After three races: Where Lawson and Tsunoda stand now

(Motorsport-Total.com) - Liam Lawson and Yuki Tsunoda have already completed three race weekends in their new environments. It's time for an interim assessment of how the New Zealander and the Japanese have fared so far following the cockpit swap ordered by Red Bull.

Lawson has managed to regain some of his old confidence after his move to Racing Bulls - even if he is currently largely playing second fiddle to Formula 1 rookie Isack Hadjar while he gets used to the VCARB 02.

Penalties largely limited Lawson's opportunities to show off. He also struggled to maintain the same race pace as Hadjar.

Overall, the Frenchman has been the stronger driver compared to Lawson so far. Take the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, for example: Hadjar overtook Fernando Alonso early on and was therefore able to conserve his hard tires better, while Lawson (on medium tires) was stuck in the slipstream of the Aston Martin for another ten laps before successfully overtaking.

The fact that the two were separated by only 1.4 seconds at the finish was mainly due to Carlos Sainz's braking of Hadjar, rather than Lawson suddenly finding tremendous pace on the hard tires. Hadjar's times were better at the beginning of Lawson's stint before he was caught and overtaken by Lewis Hamilton.

Liam Lawson recovers at Racing Bulls

But things are getting better: Lawson is now significantly closer to Hadjar than he was at the beginning of his transfer, and Hadjar is increasingly feeling the pressure on him from race to race . If Lawson manages to avoid any time penalties in the race, he's close to scoring points this year.

Lawson has the opportunity to establish himself for a long-term future in Formula 1, even if his performances so far don't clearly demonstrate this. However, a more stable first half of the season could help his cause enormously.

Perhaps he also needs to be a little more honest with himself: Lawson claims his self-confidence hasn't suffered a dent as a result of his "demotion" at Red Bull . That's hard to imagine, because such a setback is bound to leave its mark. Lawson needs to overcome it and prove himself again.

While the Racing Bulls VCARB 02 doesn't have the power to challenge the top four teams, the team is in a direct duel with Williams for fifth place in the Constructors' Championship. And that's exactly where Lawson's sights should be: ninth and tenth places, not position battles with Aston Martin and Sauber.

Tsunoda sells better than Lawson

Tsunoda, on the other hand, is proving he was the better choice for Red Bull at the start of the season. Whether he can fully exploit the Red Bull RB21's potential in qualifying will be a real test: The car is good enough to score pole positions and (occasionally) Grand Prix victories when pushed to its limits – but Tsunoda still needs some time to reach that level. Patience will be a virtue here.

He currently seems to have reached a point where he can consistently deliver the lap times needed to qualify for Q3. But by the time he gets there, he should have a lot more in store. He hasn't yet demonstrated that.

This means that although Tsunoda has already learned a lot about the car, the learning process is not yet complete. However, unlike Lawson, Tsunoda has already managed to score two World Championship points in his first races for Red Bull, finishing ninth in Bahrain. Tsunoda thus contributes to the team's overall points tally, which is the minimum requirement at Red Bull.

It's important to remember that Lawson had the winter testing to prepare for the season and his debut in the Red Bull RB21. Tsunoda didn't: He switched from the VCARB 02 to the RB21 during the ongoing racing season, without any prior testing.