One of Liam Lawson’s backers has made a stunningly punchy assessment of the New Zealander’s troubled Formula 1 spell at Red Bull.
Lawson is approaching his first weekend of the 2025 F1 campaign with Racing Bulls, having been stripped of his Red Bull Racing duties after just two Grands Prix.
Those two outings saw him score zero points and fail to escape Q1 in qualifying, with two P20 results in Sprint and GP qualifying at the Shanghai International Circuit a particularly low point.
Lawson cut a dejected figure in the China paddock as he fruitlessly searched for answers behind his deficit to Max Verstappen, but Red Bull has since spared further blushes by swapping him wth Yuki Tsunoda.
Tony Quinn was a major backer of Lawson throughout his rise to F1 through his eponymous foundation, and believes returning to Racing Bulls is the best thing for the 23-year-old.
“I actually think it’ll be good for him,” Quinn told Speedcafe.
“Carrying on for another event, and if it didn’t work out well, it would be worse for him, I think he’d be f***ing near suicidal, to be quite honest.”
Quinn added to his brutal honesty in saying “Let’s not give up hope on him.
“He’s definitely got the talent, he just needs to have a reboot, and once he gets on the road again, he’ll be fine.”
That’s the growing sentiment from all parties in and outside of Red Bull, and it wouldn’t be surprising to see Lawson pick up where he left off with Racing Bulls in 2024 and return to making strong showings.
Red Bull gig harder than Lawson first thought
Red Bull signed Lawson on the proviso that his potential would help him through the toughest gig in F1, being Verstappen’s team-mate.
However, that didn’t come to pass with Quinn saying, “It’s been a lot harder than I think he thought it would be”
Quinn added that this came as a surprise, with all signs showing to be positive ahead of Lawson’s Red Bull debut in Australia.
“All the testing that he’s done and the simulator stuff was pointing in a very positive direction,” he said.
Lawson’s demotion is the swiftest enacted during Red Bull’s history, which is littered with driver swaps.
Quinn explained that it was his understanding that Lawson would have been granted an outing in Japan to porve his worth before a decision was made, which could have proved pivotal given his Super Formula experience at Suzuka.
“The feel was that, if he didn’t improve by Japan, because in theory Japan should be good, that he would be replaced with Tsunoda,” Quinn said.
“That was the early talk, and that’s obviously what’s happened. But it’s happened an event before we thought.”
No doubt a painful experience to endure, Quinn has no doubt Lawson would have had huge support following the announcement.
“He would have been getting a phone call every hour with support, meaningful support,” he said.
“I’m a bit like an old-fashioned headmaster; I’ll f***ing praise you when you do something well, and I’ll rage when you don’t do anything great.
“It’s not the time to f***ing rage at Liam right now. I think he just needs a bit of support along the way.
“Obviously, I’d be there if I was needed for whatever reason because I do think he’s very talented.”
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