HALF TERM REPORT: Racing Bulls’ best and worst moments from 2025 so far and driver head-to-heads

Racing Bulls have finished eighth in the Teams’ Championship for the last two seasons – and it is the position they occupy just over halfway through an up-and-down 2025 campaign. From eye-catching displays to missed opportunities and a driver change to a new team boss, there is plenty to review at Red Bull’s sister outfit. Here is their half term report…

Best finish

Isack Hadjar and Liam Lawson – 6th in Monaco and Austria

Racing Bulls made a rapid start to 2025 – at least in terms of one-lap pace. Yuki Tsunoda charged to fifth during Qualifying in Australia, while both he and rookie team mate Isack Hadjar made Q3 in China. However, strategic errors and incidents meant they left both events empty-handed.

It was not until Japan, where Red Bull sent a struggling Liam Lawson back to Racing Bulls and pulled Tsunoda the other way, that the first points were logged, with Hadjar again making the pole position shootout and going on to take the chequered flag in eighth place.

Since then, both Hadjar and Lawson have contributed to Racing Bulls’ tally of 45 points – their equal-best results coming at the Monaco and Austrian Grands Prix, where the Frenchman and New Zealander achieved standout top-six finishes respectively.

Qualifying head-to-head

Hadjar 9-3 Lawson Hadjar 1-1 Tsunoda

Hadjar had the measure of Lawson during their early weekends as team mates and soon pulled out a lead in their Qualifying head-to-head. Solid gains from Lawson have steadied the ship in recent events, though, with the score reading 2-2 from the last four weekends.

At the start of the season, Hadjar and Tsunoda tied 1-1 over the two full Qualifying sessions they spent as team mates – Tsunoda via his eye-catching effort at Melbourne’s Albert Park and Hadjar with his P7 grid slot at the Shanghai International Circuit.

Race head-to-head

Hadjar 8-3 Lawson Hadjar 1-1 Tsunoda

It is a similar story when it comes to Hadjar and Lawson’s race day head-to-head, which reads 8-3 in favour of last year’s F2 runner-up. Given that both drivers retired from a rain-hit British Grand Prix due to incidents, the Silverstone event could not count towards the overall score.

Hadjar and Tsunoda, meanwhile, also went 1-1 across their two Grands Prix – Hadjar failing to start his debut race in Australia with a formation lap spin, before bouncing back to beat Tsunoda (who was hindered by a front wing issue) in China.

Best moment

While their P6 finishes in Monaco and Austria gave Hadjar and Lawson cause for celebration on a personal level, this year’s visit to the streets of Monte Carlo also brought a particularly strong display of teamwork from Racing Bulls’ line-up.

With both drivers starting in the top 10, Lawson successfully backed the midfield pack up during a mandated two-stop race around the Principality, keeping a queue of cars behind to give Hadjar a clear run to sixth – while completing a double points finish in P8 himself.

Worst moment

Changeable weather at Silverstone presented a massive chance for F1’s midfield teams to spring a surprise, but Racing Bulls’ hopes were dashed by Lawson being spun out on the first lap and Hadjar later crashing into the back of Kimi Antonelli in the worst of the rain.

It was a painful double DNF for the operation, whose championship rivals Kick Sauber, Alpine, Aston Martin and Williams all scored – Hulkenberg’s incredible run from 19th on the grid to a maiden F1 podium showing what could have been possible on another day.

Going forward

Following on from the Lawson/Tsunoda driver swap, there has also been a recent change of team boss at Racing Bulls, with Laurent Mekies getting called up by Red Bull to replace Christian Horner and experienced engineer Alan Permane filling the void.

Permane has taken the reins of a factory that produced a very solid and compliant car in the VCARB 02, as underlined by Lawson following his brief stint in Red Bull’s RB21, with the priority being to “keep that trajectory” while ensuring no more opportunities slip by.

“I just want to make sure we’re getting the best out of the cars the designers and the production team have given us to race, and if we can do that, then we’ll have a good last half of the season,” Permane recently told F1.com.

Racing Bulls’ last three seasons (which include previous RB and AlphaTauri guises) read eighth, eighth and ninth when it comes to the Teams’ Championship standings – 2021 marking the last time they broke into the top six thanks to some consistently strong scoring.

With just 25 points covering fifth-placed Williams to eighth-placed Racing Bulls as things stand, the door is very much open for the squad to earn their best classification in several years – but as touched on above, the likes of strategy and execution will need to be nailed.