Plenty of questions are to be answered after details emerged of Red Bulls driver swap for Suzuka: Why now? Why was Yuki Tsunoda not given the drive in the first place? And what will Max Verstappen make of the latest upheaval?

Barely three months ago, Yuki Tsunoda’s window to drive for Red Bull Racing in Formula One appeared to have closed. Despite putting forward a strong case through the 2024 season for its sister team, RB, Red Bull passed over Tsunoda when replacing Sergio Pérez. Instead, it promoted Tsunoda’s teammate Liam Lawson into the seat.

As team principal, Horner is the face of this driver swap, and he's been careful to focus the narrative around Lawson's growth. To hear him tell it, demoting Lawson — and removing him from the harsh spotlight of the Red Bull senior team — is doing him a favor in the long run.