Max Verstappen did something after Liam Lawson’s demotion that was ‘painful’ for Red Bull, ‘makes no sense…’

Red Bull Racing benefited from years of stability to help Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen become four-time world champions.

Team principal Christian Horner and chief advisor Helmut Marko have led a team from Formula 1’s midfield when they took over from Jaguar in 2005, to regular championship contenders.

Vettel and Verstappen were the two special talents on the track that made the team’s dreams come true, but the work that the likes of Adrian Newey, Rob Marshall and Jonathan Wheatley can’t be underestimated either.

However, that trio have all now moved on, and Verstappen no longer has any consistency on the other side of the garage.

Yuki Tsunoda will be his third different teammate in the past four race weekends at the Japanese Grand Prix.

Liam Lawson couldn’t handle the RB21 during his two Grand Prix with the team and now has to try and recover his career at Racing Bulls.

Verstappen wasn’t happy with Red Bull’s reasoning for dropping Lawson, and Horner now finds himself in a predicament where if the 27-year-old becomes too unsettled, the final remaining piece of the puzzle that delivered his team so much success may also depart.

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Max Verstappen liking post about Liam Lawson decision ‘painful’ for Red Bull

Dutch commentator and journalist Nelson Valkenburg was speaking on The Race F1 Podcast about Verstappen and his attitude towards the start of the season at Red Bull.

He explained: “I don’t think he gets in his plane to go to a Grand Prix with the idea, I’m going to finish fourth, but I did the best I could. I don’t think that appeals to him whatsoever.

“He wants to win. He wants to dominate. He wants to lead by 20, 25 seconds.

“And if he has the odd race like in Brazil last year, then that will satisfy that. But that’s not the season he has.

“And for the foreseeable future, he’s not going to have it. But seeing what kind of changes can you put in? Who is available over the past two, three years?

“So many big names have left Red Bull that it almost feels like a junior team again. There’s so many new faces.

“And the fact that they changed Lawson for Yuki Tsunoda, it just makes no sense. And I believe it also makes no sense to Max Verstappen.

“And Scott [Mitchell-Malm] you pointed this out to me yesterday, is that we’ve had a very large and actually well-balanced post from former F1 driver Giedo van der Garde, a Viaplay contributor and an analyst.

“And one of the first people who liked it was Max, and that was a little bit painful.”

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Yuki Tsunoda making confident noises ahead of his Red Bull debut at the Japanese Grand Prix

Lawson is a very capable driver, but with limited experience, he was dropped into a situation where the odds were always stacked against him.

Pre-season testing didn’t go smoothly for Lawson or Red Bull as he missed out on hours of running, and the car was proving difficult to handle, with plenty of changes made on the final day for Verstappen to test.

Announcing that @yukitsunoda07 will partner Max from the #JapaneseGP 🇯🇵 pic.twitter.com/Pz05P7cFKF

— Oracle Red Bull Racing (@redbullracing) March 27, 2025

Lawson headed to a brand new circuit in Melbourne in some of the most difficult conditions an F1 driver can face, and wasn’t the only person to make a race-ending mistake in the rain.

Dropping him so quickly hasn’t gone down well with Verstappen, but Tsunoda is already making positive noises after spending time in Red Bull’s simulator.

Whether that translates into performance in Suzuka is another matter, but Red Bull will be desperate for Tsunoda to live up to expectations after years of overlooking the 24-year-old.