Onto Liam Lawson’s next lesson from Red Bull’s school of hard knocks

Where does Liam Lawson go from here? The 23-year-old was demoted to the “B-team” after just two races behind the wheel of Red Bull’s tricky RB21. At least it’s not a total wash, as he steps back to rejoin the familiar Racing Bulls outfit while Yuki Tsunoda steps up to partner Max Verstappen at F1’s next race on the calendar, the Japanese Grand Prix. It’s rather embarrassing news for the Kiwi, particularly after he was so outspoken about his rivalry with the Japanese driver. 

“You can’t [feel sympathy] in this sport, and if I look back over our career, I was team-mates with him in F3 and I beat him. In Euroformula I was team-mates with him in New Zealand, and I beat him there,” Lawson said in an interview with The Telegraph earlier this month. “And then in F1 last season, I think honestly, if I look at all the times he got promoted instead of me in those early years, then no. He’s had his time. Now it’s my time.”

Tsunoda and Lawson, who joined the Red Bull junior academy in 2018 and 2019 respectively, are clearly no strangers to going head-to-head. While Lawson outperformed Tsunoda in their early careers, F1 hasn’t quite been the same story. In 2023, when Lawson stepped in for an injured Daniel Ricciardo during five races, he was out-qualified by Tsunoda on four out of five occasions, though he managed to finish ahead three times.

When the pair were team-mates again for six races in 2024, Tsunoda continued to have the upper hand during qualifying. He started every race ahead of Lawson, though the New Zealander was able to come home in front on four occasions. Anyone who’s tuned into an F1 session this year would have seen Lawson was struggling while Tsunoda has come out in good form, most recently securing a sixth finish in the Shanghai sprint race. 

Liam Lawson, Red Bull Racing

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool

The key difference there, however, is that RB’s car is much easier to drive. Red Bull on the other hand has a car — and a team — built entirely around Verstappen. It’s hardly a framework for success for a second driver. Just ask Ricciardo, Pierre Gasly, Alex Albon, or Sergio Perez.

No matter which way you look at the situation, it isn’t entirely fair for the team to dump Lawson after just two poor outings. Some would say it’s not enough time to properly learn the car, and that it fosters a negative environment, while others might tell Lawson he’s simply not good enough. What matters now is how he handles the demotion. 

When he returns to the lower end of the paddock in Suzuka, he can’t be bitter while talking to the media. If he wants to get back to the top end of the grid, that decision will be just as much about on-track performance as internal politics. Should the higher-ups think Lawson has a good attitude and has been actively working to improve, then there’s a world in which he’ll partner Verstappen at Red Bull again. 

“You’re always being evaluated,” he told Motorsport.com late last year. “Especially in your early years in F1, with the way our contracts are [set up] and the way the teams are judging us — we have performance clauses, so we’re always under pressure. You’re never really safe.” Even when he secured a full-time drive after Ricciardo was axed, Lawson said he never gets too comfortable: “Last year, I was trying to get a full-time seat. Now, I’ve got a full-time seat, but I’m trying to stay in Formula 1. It’s the same kind of thing. We’re obviously trying to achieve the best results, but I don’t think your mindset really changes.” 

Lawson has also been given the short end of the stick from F1 fans who haven’t quite taken to him the way they did with the quippy, meme-loving Tsunoda. The public perception of him is that he perhaps takes himself too seriously and was too eager to leapfrog Tsunoda to the Red Bull seat. But when was F1 ever about politely sitting on the sidelines? If Lawson wants to win over fans, he’ll need to be respectfully humble and show his willingness to work hard in the face of adversity beginning in Japan.