Even as his Red Bull Formula One dream was crumbling around him, Liam Lawson was defiant to the last. After the Kiwi crashed out of qualifying in China, Tsunoda was asked if he would be ready to step up to the Red Bull team come Japan. “Yeah, 100 per cent. I mean, the car is faster,” said the Japanese driver.
When told of his ex-team mates comments, Lawson spat back: “I’ve raced him for years, raced him in junior categories and beat him — and I did in F1 as well, so he can say whatever he wants,” Lawson said in not the most media savvy response to being baited.
The New Zealand born driver opened a can of worms with his claims given his record over Tsunoda is less than convincing. The pair have been racing on and off since 2019 where that season Lawson beat Tsunoda in the Euro Formula Open championship finishing in second, two places ahead of his Japanese rival.
Lawson’s bold claim about Tsunoda
Yet the last laugh that year was to go to Yuki, who finished ahead of the Kiwi in there F3 championship and earned himself a promotion to F2 the following season. The pair continued to compete with each other in the Toyota Racing Series in New Zealand, with Lawson once again coming out on top.
Yet at the end of that year, it was Tsundoa who was promoted to Formula One, whilst Liam remained the reserve driver for the VCARB team and competing in F2. When he finally got his shot in F1, it was Tsunoda again he was racing but now was a team mate.
Their 11 race weekends together in 2023/24 saw Tsunoda scoring more heavily, as well as having a crushing 10-1 lead over the Kiwi in qualifying. Yet bizarrely it was Lawson who was given the nod to replace the departing Perez, rather than his far more experienced team mate.
The 1997 F1 champion, Jacques Villeneuve has taken issue with Lawson since the announcement he was being dropped was made. “You have to bear in mind that he [Lawson] came into F1 very arrogant,” Villeneuve told NZCasino. “He came into F1 last year saying how amazing he would be and he had an attitude. When the results don’t come, it makes everybody react even stronger. It’s actually the worst result ever in a Red Bull car. So, he’s paying his own price there. He set himself up in a way,” argued Villeneuve.
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Lawson “cocky” and “arrogant”
Whilst surprised at the speed of Red Bull’s decision, Villeneuve believes Lawson must take responsibility for what happened.“These two races didn’t do much good for him in the paddock,” he said. “It’s very simple and that’s the risk. When you start with Red Bull you have to be on it right away.”
“I thought they might give him another three races when they come back to Europe so they could then make a considered decision,” concluded the Canadian F1 world champion.
Whilst Villeneuve is often a controversial figure in the F1 paddock, ex-F1 racer and Indy500 winner Juan Pablo Montoya agrees wit the Canadian as he too highlight arrogance as a problem for Lawson.
“I think right now his reputation is not good,” Montoya tells Vision4Sport. “You can see all the memes on social media. He’s very cocky. A little arrogance is OK. But the problem is that when you’re arrogant, you need to deliver.”
Mexicans “loving” Lawson’s demise
At last year’s Mexican GP, Lawson almost came to blows with the driver he was hoping to replace, Sergio Perez. The pair clashed wheels during the race on Sunday which resulted in Lawson later flicking the bird at Perez as he completed the overtake.
“The Mexicans will be loving this because he gave Checo the middle finger last year because supposedly Perez was a terrible driver,” added the Columbian driver.
“Now you see them in the same car and he’s worse than Perez. It’s been a very humbling experience for Liam. I think it will help him put everything into perspective. If he doesn’t panic and if he stays in the moment and just goes and drives the car, I think Liam can do a really good job,” Montoya concluded.
Of course the return to the Racing Bulls is a familiar place for Lawson to be. Yet now he faces his own young gun upstart in team mate Isack Hadjar, who out qualified Tsunoda in China.
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Marko: “Time is running out”
Dr, Marko indicated there is a certain amount of time for Lawson’s F1 rehabilitation, although its short. “Time is running out. And we now have the luxury of having four cockpits. With another team he might not even have a Formula 1 seat anymore, so he can recover,” he said.
“But it was simply a negative development. He can only recover when he is back in his familiar environment, I would say at Racing Bulls, and not the enormous pressure that Verstappen is under.”
The VCARB02 is looking racey this year as demonstrated by Tsunoda and Hadjar who qualified fifth and sixth respectively in the Chinese GP Saturday afternoon session. It doesn’t look as good in long run trim as the RB21 and so its imperative Lawson shakes off his qualifying blues.
Further, the Racing Bulls have already thrown a haul of points away this year, as the team strategy call in China was to go for a two stopper. Mostly the rest of the field just one stopped and so the Racing Bulls could never recover the time lost on an extra stop. Yuki was finished off in Shanghai when an element of his front wing broke under load, forcing the team to call in their driver for a replacement nosecone.
Yet the car looks to have potential and be more stable to drive than the RB21, which now becomes Tsunoda’s problem for the rest of the year. Being cruel, things can only get better for the sister car to Max, given that Lawson qualified plumb last twice in China and his lofty P12 finish in the Grand Prix was flattering, given three drivers ahead of him had been disqualified.
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Red Bull Racing are once again front and centre in the Formula One news of the week. Having somewhat controversially appointed Liam Lawson as Sergio Perez’s replacement, the team decided to drop him back to the Racing Bulls after just two outings in Australia and China.
The team’s management have since been widely criticised over their recruitment process with some paddock veteran’s describing their approach as “cowardly,” “incompetent” and “deplorable.” Lawson qualified in last place for both the Sprint and the Grand Prix in China meanwhile Mercedes’ protege Kimi Antonelli was bringing home big points.
Mercedes sent Antonelli on a reported 60 days of testing previous cars in 2024 with the young Italian racking up some 10,000km before his debut in Melbourne this year. Whilst the previous Mercedes F1 cars do not replicate exactly the way the latest car will drive, but the core handling characteristics would be broadly similar… READ MORE
With over 30 years of experience in Formula 1 as an insider journalist, I have built trusted connections across the paddock, from race engineers and mechanics to senior team figures. At The Judge 13, I and a handful of trusted colleagues share exclusive Formula 1 news, expert analysis and behind-the-scenes stories you will not find in mainstream motorsport media.
Isnt it well known that Helmut is a nazi sympathizer?