Max Verstappen’s critical view of Red Bull’s decision to replace Liam Lawson after just two races is clear - even though the Formula 1 world champion has said very little in public.
Lawson has been sent back to Racing Bulls after a terrible start to 2025, with Yuki Tsunoda stepping up to partner Verstappen from this weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix.
Verstappen has been described by Red Bull motorsport adviser Helmut Marko as unhappy with the decision - while team boss Christian Horner said Verstappen was “surprised” by the speed of it.
But speaking on the matter himself for the first time at Suzuka on Thursday, the four-time world champion declined to say what he had expressed to Red Bull - and may even have had a little dig at the fact others have spoken about it.
“My reaction was shared with the team,” Verstappen said. “In general. About not only the swap, but I think about everything.
“We discussed that already during last weekend, race weekend. Back at the factory.”
Asked if he agreed with the decision, Verstappen replied: “Like I said, everything has been shared with the team, how I think about everything.
“Sometimes it's not necessary to always share, let's say, everything in public.
“I think it's better.”
An immediate observation on that is that if Verstappen agreed, there would be little issue with saying so in public. That’s before even getting into the fact Marko and Horner have already gone public with Verstappen’s reaction.
This is clearly not a situation Verstappen is satisfied with, and he had no qualms about making that obvious even though he chose his words carefully. He was relaxed, far from stand-offish, and even cracked a couple of jokes through Thursday’s media session.
When he was asked about ‘liking’ an Instagram post by ex-F1 driver Giedo van der Garde, which contained a lot of critical language about Red Bull’s handling of Lawson as well as an expression of support for Lawson, Verstappen made it pretty clear this action was a deliberate endorsement of the message as a whole.
“Well, I 'liked' the text, so... that speaks for itself, right?” he said, before adding when told the journalist in question just wanted to make sure: “It was not a mistake! I mean, it happens sometimes that you click on something…”
‘Our main issue is our car’
It is no secret that Verstappen has been dissatisfied with Red Bull’s car development in the last couple of years. At first he was concerned the team was not taking his feedback of specific limitations onboard, then that some members of the team did not recognise the severity of the situation.
Verstappen says that has changed since the second half of last season, but he was still pointing out as recently as China that Red Bull needed to improve where its car is weak - and to prioritise that over effectively blaming whoever his team-mate is for not doing a good enough job.
That was his message again in Japan. Asked by The Race if the team had taken enough accountability with its car performance issues, Verstappen said: “Well...I think our main issue is that our car is not where we want it to be.
“I think everyone knows that within the team as well. And that's what I focus on, to be honest.
“Because as soon as the car is more competitive and more driveable in general, then I think...even in the other car, the second car, it will come to you anyway a bit more naturally.”
Even with that in mind, Lawson was obviously further away than anybody expected or imagined. He scored no points in his two Red Bull weekends, Verstappen scored 36. And one of the reasons Red Bull made the change is to support its constructors’ championship prospects.
But on the subject of the importance of a strong second team-mate from a championship perspective, Verstappen said: “People have different opinions on that.
“For me personally, as soon as you are the dominant team, the leading car, that is way more important anyway because from there on you can control the outcome instead of relying on other people's outcomes.
“That's what we have to focus on. To try to get back up there.”
Red Bull presented its development plan to Verstappen last week in a meeting at the team’s UK factory. Asked by The Race if, based on that, he thinks the team can make the progress needed this season, Verstappen said: “Well, we're trying to have the performance of course coming this year still.
“If it's going to be enough to beat McLaren, very difficult to say, because the others are also improving, trying to find performance.
“It's not going to be that straightforward but I know that everyone is trying their very best to find more performance.”
Verstappen’s RB21 feedback
Verstappen was a bit more expansive when addressing the limitations of the RB21. Although he did slightly sidestep The Race’s question about whether he was sufficiently listened to on what needed to be improved on this year’s car.
“We are always actively discussing,” he said.
“Some issues are easier to solve than others and some are more difficult.
“Everyone is trying their hardest and their very best to make the car faster, at the end of the day.”
So what are those problems? Verstappen, with a bit of a smile, said it’s a combination of a lot of things including corner type, track surface, kerb usage, and the conditions.
“And in some tracks some bits are more limiting than others,” he said.
“It depends a lot on the track layout as well.”
The issues can also shift. A symptom of this has been the car visibly moving from entry instability to mid-corner understeer. And fixing one area biases the problem more to another so “it’s not easy to find the middle ground”.
Verstappen, as he points out, only knows Red Bull F1 cars, his only non-Red Bull experience being his F1 baptism at Toro Rosso in a bygone car regulations' era.
But he believes, compared to others, his current car is “a little bit more nervous” and “unstable in different corner phases, maybe”. And his theory for why that has been difficult for other drivers to handle is that is not the same as “maybe some of my team-mates have been used to before [at previous teams]”.
“Now some bits of course clearly are faster than where they came from,” Verstappen said.
“But to just piece it all together probably is a bit harder.”
One theory is that Red Bull, having chased peak downforce in previous years and tried to make the car more user-friendly this season, has simply not worked out where the sweet spot is compared to rivals and has got lost on its development.
Verstappen confirmed: “We are focusing on making the car more driveable. I don't think of course we are there yet - but we are working on it.
“Last week we had good meetings in the factory with everyone involved, to try and address the things that we want to address in the car, and find more balance, and of course at the end more pace.”
