Liam Lawson’s confidence suggests his Formula One future could still be bright

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As Liam Lawson walked into the Formula One paddock at Suzuka Circuit, a heartfelt welcome from Racing Bulls awaited him.

Written on the pit board was “we missed you,” while several team members, including team principal Laurent Mekies, greeted the New Zealand driver on his return to the team he had initially left in the winter. Lawson put his hands to his mouth as he saw the sign, later thanking the crew for welcoming him back.

It marked yet another surprise for the 23-year-old since last month’s Chinese Grand Prix weekend, though this was more wholesome than his demotion to Racing Bulls after Red Bull opted to swap Lawson for Yuki Tsunoda.

Lawson pictured in the paddock with his team ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix. (Clive Rose / Getty Images)

Speaking to reporters ahead of this weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix, Lawson discussed how he received a phone call about the driver swap in the days after the race in Shanghai, the decision being made after the Chinese Grand Prix by senior management and shareholders. “It was more of a done deal,” he said.

“I was more surprised,” Lawson later said, opening up about his reaction. “It’s very early in the season and I would say I was hoping to go to a track that I’d raced before and have a clean weekend, to have a chance like that.

“I have the opportunity to still be in Formula One and still racing and that is the main thing for me,” he added.

Lawson has only spent two race weekends away from the Faenza-based team, competing for Red Bull alongside Max Verstappen during the Australian and Chinese grands prix. In two Sunday races and a sprint race, he didn’t come close to Verstappen’s performances, the average qualifying gap between the two sitting at 0.880 seconds after Australia and both China qualifying sessions.

There were factors outside of his control that created the not-so-smooth weekends. Australia was a wet race and he lost time during preseason testing due to a water leak. But that is part of motorsports.

“We have issues. That’s part of (it), especially with these cars that are pushing the limits like they are,” Lawson said. “I think I’d maybe hoped that would be taken into consideration more, and I think that’s why, for me, it was important to come to a place that I’d raced before and driven before.”

In explaining the driver swap, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said in a news release that the team had a “duty of care to protect and develop” Lawson, calling the move a “sporting decision.” Speaking to broadcaster Sky Sports F1 ahead of this weekend’s race, Horner said Red Bull’s engineers were concerned about Lawson. “You could see that weight upon his shoulders,” Horner said.

Asked whether the demotion was in his best interests or whether it had damaged his confidence, Lawson’s response reflected a self-assured attitude as he continued to navigate the tricky topic. By contrast, his responses to other questions were mixed with “uh” and “uhm.”

“Confidence-wise, it doesn’t change a lot. We all have enough self belief to be here, to make it to Formula One and to be in the sport,” Lawson replied. “If you don’t have that self belief, it makes it very, very difficult. So I think we all have that naturally. It doesn’t really change how I feel about myself.”

“Christian and the team will have their opinions on what’s best and that’s up to them to decide,” he added.

Lawson pictured during Thursday’s news conference ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix (Clive Rose/Getty Images)

This isn’t the first time Red Bull has swapped drivers with its sister team, Racing Bulls. Pierre Gasly found himself in a similar situation in 2019 when he was demoted to Toro Rosso after 12 races. The Frenchman won his first F1 grand prix in 2020 and left the sister team when it was known as AlphaTauri to join Alpine in 2023, proving a career can be revived.

However, Lawson said he felt it would have been in his best interest to make the Red Bull Racing opportunity work. He joined the junior program at 16 years old, his sights set on joining the senior team. He went through the junior categories, including racing in Super Formula (which is largely held in Japan), and served as the team’s reserve driver, doing stints with the sister team when Daniel Ricciardo got injured in 2023 before replacing the Australian driver late last season.

On Thursday, Lawson shared that he only had a day or two to process the demotion before flying to Italy to do a seat fitting with Racing Bulls and prepare for Suzuka.

It remains to be seen how he will click with the car, though he didn’t “think too much has changed” compared to last season and said he felt confident. Though he has been in the simulator, FP1 “will be the first proper test,” he said. He will also have a different race engineer compared to his previous stints, now working with Tsunoda’s former race engineer, Ernesto Desiderio.

Lawson may have only had 11 grands prix under his belt heading into 2025, but he said he had felt ready to make that jump to Red Bull. That remained unchanged despite how this season started. But can he return to Red Bull?

“Whatever happens down the line is more or less out of my control,” Lawson said. “What I can control is the driving stuff to prove that. So, yeah, where the future goes, honestly, at this point, I’m not really thinking about too much.”

(Top photo: Clive Rose/Getty Images)

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