Liam Lawson: the head of the Red Bull Helmut Marko says the team “made a mistake” with their decision -making process

Lawson qualified 18th at the Australian Grand Prix who opened the season and crashed out of the race. In China last weekend, he qualified last both for the sprint and for the Grand Prix and closed at the 14th and 12th.

The world champion Verstappen was second to Melbourne and fourth in Shanghai. The next race is the Japanese Grand Prix, from 4 to 6 April.

Lawson, 23, admitted that he had found his “hard” demotion, but said he was enthusiastic about working with his former team racing bulls.

“Being a Red Bull Racing driver has been my dream since I was a child, that’s what I worked for my whole life,” he wrote on Instagram.

“I am grateful for everything that brought me to this point. Anyone of you has been next to me, thanks for all the support. It means the world.”

Marko said that Tsunoda, 24 years old, would have been given “at the end of the season” to Red Bull to test himself “because we believe it can do the job”.

When asked why the Japanese was the right driver now, when they had decided at the end of last season that Lawson was a better bet, Marko said: “Tsunoda took a big step. He is strange after four years, now in his fifth year, he is a much stronger personality, he has more confidence and has made two very good races, it is only his strategy that has not worked on racing bulls.

“In this case, a very difficult car experience is something that will help. Those were our thoughts.”

Marko said that Red Bull decided not to give Lawson another possibility to the Japanese Grand Prix, which is the first race this season that has been held on a circuit that Lawson experienced before, because “we were worried that his confidence in himself is so damaged that he could not bring his normal performance”.

He added: “And on the other hand we have two drivers for the manufacturers’ championship, but also to support Max Strategy Strategy, if you have two drivers the first five or eight, it is easier to maximize a strategy that favors the number one driver”.

Marko insisted that the exchange with Tsunoda was not “a demotion” for Lawson.

“He was not expelled from F1,” said Marko, “and Tori races will give him the opportunity to recover and his career will start again”.

Marko stressed the experience of drivers that Red Bull had previously dropped as proof that Lawson could reconstruct his career.

Marko said: “For the benefit for him, he returns to the racing bulls, who has a car capable of being the top 10 in qualifying and in the race.

“Just look in the past, it was (Pierre) Gasly, it happened the same, also ad (Alex) Albon and they recovered and now they are competitive drivers of F1.

“In addition, the RB21 is a car that is not the fastest car but nevertheless very difficult to drive and Max can manage but not at this phase Liam.”