Liam Lawson reflects on his two disastrous Red Bull races: 'Max Verstappen was not happy'

Liam Lawson has revealed that his brief stint with Red Bull's main team was doomed from the start due to a lack of preparation and wildly experimental adjustments to the car.

According to the current Racing Bulls driver, the 2025 car was nearly unmanageable – a fact that even left then-teammate Max Verstappen dissatisfied with the equipment.

The New Zealander took over from Sergio Perez from the start of 2025. However, after disappointing performances in both Australia and China, he was promptly sent back to the Faenza-based sister outfit after just two races.

Lawson explained on the High Performance podcast that he entered the season with a significant handicap.

“You can always do a better job. But we did really no testing. I did half a day in Jerez before the season, and even then, our Bahrain testing was very compromised as well. We had some issues, and I just went into the first weekend very unprepared.,” he admitted.

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Stumbling in Australia

Last season’s razor-thin margins in Formula 1 left little room for error. “If I was just three-tenths, or five-tenths, slower than Max, it was game over in Q1. Everything was so tight,” Lawson recalled, describing the fierce competitiveness of the 2025 season.

In Australia, the former Red Bull driver missed the third practice session in Melbourne due to an engine problem. “I went into qualifying without having warmed up on the soft tyres and ended up making mistakes – blocking, going off track. I made silly errors I normally wouldn’t commit.”

A radical China setup

The following race weekend in China featured a sprint at a circuit where Lawson had never before competed. Both he and Verstappen were struggling with the RB21.

“We had spoken about basically trying something quite wild on the car to get some comfort for me but also because the team at at the time collectively, we weren't happy at all with the car. Max wasn't happy. Everyone was like this is not working," Lawson recalled.

In a bid to find a solution, the team decided on Saturday evening to overhaul the car completely and have Lawson start from the pit lane. “so we decided 'let's start from the pit-lane and basically radically change a car.' We made a massive change, like a change you would never do on a race weekend. You know, like a normal change times 10,” he said.

The gamble backfired spectacularly, leaving Lawson in twelfth place. "So it was sort of proposed to me as a this is going to help you for the future, and this is going to give us a bit more of a direction. 'We're going to try this, right? You know, you start in last race, it's kind of done anyway. Let's just try something and this will help you.' And so, I ran it. It sucked for this race.

"Like, the car was so so hard to drive and just killed fronts [tyres] and and like basically destroyed our race. But honestly, I didn't care at the time because I was like, 'This is, you know, there's a reason we've done this.'”

The experiment was pitched as a test for future development, yet a future in the main team quickly evaporated. Following some simulator work back in the United Kingdom, the decision was made to axe Lawson after just two races dropping him to VARB.

Support from Verstappen

After his abrupt exit, Lawson was met with an outpouring of support from Verstappen, who privately disagreed with the team's decision – even going so far as to call it a panic move online.

Lawson had little time to process the shock, as he was immediately swapped with Yuki Tsunoda at Racing Bulls (previously known as VCARB) for the Japanese Grand Prix. “I literally had Japan the very next week, so there was no time for processing or reflection. I had to jump into a new role and get ready to give it my all, which made the whole experience even tougher,” Lawson concluded.

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Written by

Vincent Bruins - Redacteur GPFans NL

Vincent Bruins (29) is een Nederlandse Formule 1-redacteur met vier jaar ervaring in de F1-journalistiek. Hij heeft meer dan tien jaar ervaring als redacteur en content creator in de GT-racerij. Hij duikt graag in de technische en sportieve reglementen. Zo weet Vincent alle ins en outs op het gebied van bijvoorbeeld de techniek van F1-bolides en straffen. Tevens schrijft hij bij GPFans columns.

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