Red Bull chose Lawson over Tsunoda, then gave the youngster just 2 weeks before bouncing him

CONCORD, N.C. (AP) — Liam Lawson pulled a nearly $100,000 Raptor pickup truck into the parking lot of the Ford Performance Center running a little bit late during his packed schedule of appearances as Red Bull’s newest Formula 1 driver.

“You know Ford ships that truck all over the country so that Liam has it to drive every time he’s in the U.S.?” said NASCAR driver Noah Gragson, his host for this portion of the January launch of Ford’s 2025 season.

Lawson’s schedule was thrown off because he didn’t have his laptop — he’d either left it in Europe or it had broken, one or the other — so he’d purchased one to pick up in North Carolina. What the 23-year-old New Zealander didn’t realize is he’d chosen a Best Buy store nearly an hour away from his events.

The large contingent of Red Bull Racing staffers on site got it all handled, but perhaps it was a small sign that Lawson wasn’t ready to make the switch from the junior team to teammates with four-time F1 champion Max Verstappen. Red Bull had bought Sergio Perez out of his contract when his performance cost the team last year’s lucrative constructors’ title, and Lawson won the second seat over Yuki Tsunoda and other proven veterans.

“We have to have a second driver scoring points every race. That’s the bottom line and we believe Liam is ready for the role,” Red Bull team principal Christian Horner told The Associated Press later that day.

Like Lawson, Horner had been flown to North Carolina by Ford for its glitzy season launch, and the two were feted on stage that night by none other than Ford Chairman Jim Farley.

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A little over two months later, the honeymoon era welcoming Lawson is over.

After opening the season with back-to-back subpar performances, he last week was officially replaced in the car by Tsunoda for this week’s Japanese Grand Prix. Lawson has been demoted to Tsunoda’s seat at junior team Racing Bulls. Lawson had qualified 18th at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix but crashed out of the race; in China he qualified last for both the sprint race and the main event, finishing 14th and 12th.

Horner tried to soften the decision.

“We have a duty of care to protect and develop Liam and, together, we see that after such a difficult start it makes sense to act quickly so Liam can gain experience as he continues his F1 career with Racing Bulls, an environment and a team he knows very well,” Horner said.

Days later, Red Bull adviser Helmut Marko put it in a much harsher light, saying the team “made a mistake” in choosing Lawson and accusing the youngster of lacking self confidence.

By the time Red Bull made the swap, Verstappen had competed in 188 races for Red Bull while Lawson had been given 173 hours in the car. The team didn’t even bother to let Lawson get to Japan — the first circuit this season he has any experience on — to see if familiarity would lead to improvement.

“We were worried that his self-confidence is so damaged that he couldn’t bring his normal performance,” Marko said. “And on the other hand, we have two drivers for the constructors’ championship but also to support Max strategy-wise, if you have two drivers top five or eight it is easier to max a strategy that favors the No. 1 driver.”

Verstappen, who can drive a setup that few others can handle, has repeatedly said that Lawson would do much better in the Racing Bulls car and show his true potential. The performance of the Red Bull car itself has dramatically fallen off during Verstappen’s run of four consecutive driver championships; if the car was easier to handle, Verstappen wondered, would Lawson have had an easier adjustment?

Lawson was Verstappen’s fourth teammate since Daniel Ricciardo left after the 2018 season. Pierre Gasly, Alexander Albon, Perez and now Lawson have all been bounced. With an alleged clause in his contract that would allow Verstappen to leave Red Bull at the end of this season, the organization had to do something to right the ship.

Dumping Lawson was fast and seen by some as cruel, maybe even an act of desperation. The team never found Tsunoda worthy of the seat next to Verstappen, picked a newcomer with little F1 experience instead, and only two races into the season has done a complete about-face.

Lawson, who probably had a good idea he was in dangerous territory after the opener, was notably crushed.

“Being a Red Bull Racing driver has been my dream since I was a kid, it’s what I’ve worked towards my whole life,” he wrote on social media. “I’m grateful for everything that’s brought me to this point. To every one of you who’s stood by me, thank you for all the support. It means the world.”

His shot to drive alongside Verstappen is likely gone forever and it was an opportunity he was looking forward to back in January when Ford trotted him out as one of the new faces of the racing brand.

“It’s a big responsibility,” Lawson said then. “Red Bull are trying to win the constructors’ championship so that’s the big focus from their side. And for me, coming in, that’s what my role is, to try to score points and achieve that for the team. If we’re doing that, then I am doing my job. They are putting a huge amount of pressure on me to deliver right away. The expectation is to support the team and help win the constructors. I’m expecting to score points every race and I’m expecting to be fast enough to do it.”

He was wrong. Red Bull was wrong, too. Now Lawson needs to figure out how to salvage his career.

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AP auto racing: https://apnewstodays.pages.dev/hub/auto-racing