Racing Bulls boss Laurent Mekies is adamant Liam Lawson‘s talent in Formula 1 hasn’t “disappeared” as he expressed surprise at how much he struggled at Red Bull.
Lawson’s stint with the senior Red Bull team proved to be short-lived as successive disastrous weekends prompted him to be demoted two rounds into the campaign.
The Kiwi crashed on his debut with Red Bull in Australia and matters improved little in China as he qualified with the slowest time and trailed home outside the points.
Red Bull chose to intervene and drop Lawson back to Racing Bulls prior to the Japanese Grand Prix in a direct swap with Yuki Tsunoda, who classified 12th at Suzuka.
Mekies has admitted that Lawson’s troubles to gel with Red Bull’s recalcitrant RB21 came as a shock based on how he had adapted in his spells with the sister squad.
“I think we were all surprised,” Mekies told media including Motorsport Week.
“Of course, I think nobody was expecting that he would be back of the grid for these two races.
“It was certainly a very tricky set of circumstances, but to tell you that any of us would have anticipated that would be a lie.
“That being said, with high confidence, we think that his talent did not disappear and we start back these adventures where we left it last year.”
Racing Bulls role in Red Bull driver decision
Mekies divulged that Racing Bulls had advised Red Bull’s top brass that both Lawson and Tsunoda had the capabilities to move up to replace the ousted Sergio Perez.
“Our job is to get to the end of the year, or sooner in some cases, and to put on the table one or two drivers which hopefully are of interest for our big brother,” he said.
“In the case of last season, we felt that was the case with both drivers.
“That’s what we presented to Christian, to Helmut, and to the wider Red Bull family — two drivers that are, according to us, able to step up into the bigger team.
“Then of course, the rest of the decision is completely up to them.”
Racing Bulls aiming to help Lawson rebuild
Mekies has reiterated that the onus is on Racing Bulls to provide Lawson with the environment that enables him to show the potential that landed him a Red Bull shot.
“Look, Liam is in a good place,” he added. “He’s in good spirits.
“I’m not going to tell you that he was happy about the news last week because certainly it was difficult to digest, but honestly, the next day he was with us in Faenza doing the seat fit.
“The day after he was back in the sim and here we are in Japan, so it’s good.
“He knows he has an important role to play with us in the battle we have in the midfield. He has a point to prove out there.
“We are all very conscious that his talent is there and it’s about finding the right conditions to extract it back out of him.”
READ MORE – Red Bull: Liam Lawson ‘was a round peg in a square hole’ during failed F1 stint
