Formula 1: The telltale sign that Red Bull haven’t given up on Liam Lawson
THREE KEY FACTS
- Liam Lawson has been demoted by Red Bull after just two races.
- The Kiwi completed two grands prix, but has made way for stablemate Yuki Tsunoda.
- Lawson returns to Racing Bulls after spending time there in 2023 and 2024.
Cue the outrage.
After just two races, Red Bull have made the huge decision to demote Kiwi Liam Lawson to sister team Racing Bulls and send Japanese driver Yuki Tsunoda the other way.
It’s incredibly harsh on the Kiwi, making such a huge call on his future after only two race weekends. No driver has yet been demoted from Red Bull’s senior team and returned later on.
The casualties include Pierre Gasly and Alex Albon, who both found new homes with other teams, and Mexico’s Sergio Perez, who is still in limbo after making way for Lawson only a couple of months ago.
There has been no shortage of commentary around the latest call, ranging from disdain at Red Bull losing patience with a driver so quickly, to boycotting the energy drink, and even world champion Max Verstappen “liking” a social media post taking aim at his own team for what has transpired.
Make no mistake, in a team that’s built itself on making brutal decisions with its driver lineups, this is the most drastic – by far. Reading between the lines, though, in no way have Red Bull given up on the Kiwi.
It’s been reported that Red Bull’s arm has more or less been twisted by Honda, the engine supplier across both teams. Tsunoda was a Honda driver long before he was affiliated with Red Bull, and the commercial opportunities for the team to have him front and centre at his home Grand Prix in Suzuka next weekend will not go to waste.
It is widely understood that Honda pays Red Bull an annual eight-figure sum just to guarantee Tsunoda a place on one of its two teams. It has also been reported that Honda offered a further payment – in the tens of millions – to instigate this switch before the Japanese Grand Prix.
Right there, though, is the biggest sign that Lawson’s role with Red Bull is far from over, even if it has hit a speedbump.
While never in the reckoning for Red Bull, Racing Bulls’ reserve driver is Ayumu Iwasa, a 23-year-old, Honda-backed Japanese prodigy. If Red Bull’s decision-making was based solely around maximising commercial opportunities, Iwasa would have been the driver to go to Racing Bulls, not Lawson.
At the Japanese Grand Prix last year, Red Bull gave Iwasa one of the two mandatory junior driver sessions, for his home race, for Racing Bulls alongside Tsunoda, so the team could milk having two locals for all it was worth.
However, considering that Grand Prix also contained a sprint race, Iwasa’s place meant Red Bull driver Daniel Ricciardo was short-changed and was forced to enter qualifying with no practice.
Red Bull has shown in the past, especially in Japan, that it’s prepared to stitch up its own drivers to bring in the yen.
So why, then, has Lawson been retained? Because Red Bull still sees value in him.
Since first signing him to a junior driver contract as a 17-year-old, the team has invested millions into Lawson and his development.
Lawson’s home population of five million pales in comparison to those of Japan and Mexico, yet he was given the chance to drive for Red Bull this year ahead of Tsunoda and Perez anyway.
Will it be easy to get back into Red Bull for 2026 and beyond? Absolutely not.
But Tsunoda’s place is by no means secure, given Honda and their financial clout leave for Aston Martin in 2026. There is every chance that the second Red Bull seat – if not both, should Verstappen have had enough – will be available.
What’s more, Formula One’s new regulations come into effect from next year, meaning the RB21 car that’s become notoriously difficult to drive will be gone and – hopefully – a more forgiving RB22 takes its place.
When that happens, Lawson will arguably be one of the best-positioned drivers to step into Red Bull – right under the noses of Christian Horner and Helmut Marko, the team’s powerbrokers.
Lawson will now have to go back and do the hard yards at Racing Bulls – admittedly a team he knows well, and a team that can say the same about him.
This year hasn’t gone to plan, but we’ve already seen that Lawson can more than compete in the Racing Bulls.
With 20 race weekends still on the calendar this year, he has more than enough time to go back, rebuild his confidence and push to return to Red Bull in 2026.
Yes, Red Bull’s decision is harsh. But the messaging around doing what they can to protect Lawson, as opposed to dropping him altogether as they did with his predecessors, says a lot.
Now it’s up to him to make the most of a second chance that Red Bull are not known for giving.
Alex Powell is a sports journalist for the NZ Herald. He has been a sports journalist since 2016, and previously worked for both Newshub and 1News.