Formula 1: News and talking points ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix
Rising Kiwi star Liam Lawson has opened up on the ‘shock’ axing he never saw coming as Red Bull’s fears for the young driver are revealed in our talking points ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix.
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Kiwi Liam Lawson has opened up on his demotion to Racing Bulls, revealing the decision to eject him from his Red Bull seat after just two grand prix came as a “shock” and was “not something he saw coming”.
Speaking ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix, Lawson said the discussions he had been having with the team internally had not been “leaning” towards an early-season swap with Yuki Tsunoda despite the bruising start to the 2025 season.
Red Bull last week made the call to brutally drop Lawson after the opening two rounds in Australia and China.
The 23-year-old will return to race for junior team Racing Bulls from this weekend in Japan, while Tsunoda has been promoted to the Red Bull seat alongside world champion Max Verstappen.
Lawson endured a tough start to his first full-time season in F1, crashing out in the rain at the season-opening race in Melbourne and struggling in qualifying for each race as he battled to come to grips with the RB21
Despite his struggles, Lawson said the decision to drop him from the Red Bull seat had come as a surprise.
“It was definitely a shock, honestly. It’s not something that I saw coming,” Lawson told Sky Sports F1 in Tokyo.
“The discussion we were having as well, I think, weren’t really leaning in this direction, so it was definitely not something that I sort of expected.”
Red Bull has come under fire for its haste in making the driver switch after just two grand prix.
Sky Sports F1 commentator David Croft said Red Bull continued to make “wrong decisions” and needed to find a way to stop making “knee jerk reactions”, while ex Formula 1 racer Giedo van der Garde slammed Lawson’s demotion as a “bullying” or “panic move”.
Lawson initially got the nod for the Red Bull seat ahead of the more experienced Tsunoda to replace Mexican Sergio Perez, despite having just 11 Formula 1 races under his belt before the start of this year.
Asked if he had been frustrated at the lack of time he had been given, Lawson said:
“Honestly, yes. Obviously, I would have loved more time.
“And I felt like with more time, especially going to places that I’d been before … it was a tough start. We had a rocky testing. We had a rocky first weekend in Melbourne with practice. And then obviously China was a sprint.
“I think going to places that I’d been before with the way the car was quite tricky, I think that would have helped and I would have loved that opportunity.
“But obviously, it’s not my decision, so I’m here to make the most of this one.”
ENGINEERS’ CONCERNS
Red Bull team boss Christian Horner revealed the concerns from his engineers over how much Lawson had been struggling mentally with the focus on his form had played a major role in the decision to demote him.
Horner said his engineers had approached him with their concerns about how Lawson was handling the situation.
“I think with everything that we saw in Australia and China, you could see that it was really affecting Liam quite badly,” Horner told Sky Sports F1.
“We could have left it, and I think that Liam is a driver with talent. Maybe within half a season he would have got there, but we just don’t have that amount of time.
“It was something that was very clear to the engineering side within the team, just how much Liam was struggling with it all, and you could see that weight upon his shoulders.
“The engineers were coming to me very concerned about it, and at the end of the day, I think it was the logical thing to do.”
Describing the situation as “horrible”, Horner conceded the team had asked for “too much too soon” from Lawson.
“Of course, it’s horrible because you’re taking away someone’s dreams and aspirations, but sometimes you’ve got to be cruel to be kind, and I think that in this instance, this is not the end for Liam,” Horner said.
“I was very clear with him, is that it’s a sample of two races. I think that we’ve asked too much of you too soon.
“We have to accept, I think we were asking too much of him too soon. And this is for him to, again, nurture that talent that we know that he has, back in the Racing Bulls seat, whilst giving Yuki the opportunity and looking to make use of the experience that he has.”
TAME THE BULL
Tsunoda will become the fifth driver to sit in the Red Bull seat on the other side of the garage to Max Verstappen in the space of seven years, but he hopes his experience can help him succeed in what has regularly been described as the “hardest job in F1”.
The Japanese driver follows Pierre Gasly, Alex Albon, Sergio Perez and now Lawson in stepping into the seat alongside the four-time world champion, but Tsunoda believed his years with RB had him well-prepared for the challenge.
“It’s a bit unknown until I hit the track with him, but I’m sure it will be challenging, that’s for sure,” Tsunoda said.
“He’s the greatest driver in the world currently, and we all know that he’s good, but I just build up my pace, you know, and learn as much as possible to him.
“But a good advantage is, I already experienced five years in RB.”
SUZUKA SKIRMISH
So far, it’s a set-all in the McLaren intra-team battle between Australian star Oscar Piastri and championship leader Lando Norris.
The papaya squad has made the perfect start to the 2025 championship winning the opening two grand prix with Norris claiming the win in a rain-soaked season-opening race in Australia and Piastri taking the honours in an almost perfect weekend in China.
But who has the edge based on previous form in Japan heading into this weekend’s grand prix at Suzuka?
As Max Verstappen took the win for Red Bull at the circuit last year, Norris was the top McLaren, finishing fifth, while Piastri was eighth.
Norris also had the edge in qualifying, starting from third on the grid with Piastri sixth.
Just 10 points separates Piastri (fourth) from the championship-leading Norris and the battle between the papaya pair looms as one of the must-watch storylines of 2025.
Piastri’s stunning weekend in Shanghai led former Haas team boss Guenther Steiner to declare the Australian as his tip for the world title this year, but the Melbourne-born racer was aware he needed to keep delivering in every race.
“To arrive in Japan after a race win in China is a great feeling, but of course we’re aware that everything resets and we need to push again just as hard,” Piastri said.
“It’s still extremely close at the front so we need to deliver in every race.
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Originally published as Formula 1: News and talking points ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix
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