Liam Lawson was demoted from Red Bull Racing down to junior team Racing Bulls just two races into the 2025 Formula 1 season with Christian Horner claiming the Kiwi had crumbled under the pressure

Christian Horner chose to drop Liam Lawson just two races into the 2025 F1 season(Image: Getty Images)

Liam Lawson insists he did not suffer a crisis of confidence during his extremely brief stint as a Red Bull Racing driver. The New Zealand driver was called up to partner Max Verstappen over the winter but survived for just two races before he was demoted back to sister squad Racing Bulls.

That decision came off the back of an extremely poor start to the season, in which the Kiwi failed to score a single point across two race weekends in Melbourne and Shanghai. Lawson was sent back down to the junior team with the more experienced Yuki Tsunoda called up to take his place.

But the Japanese has also struggled, scoring just seven points since being promoted to the top Red Bull squad with a best Grand Prix finish of ninth place. Regardless, former Red Bull team principal Christian Horner, who made the decision, felt it was the right call and claimed Lawson’s confidence had been destroyed by the pressure that comes with the seat.

He said: “It was something that was very clear to the engineering side within the team, just how much Liam was struggling with it all. You could see that weight upon his shoulders. The engineers were coming to me very concerned about it, and at the end of the day, I think it was the logical thing to do.

“Sometimes you’ve got to be cruel to be kind, and I think that in this instance, this is not the end for Liam. I was very clear with him, is that it’s a sample of two races. I think that we’ve asked too much of you too soon. We have to accept, I think we were asking too much of him too soon.

“So this is for him to, again, nurture that talent that we know that he has, back in the Racing Bulls seat, whilst giving Yuki the opportunity and looking to make use of the experience that he has. I think with everything that we saw in Australia and China, you could see that it was really affecting Liam quite badly.”

Lawson’s scoreless run continued after his return to Racing Bulls, but he has since found his feet. His sixth-placed finish in Austria at the end of June was his best in F1 and saw him leapfrog Tsunoda in the drivers’ standings.

And, in a new interview, the Kiwi said he did not feel he was given enough time to make an impression at Red Bull Racing, and denied any suggestion that his confidence had taken a hit from the experience. “Between the first couple of races, to the team switch, then going to Japan, mentally for me nothing changed,” he said.

Lawson has found his feet since returning to sister team Racing Bulls(Image: Getty Images)

“It’s been very heavily speculated that my confidence took a hit and stuff like this, which is completely false. From the start of the year, I felt the same as I always have. I think in two races, on tracks I’d never been to, it’s not really enough. Maybe six months into a season, if I’m still at that level, if the results are still like that, then I’d be feeling something – maybe my confidence would be taking a hit.

“I was well aware that those results weren’t good enough, but I was just focused on improving, fixing and learning, basically. I was in the same mindset as I have been since I came into F1. I think that was the biggest thing going into a team like that, in a car like that… It was going to take a bit of time to adjust and learn.

“With no proper testing, the issues in testing, the issues in Melbourne through practice – it wasn’t smooth and clean. I needed time, and I wasn’t given it. I haven’t really talked much about it, because I think for a big part of this year, I’ve just ignored everything that happened and I’ve just focused on trying to drive the car.

“But I know there was a lot of stuff that went out that was speculation about how I was feeling. My confidence hasn’t changed since the start of the year to now.”