Former Red Bull driver and pundit David Coulthard has given a damning verdict on Liam Lawson’s future in F1.
Driving for Williams, McLaren and Red Bull, David Coulthard won 13 races in his memorable career.
Arriving at Red Bull in 2005, he helped shape and build the team in its early years. He moved moving into TV punditry for the BBC in 2009 before shifting to Channel 4.
With deep connections to Red Bull, Coulthard’s take on the disastrous start to 2025 for Liam Lawson carries weight.
Speaking during a Channel 4 broadcast during the Chinese GP, Coulthard did not mince his words about Lawson’s future.

David Coulthard: Liam Lawson has ‘got to deliver’
The Scot said it is likely Lawson will race for Red Bull in Japan. However, he believes this would be the last chance saloon for the New Zealander.
“I feel for him, but this is not a put your arm around the shoulder business. This is a lap time business,” he said.
“And the two opportunities he’s had, he hasn’t delivered. He’s got a race to try and pull it back, and he’s got, in my mind, Japan, where he’s raced prior to Formula 1, to show all the skills that got him the seat in the first place.
“But if it doesn’t work there, I think the writing’s on the wall, and that’s tough. We all want to see these guys fulfil their dreams, but you’ve got to deliver.”
The nadir of Liam Lawson has drawn inevitable comparisons to the high profile saga and firing of Sergio Perez last season.
Coulthard said his first race in Australia, combined with the pressure, will be “sobering” for Lawson as history threatens to repeat itself.
“Emotionally, it doesn’t get worse. In what is the closest thing to his home grand prix, everything that could go wrong did go wrong.
“Here was an opportunity to make good and the gap is just too big. Nobody wants to be last on the grid, but to do it twice in the same weekend, last for the sprint, last for the main event, if he was emotionally close to the edge, I don’t know where he is now.
“It shows how things move on [that] I had completely forgotten about Checo, but he was that sort of gap away from most of the back end of last year, and it ended up with him basically having his contract removed for this year.
“That’s going to be pretty sobering for Liam Lawson.”