Red Bull reject had to stop commentating on F1 because it ‘pained him so thoroughly’ to watch his old rivals

Red Bull’s ruthless driver management is back in the spotlight after Liam Lawson’s demotion ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix. Lawson was given just two races before he was sent back to Racing Bulls.

In the long list of brutal driver calls from Christian Horner and Helmut Marko, this surely ranks near the top. Lawson suffered three Q1 exits, qualified last twice, crashed the car in Australia and didn’t score a single point, but he’d only completed around eight percent of the season.

Yuki Tsunoda has been promoted in his place, having had the longest stint on record at the junior team. The cruel irony for Lawson is that he returned to F1 at the expense of Daniel Ricciardo, who’s now unofficially retired.

Ricciardo, in turn, had made his comeback following the mid-season sacking of Nyck de Vries. And going further back, Pierre Gasly and Daniil Kvyat both lost drives before the summer break.

Jacques Villeneuve pointed out that Lawson got off lightly compared to Alex Albon, or even Sergio Perez, who ended up out of F1 altogether. Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen have become legends at Milton Keynes but many others have been ‘burned’, in the words of BBC Radio 5 Live’s Jennie Gow.

Jaime Alguersuari tried to be an analyst when Red Bull axed him – it was too hard

Speaking on The Chequered Flag podcast before the Japanese GP, Gow recalled her time working alongside Jaime Alguersuari. The Spaniard moved into an analyst role in 2012 after losing his Toro Rosso seat.

Alguersuari broke into F1 midway through the 2009 season, replacing Sebastien Bourdais. He held the seat full-time for 2010 and 2011 alongside Sebastien Buemi.

However, Marko ran out of patience with the duo at the end of the second year and opted for a wholesale change. Ricciardo and Jean-Eric Vergne arrived for 2012.

That prompted Alguersuari to pivot into the media. But he only lasted a year, with Gow suggesting he found it to be too painful to be a spectator.

“We worked with Jaime, he did the summariser job for a year,” she said. “It pained him so thoroughly, having to speak about his competitors, his rivals from a younger age, that it just wasn’t for him.

“He’s been burned, and a lot of those drivers going through that scheme have been burned.”

Helmut Marko’s brutal message to Jaime Alguersuari after showing him the door

Alguersuari remained active as a Pirelli test driver and later took part in GT Racing and Formula E. He’s now settled into a punditry role at the age of 35.

In a recent interview, Alguersuari said Red Bull ‘destroyed’ his life by handling his exit poorly. As late as December 2011, he fully expected to keep his drive.

The ever-abrupt Marko simply told him to ‘call HRT’, who were the slowest team in F1 at the time. But he’d already refused an offer from the more competitive Lotus.

Confirming Gow’s observations, Alguersuari said he felt ‘sick’ when he returned to the track. It was simply a reminder that he’d failed to achieve his dream.