Red Bull family feud flares at Monza as Tsunoda seethes over Lawson clash
Monza doesn’t need help to create drama, but the Red Bull camp supplied it anyway. Yuki Tsunoda and Liam Lawson tangled at the second chicane in a skirmish that sent both cars skipping across the run-off and sent Tsunoda’s blood pressure through the roof.
Lawson attacked around the outside into Turn 4, his left-front nudging Tsunoda’s right-rear as they turned in. Both survived, but Tsunoda’s race didn’t. He slumped to 13th at the flag, just ahead of Lawson, and said the contact inflicted damage that cost him a shot at points.
“What is he doing?” came the immediate radio bark from the Red Bull driver. The tone didn’t soften later.
“I got distracted by Lawson who made contact, and that was big enough to pick up damage,” Tsunoda said after the race. “Very frustrating and very unnecessary. I was fighting for points and he wasn’t. Even if we’re sister teams, we’re enemies—but there’s a line you can’t cross.”
This is the awkward reality of the Red Bull ecosystem when the gloves come off. Tsunoda, promoted to the senior team after two rounds, has been scrapping to make that seat look permanent. Lawson, who was shuffled back to RB, is making his own case the old-fashioned way: elbows out, no favours, no apologies. Add Isack Hadjar’s emergence at Faenza and you’ve got a 2026 audition that’s getting spiky by the week.
From Lawson’s side, it was all fairly mundane. “Nothing really to it, honestly,” he said. “He passed me into Turn 1, I tried to pass him back into Turn 4, and I had no room on the right-hand side, so we touched, went through the chicane, and then I gave the place back.”
No harm, no foul—at least from the Kiwi’s perspective. Tsunoda didn’t see it that way. He argued he’d been carving his way back into contention, claiming he was lapping over a second quicker before the contact. In a tight midfield where points can hinge on a single defensive move, that kind of damage stings.
It also plays into a bigger story arc. Tsunoda’s step up to Red Bull was a hard-earned promotion, but the head-to-head optics haven’t been kind lately. Lawson, meanwhile, has kept himself in the conversation with speed and chutzpah, and he’s not backing off just because the car next to him is painted a different shade of Red Bull. As Tsunoda put it: “We’re enemies.” Monza just made that painfully literal.
There’s some history here too. Seven days earlier in Zandvoort, Lawson and Carlos Sainz clashed early, triggering a 10-second penalty for Sainz and a right of review push from Williams. Whatever you think of that call, it underlined how combative Lawson’s Sundays have been. He’s not tiptoeing around reputations.
Strip the emotion away and the Monza move sits in that grey zone that keeps stewards—and drivers—awake. The outside line into the Roggia chicane always invites bravery, and it always carries jeopardy. It’s the kind of thing you can make work if you’ve got full cooperation; it’s the kind of thing that unravels fast if you don’t. On this occasion, neither party was inclined to yield. The result wasn’t spectacular, but it was costly.
For Red Bull’s wider operation, there’s nothing wrong with a little needle between its two squads—until it starts trashing results. Tsunoda left Italy convinced it had. Lawson shrugged and moved on. Somewhere in Milton Keynes and Faenza, the debriefs will be firm.
The irony is that both drivers probably got exactly what they needed from the exchange: Tsunoda reminded everyone he’s fighting for every point; Lawson reminded everyone he’ll try a move even if it risks a terse Monday call. The collateral is that it handed their rivals a quiet advantage.
Monza belonged to Max Verstappen up front, but the noise in the paddock afterwards? That was all Red Bull vs RB. If the 2026 seat picture wasn’t spicy enough, Sunday poured a little more chilli on it. And the calendar isn’t finished with them yet.
