Chris Medland: Formula 1 Journalist on the speculation over Liam Lawson's future with Red Bull Racing

Liam Lawson's future at Red Bull in Formula 1 remains gridlocked by speculation. 

Reports suggest Racing Bulls driver Yuki Tsunoda will swap with Lawson for the Japanese Grand Prix next weekend, joining defending world champion teammate Max Verstappen. 

Lawson's opportunities have been slim on unfamiliar tracks in a new car thus far, one of which was in the wet at Melbourne. 

Formula 1 Journalist Chris Medland told Mike Hosking Red Bull has likely decided to make a change before the situation becomes irreparable and damages Lawson’s confidence too much. 

From his point of view, they should have had the more experienced Tsunoda in instead, as he has nothing left to prove and whereas Lawson still has more learning to do. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
So it seems Liam Lawson's time and rid Ball is over.
Still nothing official this morning, but multiple reports have laws
in racing balls for Japan next weekend while Sonoda gets
the main seat. Formula One journalist Chris Midlands, Well, there's
Chris morning to you, Mike, Hey do I'm very well
on do two racers to be dump chows? There must
be panicing rid Bull the step and can't make it

(00:20):
go as fast as they want. They're not going to
get the constructors un list they get both cars moving.
Would that be about what's driving the decision making a
little bit?

Speaker 2 (00:28):
I think so yeah. I think they've they've probably seen
that Liam' struggling so much and someone who is a
young driver so in experienced, he only had eleven races
under his belt before getting that seat. I think they've
probably gone okay before it becomes even irrepairable for him
and hurts his confidence too much. Let's make a change.
And to be honest, from my point of view, it's
the decision they should have taken over the winter, where

(00:50):
they had Yuki Sonoda, who's much more experienced, ready to go,
and he's the one you could almost risk going through
something like this with because he had nothing left to prove,
whereas Liam still had a lot of learning to do.
So it's a really tough call on Liam, but hopefully
it gives him a chance to go into a car
that he knows well, where he an environment he's performed
well in, and he can rebuild from there.

Speaker 1 (01:09):
What are they going to do if Sonoda can't make
the car work because the car is too difficult to
make work.

Speaker 2 (01:15):
I wish I could give you the answer to that,
because the sensible question would be they'd look at themselves
finally and go, Okay, why is it that we can't
give two drivers a car that is that they can
drive well enough? Let's be honest. Max of Stappan is
an incredible talent, and then what he's doing is papering
over the cracks and finding a way of driving that
car in a way that most people can't. And that's
no slight on any other driver on the grid, but

(01:37):
that's just the standard that Max of stappens at. But
Red Bull have had problems with the second car for
five six years now. Really, Sergio Perez was highly experienced,
a proven race winner, and it all went wrong for
him last year and then they thought the way to
fix that was to put in someone with little experience
and say, go on, you do a better job, with
very little opportunity to prove himself. So it's always been

(01:59):
a source of frustr actually the way that they've not
made it work for both drivers over the last five
or six years, and Red Bull seemed to always blame
the driver. Hopefully if Uki also struggles, it will finally
mean that someone goes, Okay, this is not the driver's fault.
We need to change something ourselves.

Speaker 1 (02:14):
You I'm sure you've heard, but do you can you
confirm the ten million things from Honda? And is that
I mean, let's see if one isn't it at the
end of the day, But is that true.

Speaker 2 (02:23):
I'm not aware of that's true or not, to be
honest with you, And I'd actually be sort of surprised
if it was. It could go that way. But Honda
leaving Red Bull at the end of the season, they're
going to be partnering with Aston Martin. That relationship was
actually a bit sour, I think a couple of years
ago because Honda originally pulled out Red Bull started making
their own engine as a result, because Honda were leaving,
and then when the regulations changed for engines for next year,

(02:45):
Honda decided on the new ownership or new leadership that
they wanted to come back in and it kind of
dropped red Bull in it. So that wasn't a particularly
harmonious relationship anymore, and I think that's one of the
reasons Sonoda wasn't getting a chance. But now I think
they have seen, okay, like Liam's really struggling here. Do
we drag it out for a long time and kind
of see if he turns it around, but at what cost?

(03:07):
Or do we go with the more experienced driver we
have in our books right now? And as you say,
the timing works for him as a Japanese driver going
in ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix and see if
he does better. I still feel they should have made
that call at the start of the season. Then it
would have been far less damaging for everybody involved. But
here we are now.

Speaker 1 (03:24):
Great to have you on the program, Chris. We're talking
in Chris Middle and Formula one Journalism. For more from
the Mic Asking Breakfast, listen live to news talks. It'd
be from six am weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio,