Liam Lawson returns to Racing Bulls for this weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix after his remarkable demotion from Red Bull. Lawson only lasted two races alongside Max Verstappen.
Laurent Mekies’ squad have done their best to make him feel welcome. When he arrived in the paddock on Thursday, members of the team met him with a pit board that read ‘we missed you’.
On Wednesday, Lawson made his first official appearance since the announcement at a show run in Tokyo. 24 hours later, he appeared in the FIA press conference.
It was surely the most difficult moment of his racing career so far, but he handled it admirably. Rather than appearing dejected, Lawson almost seems more at ease now that he’s in a lower-pressure environment.
Indeed, the consensus is that Red Bull made a mistake with Lawson by promoting him too early. He’d only started 11 races when he was catapulted up the grid.
Liam Lawson missing from drivers banners Japanese Grand Prix
The first serious rumours that Lawson was at risk emerged midway through the Chinese GP weekend. He’d qualified last for both the Sprint and the main race.
However, while the change came to look increasingly inevitable, Red Bull didn’t officially confirm it until the Thursday after the race. That put Japanese Grand Prix organisers in a difficult position.
The result is that Lawson’s Red Bull headshots were still on display at the circuit and in the local area. There was a quick change to the team’s merchandise stand, but the New Zealander is absent from the banner adorning the back of the main grandstand.
Staff quickly had to pull down the Lawson and Yuki Tsunoda images after the driver swap. It’s an inescapably painful sight for the 23-year-old, but he must channel the hurt into motivation.
“With the late announcement of the change of drivers, it’s meant that a lot of this signage still has two drivers with the wrong race suits on,” F1 photographer Kym Illman explained on his YouTube channel. “There’s a fair chance that will be remedied by the time we get to Sunday.
“Certainly at the track yesterday, there was plenty going on to swap signage over. If you have a look at this Red Bull merchandise stand, for a while they had three drivers driving for Red Bull.
“This is a picture from the back of the main straight grandstand. I had expected these two holes to be filled. Yesterday, they were blank. But today, still blank – Yuki and Liam still missing.
“If those pics have been printed, to get them up there is no mean feat I imagine. Will we see them hear over the weekend? I’m going to say yes.”
Max Verstappen says nobody has mentioned one important thing about Liam Lawson
Generally, Red Bull fans think Lawson is ‘much happier’ at Racing Bulls, and he can take inspiration from some of his predecessors. Pierre Gasly has forged an excellent career in the midfield, while Alex Albon continues to impress at Williams.
Lawson returning to Red Bull hasn’t been ruled out if rebuilds successfully at the de facto junior team, but he must focus on the more immediate future. The fact of the matter is that he’s only signed a one-year deal and so he simply must beat new teammate Isack Hadjar.
Max Verstappen opposed Red Bull’s driver change, not because of any concern around Tsunoda, but more because he feared it was a distraction from their real problems. His dissatisfaction was clear during his media appearances on Thursday.
Quoted by Sky Sports F1, Verstappen pointed out that ‘people always say’ Lawson only made 11 appearances before joining Red Bull, but everyone forgets they were over two stints. That made it even more difficult, and perhaps he deserved more time to adapt.
Leave feedback about this