Thomas Maher: Formula 1 Journalist on Liam Lawson's demotion from Red Bull Racing

Liam Lawson has officially been demoted from the Red Bull Formula One team.  

He lasted two Grands Prix before management decided to replace him with Japanese driver Yuki Tsunoda for his home event next weekend at Suzuka.  

The switch confirms widespread speculation of a new partner for defending champion Max Verstappen. 

F1 Journalist Thomas Maher told Andrew Dickens that this is a risk for Red Bull, as if Lawson does well in the Racing Bulls car, the blame for his struggles in the big leagues will fall back onto the car. 

He says Yuki Tsunoda is a known quantity when it comes to racing, so answers about whether the car is to blame will be gained very quickly.  

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Fits official Liam Lawson has been dropped by Red Bull.

(00:02):
It was announced overnight that Yuki Sonoda will replace him
as Max for Stefan's teammates, but Liam will still be
racing in the Racing Ball Team. Our team boss Christian
Horne says, this is a purely sporting decision and there's
a duty of care to protect and develop Lawson. FORMU
one editor and journalist at plentatif one dot com is
Thomas Ma who joins you now, good morning to you, Thomas, Oh.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
Good morning. How are you no? Thanks for having me on.

Speaker 1 (00:28):
Well, I'm in New Zealand and obviously I'm outraged at
this decision. And I get the feeling that Red bulls
running around like chickens without a head.

Speaker 2 (00:37):
It is a little bit of a chaotic situation. I
think that's developed over the last couple of weeks. From
speaking to sources on both sides of the story over
the last twenty four hours, the feeling very much is
that it was just a little bit too much too
soon for Lim in appointing him at Red Bull, and
that's the safest thing to do to protect Lim and

(00:59):
to look after basically his future, his mentality, his mindset,
his competitiveness for the future is to drop him back
into the Racing Bull seat and give the Red Bull
seat to someone a little bit more experienced. On that
man then is Yuki Sonoda. Lim obviously struggled a little
bit for performance over the two opening weekends of the

(01:24):
twenty twenty five Championship in Australia and China, and it
was a little bit panic stations, I think at Red
Bull because there was nothing to suggest that that Lim
was going to be able to turn it around in
the short term. So for those reasons, as I said,
the decision has been taken to protect Lim and from
speaking to two members of Lawson's camp, the feeling in

(01:47):
the camp is that this is the right move, that
they're welcoming the decision and the possibility of, you know,
protecting Lawson's future and his mindset for the future.

Speaker 1 (01:57):
It's a big risk guy by Christian Juna because of course,
if Liam gets into the racing Bulka races at Suzuka
Trekking nows very very well and then blitzes Yuki, then
finally the blame will come back not on the driver
but on the.

Speaker 2 (02:12):
Car very much so. And Lim has been open about
the fact that the Red Bull Lub twenty one has
been a very difficult car for him to drive. And
I think what we've seen over the last couple of
years is that, you know, the car alongside Max Verstappen
has traditionally struggled for competitiveness, and Lim is no different
in that regard. He's jumped in the car, he has

(02:34):
struggled to adjust immediately. Some of that seems to be
on his side, some of it seems to be on
the car side. And I think we're going to get
answered very quickly on this because Yuki Sinoda is a
known quantity. Granted he hasn't got the experience with this
exact car, but Yuki is an established member of the

(02:54):
upper midfield. So if he suddenly jumps into the car
and qualifies, you know, eighteen twenties, as we've seen with Lim,
it seems it would seem to be pretty definitive that
the car is the bigger issue and not so much
the driver. But if Yuki you know, jumps in the
car and all of a sudden it is making it
into Q three and does pretty well, then that suggests

(03:16):
it is more driver. So it is going to be
very interesting to see what happens at Suzuka, because I
don't think there's anywhere to hide for either Red Bull
or you gets to know that at this point.

Speaker 1 (03:27):
Yes, absolutely, Thomas matra I, thank you so much for
your time journalistic Planet if one dot com. For more
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