Debate swirls over whether Red Bull misjudged its 2025 driver line-up.

After losing the constructors' title last year due to Sergio Perez's persistent gap to Max Verstappen, the team chose between Yuki Tsunoda and Liam Lawson—and went with the latter.

With Tsunoda outpacing Lawson in Melbourne from the junior Racing Bulls car, McLaren CEO Zak Brown was left puzzled.

"They seem to make some strange driver choices," he said.

Lawson, 23, is so green in Formula 1 that he'd never raced at Albert Park before—and the same applies to Shanghai this weekend.

The New Zealander joined a slew of mostly young drivers crashing in Melbourne.

"Next weekend won't be any easier," team boss Christian Horner said, "as it's a sprint race on a track he's not familiar with.

"But he's resilient. Melbourne wasn't representative of what he's really capable of."

Few would argue Perez would have been slower than Lawson in Australia. "I think he'll be scratching his head," Dutch commentator Olav Mol told Ziggo Sport.

"I have not seen him get anywhere near Verstappen's pace. When you're that far behind and you still crash ..."

While Brown suggested Tsunoda as a better fit, Mol floated another name. "I think they should have brought Carlos Sainz back," he said.

"He was the only one who has ever really been able to push Max, at Toro Rosso. But the fuss between them became too much. Franz Tost couldn't handle those two boys and those two fathers."

Horner, however, argued it's too soon to write off Lawson. "He did the second fastest lap time on dry tyres," he said. "That's the silver lining.

"The problem is that if you don't make it to Q3, you're already at a disadvantage."

Ex-F1 driver Christijan Albers echoed Horner's call for patience. "They're already saving money compared to the salary Sergio Perez had," he grinned to De Telegraaf.

"I still support Red Bull's decision. They knew where they stood with Perez. There wasn't much left to gain. There was no improvement anymore, and he was also getting older. The hunger goes away, and the fighting spirit also decreases a bit.

"In that respect they made the right choice."

For Lawson, the spotlight in China this weekend will be intense.

"It's terrible to be Max Verstappen's teammate, driving this particularly difficult Red Bull," journalist Gaetan Vigneron told Belgian broadcaster RTBF.

"It's ok for Max, but Max is a very special guy. Lawson needs to get his act together as quickly as possible." body check tags ::