Liam Lawson states that a technical gamble by Red Bull Racing directly contributed to his swift departure from the team. The New Zealander was given just two Grands Prix alongside Max Verstappen at the start of this season, but was replaced by Yuki Tsunoda after the GP of China and had to return to the subsidiary team, Racing Bulls.
“During that weekend in China, we were driving with an extreme setup to learn more about the car,” Lawson tells RN365. “I agreed because I thought it was for my development. In retrospect, it turned out that those results were actually used to remove me from the team.”
The 22-year-old Lawson admits that he misjudged the situation. “I thought I would get more time. Maybe that was naive,” he says. He is also critical of his own role: “The weekends were not flawless. Some things just didn’t go smoothly and that wasn’t good enough by my standards.”
Lawson had a difficult debut in Australia with a crash after P18 in the qualifiers. A week later, he finished last in both qualifiers. He came fourteenth in the sprint race and twelfth in the main race. Since his return to Racing Bulls, the Kiwi has been performing better. In four races, he has scored sixteen points, putting him just two points behind teammate Isack Hadjar.
