Liam Lawson says the two race weekends he had in Red Bull’s car before being demoted to their second team wasn’t enough time to get used to it.
Red Bull demoted Lawson to their second team, Racing Bulls, and have promoted Yuki Tsunoda in his place from this weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix.
“Obviously I would have loved more time,” Lawson told Sky. His only two events at Red Bull came at venues where he had never previously raced. “I felt like [I needed] more time, especially going to places that I’d been before.”
Lawson, who made just 11 grand prix starts before moving to Red Bull, suffered some disruptions during his preparations for his first full F1 season. He covered fewer laps in testing than any driver bar Lance Stroll and was unable to participate in final practice for the Australian Grand Prix due to a power unit problem.
“It was a tough start,” he said. “We had a rocky testing, we had a rocky first weekend in Melbourne with practice and then obviously China was a sprint [weekend, with only one practice session].
“I think going to place that I’ve been before, with the way the car was quite tricky, I think that would’ve helped and I would have loved that opportunity. But obviously it’s not my decision so I’m here to make the most this one.”
He believes he could have got used to the car had he had more time in it. “The car is hard to drive, but we were going through a process of making that adjustment,” he said. “For me it’s honestly time.
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“With the way that the weekends went: In Formula 1, in a pre-season test you’re driving all day and you have loads of time to adjust and things like that. I think honestly a lack of time in the car is really the biggest thing for me.
“It made it hard to adjust, it felt like each session we were going out we were adjusting or getting used to something, it was a little bit unknown. So for me it’s not so much a driving style or something like that, it’s just literally adjusting and for me I just didn’t have the time to do that.”
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2025 Japanese Grand Prix
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