Liam Lawson tries to set the record straight after brutal Red Bull demotion

News.com.au

4 days ago

Liam Lawson says he wasn't given time to prove himself at Red Bull Racing before his brutal sacking just two rounds into the season.
Lawson was drafted up from Racing Bulls to replace the out-of-favour Sergio Pérez this season, but dire results at the opening Australian and Chinese grands prix convinced Red Bull Racing management to make an emergency change, sending him back to Faenza in exchange for Yuki Tsunoda.
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It was a ruthlessly early move on the Kiwi, who had started just 13 races when he was dropped ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix.
Speaking to the F1 website at the halfway mark of the season, Lawson argued that while he accepted his results were poor, he was never given a chance to prove his underperformance was down to insufficient preparation rather than skill.
'I was well aware that those results weren't good enough, but I was just focused on improving, fixing and learning, basically,' he said. 'I was in the same mindset as I have been since I came into F1.
'I think that was the biggest thing going into a team like that, in a car like that it was going to take a bit of time to adjust and learn.
'With no proper testing, the issues in testing, the issues in Melbourne through practice, it wasn't smooth and clean.
'I needed time, and I wasn't given it.'
Tsunoda's struggles in his seat have cast Lawson's difficulties in a new light. While the Kiwi's results were considerably poorer, the well-regarded Japanese driver has yet to make a breakthrough with the difficult RB21.
On average his results have been similar to those that had Pérez sent packing with two years to run on his contract at the end of last year.
But the fact Tsunoda has been unable to perform — despite having been in sizzling form at Racing Bulls in 2024 and the first two rounds of 2025 — has finally forced the team to reckon with a more deeply seated problem than just its second driver.
For years the design department has developed an increasingly niche car.
Max Verstappen, his abilities preternatural, has been able to master it, but the mere mortal drivers partnered with him have endured greater and greater difficulties behind the wheel.
This year even Verstappen has been unable to deliver consistent performances in the car, completing the team's rapid descent from dominant title winner in 2023 to also-ran just two years later.
Tsunoda will be given at least until the end of the season, after which the prevalent assumption is he'll be moved on, though a fresh tack under new principal Laurent Mekies could yet change the game.
The subsequent events reframed Lawson's struggles — and not just his; Pérez, Alex Albon and Pierre Gasly could all claim some credit back here — in less harsh terms.
It's cold comfort for the Kiwi, however, whose career flipped from dazzlingly ascendant to alarmingly precarious less than a fortnight into the season.
With Red Bull's next young gun, Arvid Lindblad, in line for promotion to Formula 1 next season, what should have been a dream season could yet turn into a nightmare.
Despite Christian Horner, the then Red Bull Racing principal, having claimed Lawson's demotion was an exercise in its 'duty of care to protect and develop Liam', his results remained stubbornly unimpressive upon his return to Racing Bulls.
There are several elements that have gone into making him look more ordinary than expected.
One is the acclimatisation process.
Being thrown from one car to another in the middle of the season is always difficult, and after having struggled with an interrupted pre-season program at Red Bull Racing, having no pre-season at all with Racing Bulls made that challenge steeper.
The other is that his teammate, Isack Hadjar, is arguably the standout rookie of the season. The Frenchman has been especially impressive in qualifying, and given the tightness of the midfield, that's made his Sunday results more impressive too.
It's been easy to conclude a third reason — that Lawson, after being chewed up and spat out by one of F1's grandees in just two grands prix – had his confidence shattered.
Pérez, after all, looked like a broken man in his final months at Red Bull Racing.
Lawson, however, denies that psychology has played a role.
'I haven't really talked much about it because I think for a big part of this year I've just ignored everything that happened and I've just focused on trying to drive the car, but I know there was a lot of stuff that went out that was speculation about how I was feeling,' he said.
'My confidence hasn't changed since the start of the year to now.
'One thing to be clear about is that between the first couple of races, to the team switch, then going to Japan, mentally for me nothing changed.
'It's been very heavily speculated that my confidence took a hit and stuff like this, which is completely false. From the start of the year I felt the same as I always have.
'I think in two races, on tracks I'd never been to, it's not really enough for my confidence [to suffer].
'Maybe six months into a season if I'm still at that level, if the results are still like that, then I'd be feeling something, maybe my confidence would be taking a hit.'
Lawson may not have got the time he deserved at Red Bull Racing to make an impression, but he has 12 more grands prix to state his case in a car capable of occasional big results.
The pressure's on, but it's up to him to prove he's equal to the challenge.