Liam Lawson denies his confidence slumped after Red Bull axe
The New Zealander insists he is as confident about his abilities as ever despite being demoted by Red Bull.
Liam Lawson says a bruising two-race stint with Red Bull at the start of the 2025 Formula 1 season has had no negative impact on his confidence.
Lawson was given the nod to replace Sergio Perez at Red Bull’s flagship team this year, but his promotion from Racing Bulls quickly turned into a nightmare.
The Kiwi qualified 19th for the season-opener in Australia and crashed out of the main race in changing conditions on slick tyres.
Things only got worse in China, where practice running was severely limited due to the sprint format. Qualifying dead last on the grid, he finished the race 15th on the road, before a slew of penalties elevated him to 12th in the final reckoning.
Unimpressed by his slow adaptation to the tricky RB21, Red Bull brutally dropped him from the team before the Japanese Grand Prix, sending him back to Racing Bulls as part of a direct swap with Yuki Tsunoda.
While Lawson has previously admitted that this episode had not been easy on him, he denied that his lack of results in Australia and China were detrimental to his confidence as an F1 driver.
"Honestly, confidence-wise, nothing really changed from the start of the year," Lawson was quoted by Motorsport.com.
"I didn't spend anywhere near enough time [in the Red Bull] for me to reflect on those two races and go, 'Oh my god, I've really struggled in this car, I've lost my ability'.
"It wasn't really like that. I did two races that were two very messy weekends from a lot of factors, but I think confidence-wise that didn't really change.
"It's just been about getting used to a new car again, and the team, and trying to do all that as quickly as possible. I think that's really been where the focus is at. Confidence-wise I feel, honestly, as I always have."
Lawson has fared better at Racing Bulls since his return to the Faenza-based squad, although he hasn’t been quite a match to his rookie teammate Isack Hadjar, who finished a solid eighth in Japan.
The 23-year-old’s weekend in Bahrain was wrecked by his DRS shutting close on the back straight, an unintended consequence of his lifting his foot off the pedal after encountering wheelspin exiting Turn 10.
Lawson said he is focused on adapting to the VCARB 02 as quickly as possible, but admitted that warming up Pirelli’s 2025-spec tyres has proven to be a big challenge.
"To be honest, it feels like a little bit of a tricky year with tyres, with set-up," he explained. "I think warm-up, we've had very different conditions.
"We went from Japan being very cold to Bahrain being very hot and when you're trying to build the tyre up in the perfect way, that's a completely unique thing to work on, and you can't really simulate that in a simulator.
"You're faced with a lot more real-life conditions that you're not going to simulate, and this year that stuff that we maybe don't simulate has been more of a challenge than in past years.
"The car set-up itself, we can simulate that and I think we have that in a pretty good place, but it's really that other stuff that you can't actually really work on that can be quite difficult."
