Liam Lawson wants to make it clear that his self-confidence has certainly not been knocked by his swift demotion from Red Bull. The New Zealander was allowed to replace Sergio Pérez as Max Verstappen‘s teammate at the start of the season, but after just two races, he was already back behind the wheel for sister team Racing Bulls. According to Lawson, his time at Red Bull was not long enough to truly make him doubt himself.
Liam Lawson has had quite a bit to deal with in his short time in Formula 1. The New Zealander received the joyful news last December that he was being promoted to Red Bull, but after just two races in the RB21, he had to make way for Yuki Tsunoda. Lawson is currently nine World Championship points behind teammate Isack Hadjar, but has already managed to accumulate more, twelve in total, than Tsunoda.
However, Liam Lawson makes it clear to Formula1.com that despite the disappointment of the quick demotion back to Racing Bulls, he never doubted his own abilities for a second. “I think one thing should be clear: between the first few races, the team switch, and the trip to Japan, nothing has changed for me mentally,” the New Zealander explains. “There’s a lot of speculation that my self-confidence took a hit and things like that, but that’s not true at all. I’ve felt the same as always since the beginning of the year.”
Not Enough Time
According to the Racing Bulls driver, he wasn’t in the RB21 long enough to lose his self-confidence completely. Lawson couldn’t finish the first race of the season in Melbourne – he ended up in the barriers due to aquaplaning – while in Shanghai he could do no better than twelfth place. “Of course, I was aware that those results weren’t good enough, but I was just focused on improving and learning. I’ve had the same mentality ever since I’ve been in F1.”
The Racing Bulls driver needed time to adjust to the top team, but he didn’t get it. “I haven’t really talked about it much, because I think I’ve just ignored everything that’s happened for a large part of this year. I’ve just focused on driving the car,” Lawson adds. “But I know there’s been a lot of speculation about how I was feeling.” However, the New Zealander assures: “My self-confidence hasn’t changed from the beginning of the year until now.”
