tsunoda getting the promotion. Now there was plenty of talk in the paddock Sunday night after the Shanghai race that that was going to happen, but it just seemed to me incredible that after two races you'd drop your young New Zealand driver and put in Yuki Tsunoda. So what's happened? Well, there was a board meeting in Dubai, the likes of Oliver Mintzlaff, who was actually at the track this weekend, and Christian Horner, Helmut Marko, and maybe others, met to discuss what's going on with the Red Bull seat, because of course Liam had failed to score a point in the two races. Well, it was actually three, because there was a sprint race as well. Things weren't looking good. The team was hemorrhaging points, and if they are to be a challenger for a constructors title this year, they need that second driver to be earning points and playing a part. Now one of the interesting things about this is that the story was broken by this fellow, Jackie Martins, who works for a smallish publication in the Netherlands called The Limburger. He broke the story, but my understanding is, and this is terrible, Liam wasn't told the decision. He would have heard about it once this story got out, and that is a terrible thing to do to a young fellow. So why the quick decision? Well, Japan is an important race for Honda. Honda already pays something like 10 million euros to have Yuki drive in the Racing Bulls team. Last year they offered Red Bull another 10 million if Yuki got the promotion to the senior team. Red Bull said no, and they ran with Liam. When Red Bull realised that things weren't going well with Liam, they went back to Honda, I gather in the last week or so, and said, look, will you stump up some more money now if we bring him to Red Bull? They've said yes, and sources are suggesting perhaps another 10 million, but they demanded he be in by the Japan race, which is, what are we, a week or so away, because they would get huge publicity for that move. There is a showrun through Tokyo on the Wednesday before the race. That's the first time we'll see all four of the drivers together, Yuki now in dark blue, and Liam going back to white. What does that do to the confidence of a driver like Liam? Well, quite frankly, given his poor performances, I think he might be somewhat relieved to have the pressure taken off him, and you know what, it wouldn't surprise me one bit if Liam ended up in a Racing Bull in front of Yuki in the Red Bull, because as it appears, that second Red Bull car is a bugger of a thing to drive. Certainly, Yuki's performance behind the wheel merits him getting that promotion. Now what goes on behind the scenes for the next week or so is frenetic at Red Bull and Racing Bulls, because they've got to swap over a driver. There's a whole lot of promotional material that would be out there promoting Liam with Red Bull and Yuki with the other team. That all now has to be swapped. There's signing on the garages. What about the programs at the Japanese Grand Prix? Is there enough time for them to change the detailed information in that program to reflect the new situation? This was the signage that was up on the back of the Japanese Grandstand two years ago, and I imagine they've done something similar for this year, so that's all going to have to be rushed. There'll be photo shoots at Red Bull with Yuki in the dark suits, there'll be photo shoots at Racing Bulls, and then there's that awkward moment for, well, mainly Liam, when he walks into the paddock come Thursday at the Japanese Grand Prix. Those photos will be huge, the media will be all over it, and Liam has to walk in, well, he's not going to walk in confidently, is he? He's going to be disappointed, embarrassed, possibly heartbroken. So then you take this situation, which is, well, it's a mess, isn't it? The fact that Liam wasn't alerted before the news hit the press. Then you piggyback that with Daniel Ricciardo's situation in Singapore last year, and it appears abundantly clear that there is some drama going on at the famous Red Bull team. Of course, Max just sits back and does the driving, he doesn't need to get involved in any of this, but it just doesn't look good from the outsider's point of view when you're chopping and changing so quickly. And two races, that's a terribly tough grind, isn't it, for a young kid to be given two opportunities. Perhaps it was just so obvious that he wasn't able to drive that car. And remember, we haven't had Yuki out doing any tests in the last week or so in the Red Bull car, so maybe he too will find it equally as tricky to drive. I tell you what, it's going to be fascinating come the Japanese Grand Prix to see where Yuki puts that car at the end of the race. That will either back up the team's decision that it was the right one, or further reinforce that that second car is a shocker to drive, is a widow-maker, or a poisoned chalice. This comment on one of my recent videos made me laugh, Red Bull needs to put a small plaque in the second car's cockpit, abandon all hope, ye who enter here. And it's very much looking like that. What would Zac Brown think of all this? Well, I think he'd be rubbing his hands with glee, because this sort of thing just destabilises a team and makes them an easier opponent to put away. If you have a look at the drivers who've had a crack at that car over the past seven or so years, and failed, it's an enviable line-up. And I imagine Checo Perez would be sitting home there in Guadalajara, rubbing his hands with glee, thinking, right, it's not me, it's the bloody car. There'll be plenty of work going on at Milton Keynes and Fiennes this week with this changeover, but I think the PR department at Red Bull will be very disappointed that they got pipped by the Limburger and Jackie Martin's story here. Sometimes journalists go to the PR departments at teams like Red Bull and say, look, I'm going to run this story, do you have a comment? If they'd done that in this instance, I wonder what Red Bull's PR might have done. Someone like Paul Smith, who runs the show there, might say, let me check on it and string them out for a few hours, hope the story can be put on hold while I go and perhaps do some damage limitation. But my understanding is that the story was run without any input from Red Bull. And in the world of publishing, of course, you want the scoop. But how will Red Bull treat that newspaper and the journalist involved? Will they ostracise them? Will they isolate them? If you go back to the drama with Christian and his PA that raised its head in Bahrain last year, that story was broken by this gentleman, Eric van Haaren, from The Telegraph in the Netherlands. And there's no doubt that Red Bull was very unhappy with that story being released. However, the worst thing you can probably do is to ostracise a journalist like that because that just gives them free reign to write whatever they want and think. I was surprised in Saudi, which I think was the race after, to see Eric having a free coffee in at the Red Bull hospitality suite, thinking he's pretty game, he's going to run that story. And then the next week he's accepting a coffee off them. But in Formula One, my understanding is that PR teams have to make things work. So they can't just say, right, you're out because you wrote a story that we didn't want you to write. If it's factual, well, then the PR departments have not much of a leg to stand on. So I kind of think there'll be no retribution against the journalist and the publication. But stranger things have happened. Now, we head to Japan with a completely different scenario. Two drivers swapping seats doesn't happen very often like this. And I've never heard of it happening after just two races, three if you count the sprint. I spoke to Liam on Monday at the airport as he was heading back to the UK. He was there on his own, two suitcases dragging along, trying to find where his departure gate was. We chatted briefly, and I didn't ask him anything about this, I didn't think it was the right thing to do at the time. But look, I love both of these guys. Liam is a tremendously positive character. Yuki a great guy. I caught up with him at a restaurant we both dined at, Ishizuka, which was quite glorious food-wise. We chatted for a bit. He has a new manager too, Diego. Did Diego perhaps have much to do with this deal? If he did, I'm sure Yuki will be very happy with his impact on the situation. This switch just further drives home to me how brutal this sport is. Kids in their early 20s given the chance of a lifetime and having just a couple of weeks to make an impact. And the price of failure is indeed a heavy one. I guess he can be thankful that Colopinto hasn't got the call up because there was much chat that Colopinto would go to Racing Bulls and Liam end up completely out the door. I think once we get to Europe when all this has died down and Liam's in that Racing Bulls car with a couple of racers under his belt, and hopefully performing well for that team, he might be thinking, got out of jail here. Sad for his New Zealand fans and sponsors because they thought they were getting a top seat and chance for wins with their driver, and it turns out that, well, the chance of a win in a Racing Bull is slim. I think we'd be honest in saying that, wouldn't we? You need a fair bit to go on in front of you for you to have a chance of ending up on the top step of the podium. Before you go, could you please hit the like button? And for those of you who haven't subscribed, I need you on board as one of my channel members or subscribers. And for a whole lot of extra content, head over here and have a look. Thanks for watching. Stay passionate.