As team principal Christian Horner outlined the rationale for the “terrible” decision, Liam Lawson expressed his “horror” at being fired by Red Bull.
Just two races into Lawson’s rookie season, Red Bull made the shocking decision to demote him to their junior club, Racing Bulls, this week. Yuki Tsunoda, a Japanese driver, was promoted ahead of Lawson’s home race this weekend.
The decision was taken little over three months after Lawson was chosen to be Max Verstappen’s teammate instead of Tsunoda because to the New Zealander’s subpar performances in Australia and China.
“It was absolutely not something that I sort of expected, as I believe the conversations we were having as well weren’t really moving in this route.”
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Lawson responded, “To be honest, yeah,” when asked if he was annoyed with the amount of time he was given. I would have loved more time, of course.
And I thought it was a difficult beginning, especially since I had to travel to areas I had already been. Our testing was challenging. Our first practice weekend in Melbourne was difficult. After then, China was undoubtedly a sprint.
“Given how difficult it was to drive to places I had been before, I believe that would have been beneficial, and I would have cherished the chance. I’m here to make the most of this one, though, since it’s plainly not my choice.”
Horner: We asked Lawson too much too quickly.
The situation is extremely embarrassing for Horner and Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko, who have the last say on the team’s driver lineup, even though Lawson’s demotion will have been devastating.
When Lawson was selected over Tsunoda, he had only competed in 11 Grands Prix over two different stints with Racing Bulls.
Horner also accepted responsibility for asking the 23-year-old “too much too soon” in an exclusive interview with Sky Sports F1 on Wednesday.
“Obviously, it’s terrible because you’re robbing someone of their hopes and goals, but sometimes kindness requires cruelty, and in this case, I don’t think Liam’s story is over.
“I told him up front that it’s a sample of two races. We requested too much of you too soon, in my opinion.
We must acknowledge that we may have asked too much of him too soon. Therefore, this is for him to once more develop the skill we know he possesses while returning to the Racing Bulls seat and providing Yuki with the chance tVerstappen has fought his way to second place in Australia and fourth place in China, suggesting that Red Bull’s car has been very challenging to drive in the early going of the season.
Horner claims that promoting the more seasoned Tsunoda, who has finished four seasons in Formula One, was largely influenced by the team’s recognition that they must develop the RB21 swiftly.
Horner stated, “We’ve got work to do with the car,” “The automobile has to be improved. Yuki’s experience is something we must utilize.
“You (Lawson) must go and rebuild yourself in the Racing Bulls in the interim, as it is a familiar environment and possibly less stressful than Red Bull Racing.”
‘Engineers were concerned about Lawson’
Pressed on what convinced him to make the decision, Horner said that both himself and engineers were “concerned” over the degree to which Lawson was mentally struggling with the situation.
He said: “I think with everything that we saw in Australia and China, you could see that it was really affecting Liam quite badly.
“We could have left it, and I think that Liam is a driver with talent. Maybe within half a season he would have got there, but we just don’t have that amount of time.
“It was something that was very clear to the engineering side within the team, just how much Liam was struggling with it all, and you could see that weight upon his shouldersLawson insists that he just needed more time to get used to the RB21 and that there is nothing about his driving style that made it especially difficult for him.
“It’s really neither for me,” Lawson remarked. “Driving the automobile is challenging. However, we were going through the process of adjusting.
“Honestly, I think it’s time. However, given how the weekend unfolded, you have plenty of time to adjust and other things because you are driving all day in a Formula 1 preseason test. To be honest, the main factor that made it difficult for me to adjust was not spending enough time in the automobile.
Every time we went out for a session, we were sort of getting acclimated to something or adjusting.”
