Liam Lawson finds himself the latest driver falling victim to the maligned and mismanaged Red Bull driver program, axed from the Milton Keynes squad after only two weekends with the World Championship-winning outfit.
The 23-year old Kiwi was announced on Thursday evening to have been dropped by Red Bull Racing, back to the sister Racing Bulls team in a swap with Yuki Tsunoda. This followed constant speculation since the Chinese Grand Prix.
Liam Lawson. (Photo by Rudy Carezzevoli/Getty Images)
Lawson replaced the underperforming Sergio Perez for the 2025 season alongside reigning world champion Max Verstappen, though in his two race weekends for Red Bull qualified no higher than 18th, crashed in his debut race and has scored no points. All while Verstappen sits second in the standings.
“We have a duty of care to protect and develop Liam and together, we see that after such a difficult start, it makes sense to act quickly so Liam can gain experience,” said Red Bull team principal Christian Horner in response to the confirmation of the Kiwi’s demotion.
While Red Bull’s senior advisor and head of the young driver programme in Dr. Helmut Marko compared Lawson with a “battered boxer”.
Adding that from the point of view of his driver going into a downward spiral, “it was a mistake [to pick the Kiwi]”.
Marko once again not disproving Red Bull’s ruthless approach to their junior drivers, is akin to Pink Floyd’s Another Brick in the Wall. While Horner’s line about ‘duty of care’ negligently comes too little to late.
It’s one thing to consistently cite the brutal and ruthless nature of Formula One, as well as the pressure cooker environment that Red Bull envelops. Though when does that adage finally wear thin and accountability on the management side of the organisation become the narrative?
Ex-F1 driver turned commentator Giedo van der Garde took to Instagram in giving his scathing assessment of Red Bull’s treatment of Lawson. Opining that the move “comes closer to bullying or a panic move than actual high athlete achievements.”
Not that the fans, media and fourth estate alike do little to not fill that vacuum either. It felt deplorable, that amongst the media it seemed like a race to grab the exclusive on confirming Lawson’s fate. The story ultimately broken by Dutch publication De Telegraaf.
Sure, an F1 team is a high performance sports team – but at its core it is still an organisation or business. The driver or athlete is still an employee and in an age where mental health and wellbeing is just as crucial as the physical side, this just shows the negligence of Red Bull management in this area.
Mindset, temperament, mental robustness. These are all traits that Red Bull have long cited as being barriers in promoting 24-year old Tsunoda to the senior team, having served a long apprenticeship at Racing Bulls since 2021. Aren’t these items that, as part of their junior development, Red Bull are training their drivers in – on top of driving a car fast?
Lawson adds his name to a list of outcasts such as Daniil Kvyat, Pierre Gasly and Alex Albon, who ultimately made it to Red Bull but then couldn’t hack it. Now the fear is whether Tsunoda is on a hiding into nothing also.
If Tsunoda is unable to tame the ornate RB21 and minimise the deficit to the Verstappen benchmark, is that when the media and fans can start questioning team management? It should be alarming already that Red Bull’s chief designer in Pierre Wache has already spoken against compromising on the car’s drivability in favour of the knife-edge peak performance.
“You want the fastest car compared to the others. I won’t lower the overall potential to make it easier operationally,” Wache told the Dutch arm of Motorsport.com ahead of testing in February.
Whilst Verstappen himself, who’s quipped that Lawson “will go faster” in the Racing Bulls, hasn’t held back in his feedback about needing to improve the car.
Only two weekends into a bumper 24-event season, it is a great shock to see Lawson demoted. Given that reprehensively, many had their pitchforks out for Alpine’s Jack Doohan – before even a competitive wheel was turned in 2025. The Aussie’s case another where the young driver’s career is at risk because of management’s failings and lacking duty of care.
Jawad Yaqubhttps://www.theroar.com.au/2025/03/28/bullying-or-panic-move-cruel-lawson-axing-shows-everything-but-a-duty-of-care-from-red-bull/‘Bullying or panic move’: ‘Cruel’ Lawson axing shows everything but a duty of care from Red Bull
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