{"id":364430,"date":"2025-12-22T11:39:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-22T11:39:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/364430\/"},"modified":"2025-12-22T11:39:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-22T11:39:12","slug":"verstappen-disagreed-with-red-bull-demoting-lawson-in-f1-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/364430\/","title":{"rendered":"Verstappen disagreed with Red Bull demoting Lawson in F1 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

Max Verstappen<\/a> disagreed with Red Bull\u2019s decision to demote his former team-mate Liam Lawson<\/a> just two rounds into the 2025 Formula 1 season.<\/p>\n

Lawson replaced Sergio Perez<\/a> at the Austrian outfit for this year after just 11 grands prix with sister squad Racing Bulls, but he failed to replicate the same form that earned the Kiwi a promotion.<\/p>\n

The 23-year-old suffered a Q1 elimination on his debut in Melbourne where he then crashed out of the race, before failing to score points in Shanghai after qualifying last for both the sprint and the grand prix.<\/p>\n

It prompted Red Bull to act quickly and replace Lawson with his former Racing Bulls stablemate Yuki Tsunoda<\/a>, who became Verstappen\u2019s fifth team-mate since Daniel Ricciardo<\/a> left in 2018.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cTwo races for a team-mate, of course I didn\u2019t agree with that at the time,\u201d Verstappen, who has won four world titles with Red Bull, told Viaplay.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause ultimately, someone is giving up their chance\u2026yes, then you\u2019re ruining [that chance] at a top team. I have to say that Liam has done well at Racing Bulls.<\/p>\n

\"Max <\/p>\n

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing, Liam Lawson, Red Bull Racing<\/p>\n

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool<\/p>\n

\u201cYou could also say, \u2018just leave it, I don\u2019t care anymore\u2019, but two races is far too early to make a decision. In the end, Yuki got in and that shows how difficult it was.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tsunoda performed just as terribly as Lawson though, only scoring 30 points across 22 rounds to finish 17th in the championship while Verstappen was runner-up to McLaren<\/a>\u2019s Lando Norris<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But Red Bull has long had second driver troubles since Ricciardo\u2019s shock exit, because Pierre Gasly<\/a>, Alex Albon<\/a>, Perez, Lawson and Tsunoda have all failed to match their supremely talented team-mate.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s partly why Red Bull failed to win the constructors\u2019 title in 2021 and 2024 when Verstappen became drivers\u2019 champion and why it slipped to third in this year\u2019s standings behind McLaren and Mercedes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

McLaren, who took back-to-back crowns, also has the opposite mindset to Red Bull because it gives equal treatment to Norris and Oscar Piastri<\/a>, even when they fought for the 2025 title.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Verstappen, however, still thinks Red Bull has the correct approach, but that it needs to be better executed with a strong second driver.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Max <\/p>\n

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB21, Lando Norris, McLaren MCL39, Oscar Piastri, McLaren MCL39<\/p>\n

Photo by: Clive Rose \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I were the team boss myself, I would always put a clear number one and two in place,\u201d added the 28-year-old.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBut of course, a number two who still scores enough points to compete for the constructors\u2019 title. But a clear number one and two.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Dutchman does have hope 2026 will bring a better situation when Isack Hadjar<\/a> becomes his team-mate, after a strong rookie campaign for Racing Bulls which included a Zandvoort podium.<\/p>\n

When asked about the 21-year-old coming in at the start of the new rules cycle, Verstappen said: \u201cYes, that\u2019s very different, of course. Also a new car, new regulations, so in that respect, I think it\u2019s the right time to step in.\u201d<\/p>\n

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– The Autosport.com Team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Max Verstappen disagreed with Red Bull\u2019s decision to demote his former team-mate Liam Lawson just two rounds into…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":364431,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,813,3352,825,806,805,803,804,946,85,198121],"class_list":{"0":"post-364430","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-motosport","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-formula-1","11":"tag-liam-lawson","12":"tag-max-verstappen","13":"tag-motor","14":"tag-motor-sports","15":"tag-motosport","16":"tag-motosports","17":"tag-red-bull-racing","18":"tag-sports","19":"tag-verstappen-disagreed-with-red-bull-demoting-lawson-in-f1-2025"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=364430"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364430\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/364431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=364430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=364430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=364430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}