Lawson points the finger at Red Bull set-up in ‘that was used to demote me’ claim

Liam Lawson has revealed he and Red Bull tried a “shot in the dark” set-up with the RB21 in China, one that was supposed to give him a better understanding of the car.

Instead, his performance in China was “used to demote” him from the team after just two races.

Liam Lawson: That performance was then used to demote me from the team

Last year, Red Bull announced that Lawson would be Max Verstappen’s F1 2025 team-mate, promoting the New Zealander over Yuki Tsunoda despite having only 11 races under his belt split over two seasons.

Then-team boss Christian Horner explained the “feeling within the team is that the trajectory Liam is on has more potential, which is why we’ve taken that route.”

Lawson’s Red Bull Racing career lasted all of two grand prix weekends.

The Kiwi failed to score a point or escape Q1 in his two race weekends, Australia and China, before the team sent him back to Racing Bulls and promoted Tsunoda in a straight swap in time for the Japanese Grand Prix.

As F1 pundits debated where it all went wrong, it was suggested a lack of TPC running in a Red Bull F1 car, coupled with the difficulties of that car’s characteristics, played a part in Lawson’s demotion.

Racing Bulls team-mates: F1 2025 head-to-head stats

👉 F1 2025: Head-to-head qualifying statistics between team-mates

👉 F1 2025: Head-to-head race statistics between team-mates

Five months on from his axing, Lawson suggests listening to Red Bull when it came to trying an experimental set-up in China turned out to be his downfall.

Qualifying 20th in both of the sprint weekend’s qualifying sessions, Lawson made up six places in the Saturday race and finished only two places away from the points in the grand prix.

Red Bull, though, still axed him based on that weekend’s results.

“In China, we took a shot in the dark with the set-up to try and learn something,” Lawson told RacingNews365.

“For me, I was under the understanding that it was to help me develop for the future, to have an understanding of the car. So I was happy to drive with this sort of set-up.

“That performance was then used to demote me from the team, basically.”

He says if he had known he would only get two races, he would’ve done things differently.

“There were a few things over that time that made it not smooth,” he continued. “It wasn’t a clean couple of weekends.

“And by my own standards, they weren’t good enough. I was obviously trying as hard as I could, and I was trying to get up to speed as quickly as I could.

“As much as I look back now and go, ‘What could I have done to do that better?’, there are obviously things you look back in hindsight and go, ‘I wish that I’d done this differently to try and help me’.

“If I knew I was going to get two races, I would have probably done things slightly differently. But I didn’t at the time. I was maybe a bit naive, but I thought I was going to get longer and have time to learn.”

Lawson has found his form again since returning to Racing Bulls. Although it was a slow start as he rediscovered his confidence, he’s scored in four of the last seven race weekends to bring his tally to 20 for the season.

That’s 10 more than Tsunoda has managed, while also outscoring his team-mate Isack Hadjar.

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