Three Formula 1 rookies have rolled into China carrying heavy pressure after a rocky start to 2025.
Liam Lawson, Max Verstappen's new teammate at Red Bull, endured a torrid Australian weekend, marked by sluggish pace and a Sunday crash.
McLaren CEO Zak Brown suggested Red Bull erred by picking Lawson over Yuki Tsunoda. "I don't care what Zak says, to be honest," the New Zealander, 23-year-old Lawson, said in Shanghai.
"I don't think I've ever spoken to him."
Ex-Haas boss Gunther Steiner labelled Lawson "the most disappointing of all the rookies" in Melbourne.
"If things continue like this, I don't rule out that he will be replaced, especially since Yuki Tsunoda has long dreamed of becoming Max's teammate."
Tsunoda welcomed the praise. "It's good when people speak highly of me, but I just have to keep doing what I'm doing," the Japanese driver said.
Alpine's Jack Doohan faces perhaps even greater heat, with whispers persisting that Franco Colapinto could oust him - very soon.
Team principal Oliver Oakes downplayed Doohan's Melbourne crash. "He wasn't the only rookie that had that happen to him," he said. "And it's not like he did anything crazy.
"Up until that point, he'd had a really good weekend. And he's had to go through a lot in the last few weeks."
Oakes also praised the Doohan-Pierre Gasly duo. "The way they worked together with the engineers is something we haven't seen here for a while," he said, taking a clear swipe at Esteban Ocon.
Meanwhile, Racing Bulls' Isack Hadjar didn't even reach the end of Melbourne's formation lap, earning a rebuke from Dr Helmut Marko for his "embarrassing" tears that followed.
"I mean, I found it embarrassing myself," the 20-year-old French-Algerian admitted, describing quite openly how he "binned it".
"And, you know, I had Helmut on the phone a day later, and it's all good. I know how he works," Hadjar added. "I also think he said it in German and it was reinterpreted differently."
