Red Bull boss Christian Horner says the team will decide on Liam Lawson’s Formula 1 future before the Japanese Grand Prix – with an immediate change not off the table.
As revealed on Saturday by The Race, Lawson’s future with Red Bull has been put in jeopardy by a disastrous start to the season.
He qualified last in both qualifying sessions at the Chinese Grand Prix, and was barely better in Australia as he managed just 18th on the grid.
There had been hope that set-up changes made to his car for the Shanghai race would offer an opportunity for him to unleash more speed, but he endured a tough afternoon as he came home 15th on the road after starting from the pitlane.
Red Bull’s options
Lawson’s failure to make an impression has left Red Bull aware that it needs to make a call on where things go from here – with various options believed to be on the table.
One is to elect to stick with Lawson for the next race in Japan and see if his knowledge of that track allows him to show his capabilities more.
However, Red Bull could conclude that it is better, off the back of the confidence-sapping situation the New Zealander finds himself in, to make an immediate change.
Such a call could be prompted by the squad feeling that a move to potentially swap Lawson with Racing Bulls’ Yuki Tsunoda would relieve the pressure on him before it became too much.
Should Red Bull overlook Tsunoda again, his Racing Bulls team-mate Isack Hadjar could be another option, as would those drivers without a 2025 race seat who are chasing a return to the grid.
While Horner is clear no decision has been taken yet, he did say after the Chinese GP that the squad needed to spend time in the gap before the next race to work out what it was going to do on the driver front.
“There's always going to be speculation in the paddock,” he said when asked about the possibility of a driver change.
“We've only just finished the race here. We'll take away the info and have a good look at it.
Pushed on whether or not it was possible that Lawson would be out for Japan, Horner replied: “Look, I think everything is purely speculative at the moment.
“As I said, we've just finished this race, we're going to take the info and have a good look at it.”
Duty to Lawson
Horner said that one of the key considerations for the team was doing what was best for Lawson – and that could mean removing him from the pressure environment of Red Bull.
“Look, he's a young guy, we've got a duty to look after him,” he said. “We're going to do the best that we can to support him.
“Liam is still a very capable driver, we're just not seeing it for whatever reason, not seeing him able to deliver that at the moment.
“I think Liam still has got potential. We're just not realising that at the moment.
"I think the problem for him is he's had a couple of really tough weekends, he's got all the media on his back, and a whole bunch of pressure just naturally grows in this business. I feel very sorry for him."
Lawson readily admits that he is struggling to get comfortable in the RB21, and that his situation was not an easy one to cope with.
“It's obviously extremely tough,” he said. “It's not something I'm enjoying, but I'm honestly working as hard as I can to get on top of it.”
And while clarifying that remarks he has made this weekend about not having time to work on improvements were more related to being in-season rather than in reference to losing his seat, he was in no doubt about the tough spot he found himself in.
“It's more, as in, we're in the season,” he said. “I don't have time to test the car and get used to it, but we're in the season already. So each race, we're losing points. That's more or less what I mean when I don't have time.
“But I'm also not stupid, and I know that obviously I'm here to perform, and if I'm not doing that, I'm not going to be around. So for me, I'm just focused on getting used to the car as quickly as I can.”
Lawson said it would be foolish to suggest that Red Bull was satisfied with how things were going.
“It’s safe to say that we're not happy. None of us are happy,” he said.
And when asked about if he was worried about Tsunoda being up for taking his Red Bull seat for Japan, Lawson said: “Not really. He can honestly say whatever he wants.
“I mean, I've raced for years, raced in junior categories and beat him and I did in F1 as well. So he can say whatever he wants.”
