Liam Lawson probably faced one of the toughest moments of his F1 career in 2025, when he was abruptly replaced at Red Bull by Yuki Tsunoda after the Chinese Grand Prix. The New Zealand driver has now spilled the beans on the support that he received during that phase. 

Speaking on Sunday's episode of the "High Performance" podcast, Lawson revealed that Max Verstappen often checked in on him during his time as a reserve driver, until he got promoted, and even after his unceremonious demotion to Racing Bulls.

“When I went to Red Bull, he was very supportive," said Lawson. "I won't go into too much detail, but he was very, very supportive."

When a podcast host presented him with the fact that Max Verstappen had liked a couple of social media posts that condemned his demotion, Lawson replied:

"I spoke to a lot of people during that time, but I spoke to him about it, basically, and he was very supportive. I think I just really appreciated it. I think I was so excited not to go against him, but to be in a team with him, and to be able to have the opportunity to basically be in a car that's the same as him and just see everything that he does, and basically have a driving lesson from the best in the sport."

The 24-year-old New Zealand driver also stated that he is now grateful for what happened during that time. He feels that the experience has taught him to be resilient, which is crucial for an F1 driver, and to shut out external noise. 

However, there was one key aspect from that whole debacle that he strongly felt the need to clarify.

Liam Lawson dismisses false narrative about Red Bull demotion

After Liam Lawson was shifted back to Racing Bulls, Helmut Marko had said that Lawson’s performances were not up to the mark and suggested that the driver had lost his confidence following his mistakes.

Moreover, per PlanetF1, the then-team principal, Christian Horner, had said the team had a "duty of care to protect" Lawson. However, on the aforementioned podcast, Lawson pushed back against this narrative.

“The whole thing was played out to be me being mentally struggling and all this stuff, and like they were doing it to protect me. And honestly just could not be further from what it was actually like."

"At the time, like those two weekends I remember, there was a lot of talk about, okay, you know it's a hard time for him, he must be struggling mentally. I thought rather than me getting out there and saying, 'I'm totally fine', you know, and argue against it, I was like, you know, let me take my responsibility here and say I can do a better job, which is what I tried to do on those two weekends.”

Either way, it worked out for him, as he is still contracted with Racing Bulls, while Yuki Tsunoda is now a test and reserve driver for both Red Bull teams. 

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Written by

Aaradhya Singh

Edited by

Yash Kotak