Liam Lawson shrugs off ‘downbeat’ assessment by new F1 team boss after Red Bull demotion

Liam Lawson needed some help to get pep back in his step following his Red Bull demotion, according to his new Racing Bulls team boss Alan Permane.

Lawson earned a promotion to the Red Bull Racing team for F1 2025, but was demoted back to Racing Bulls after just two race weekends after struggling to immediately gel with the RB21.

Alan Permane: Liam Lawson was ‘a bit downbeat’

Having toiled around at the back of the pack for his two races with the Milton Keynes-based squad, Red Bull opted to drop the Kiwi back to its sister team.

“It has been difficult to see Liam struggle with the RB21 at the first two races, and as a result, we have collectively taken the decision to make an early switch,” said then-Red Bull boss Christian Horner.

“We have a duty of care to protect and develop Liam.”

While it was felt at Red Bull that Lawson’s confidence had been dashed by his struggles to keep up with Max Verstappen in a car that he couldn’t haul off the back of the pack, the Kiwi driver was very open about how he believes his confidence had never taken a hit.

“I think I would say 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,” he told the official F1 website.

“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.”

Known for being a straight-shooter, Lawson said it would have taken around half a season of performing at a sub-par level before he’d have started to question himself, and that his focus had been entirely on fixing the issues he had, and learning from them.

“Going into a team like that, in a car like that… it was going to take a bit of time to adjust and learn,” he said.

“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.

“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.

“My confidence hasn’t changed since the start of the year to now.”

It took some time for Lawson to find his feet back at Racing Bulls, with whom he raced the final portion of the F1 2024 season as a full-time replacement for the ousted Daniel Ricciardo.

Having not tested the VCARB02 and having to relearn the unique characteristics of a different car, it took until Monaco for Lawson to score his first points in a Grand Prix in 2025, but he has since followed it up with three more points finishes to only trail teammate Isack Hadjar – widely regarded as the rookie of the year – by two points, with the French driver having had a more conventional start to the year.

But while Lawson denies his confidence having taken a dash, his new team boss Alan Permane – who was promoted to the role from racing director at Racing Bulls following Laurent Mekies’ departure to replace Horner at Red Bull – said the Kiwi driver clearly needed some help to recapture some of what had been lost.

“He’s done a great job, honestly,” Permane told the media, including PlanetF1.com, at the Hungarian Grand Prix.

“Two races at Red Bull, obviously, were very tough for him.

“He won’t thank me for saying this, but he definitely was a bit downbeat.

“He didn’t have a spring in his step, and we’ve done what we can to help him there.

“To jump in our car straight away without having tested it was, of course, not easy.

“He’s up against Isack, who has been outstanding this year. First race for him was Japan, and Isack was absolutely flying there.

“So, it’s a tough introduction for him, but we’ve made some changes. He’s worked hard.

“He and his engineering team have worked really, really hard. We had a bit of a breakthrough in Austria.

“We had a new front suspension for him, which they developed through the simulator, and he really liked it, was really enthusiastic about it, and it worked there.

“We saw in Spa again, he’s performing. You could see after that race… Monaco was a decent race for him, but in Austria, he had a spring back in his step.”

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Racing Bulls’ CEO Peter Bayer earlier this year said that Lawson had been “puzzled and a bit sad” after the events of his team swap, and recently told PlanetF1.com that, “Confidence is something that is very personal. When I spoke to Liam, he always said his confidence was never [down].

“He’s done this all his life. Quoting what he said to the media is, ‘I’ve done this all my life. It’s a tough business.’

“I hate to talk about luck and not being lucky, but he was unlucky on a couple of occasions. When he was on a good lap, somebody would be in front of him, somebody would call for a yellow, somebody would call for a red.

“Now, he is fun, happy, like in his best days. So, if ever he was not, today, he certainly is.”

As for Lawson himself, Permane’s comments were put to him during the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend, with the 23-year-old saying he had no problems with the opinion of his team boss.

“Everybody’s going to have their own opinions and going to make judgments when they see somebody,” he said.

“So that’s fine, but I know how I feel.”

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