Former Red Bull driver speaks out over 'unfair' F1 seat decision

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Former Red Bull driver speaks out over 'unfair' F1 seat decision

Red Bull have become synonymous with somewhat premature F1 driver swaps in recent seasons

By Kerry Violet.

Friday 26 June 2026 21:00

A former Red Bull driver has criticized the team's handling of its driver lineup, insisting he was treated unfairly after losing his place within the Milton Keynes outfit.

Since Sergio Perez departed at the end of the 2024 season, Red Bull has continued to search for the ideal teammate to partner four-time world champion Max Verstappen, rotating multiple drivers through the second seat.

For the 2026 campaign, rookie Isack Hadjar has been handed the opportunity alongside Verstappen and has made a promising start, sitting just two places behind the Dutchman in the drivers' championship despite the immense pressure that comes with racing for Red Bull.

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But before Hadjar, Red Bull tried out two drivers in the second seat within one season, only allowing New Zealander Liam Lawson two race weekends before demoting him to Racing Bulls and handing the full-time opportunity to Yuki Tsunoda.

At the end of the 2025 championship, Tsunoda was dropped and is now without a full-time contract, whereas Lawson has remained at Racing Bulls where he appears to be much more settled.

Lawson refuses to accept unfair Red Bull F1 judgement

"I was like 'what? If you told me before the race, 'ok, we're gonna run this crazy car for your last race in a Red Bull, or we're gonna run the setup that you've run all weekend,' what do you think I would have said?'

"So it was just kind of like that."

Many feel the Kiwi racer suffered an unfair run at Red Bull, especially considering he has since confirmed that the team were experimenting with wild adjustments to the car during the Chinese GP, a gamble which did not pay off for the Milton Keynes-based team that weekend, or for Lawson's career as a whole.

Touching on the impact the swift decision to demote him had on him, Lawson added: "At the time was like a really hard thing to deal with, but then I had Japan literally the next week or the week after, so I just didn't have time to compress or think about any of this, and I had to then go to VCARB and just try and do the best, prepare and do the best job possible.

"But it made that whole experience quite, quite tough.

"The two performances were used against me, which, regardless of the two races, whatever you know, in any case, two races on two tracks I've never been to in a season like that, like I won't accept that you can judge me off that, it's such a team game, so everybody is working together, and that was just obviously not what I felt when that happened."

F1 Red Bull Liam Lawson Racing Bulls