Photo: AFP / NurPhoto
Motorsport expert Bob McMurray believes Red Bull are just as much to blame for New Zealand driver Liam Lawson's disappointing start to the Formula 1 championship.
A report out of the Netherlands said Lawson was set to be dumped by Red Bull and replaced by Yuki Tsunoda for next week's Japan Grand Prix.
Lawson failed to pick up any points in the first two rounds in Australia and China with the report saying he will move into Tsunoda's seat at sister-team Racing Bulls, the team he drove for at the end of the 2024.
"It is a particularly brutal response from Red Bull but the bottom line is he is too far away from (four-time world champion and team-mate) Max Verstappen," McMurray told RNZ.
"However I think he has been made a bit of a scapegoat for the failings of the Red Bull management and engineers to get a car into a window that he can drive."
Murray, who has worked in F1, said Lawson needed more time in the car and while the Red Bull car was always going to be tough to get used to, the 23-year-old Kiwi had to take the opportunity that was given to him.
"Obviously any driver would leap at it, but he has to be given the chance to get into the car and drive it properly."
The report in De Telegraaf suggested Lawson would be demoted to the junior team and McMurray said there were still positives for him.
"He can re-establish his confidence and his performance level (with Racing Bulls) and then he will showcase himself to other teams around the world."
McMurray said if the report was correct it was unlikely that Lawson would get back into Red Bull.
"But if Tsunoda fails, with all the money Honda have put in behind him to get him into that position, who is to say that they won't pick Liam up again because there are almost no other drivers that can do that job."
Liam Lawson of Red Bull Racing crashes during the Australian Formula One Grand Prix, 2025. Photo: PHOTOSPORT
McMurray believed Lawson could overcome this setback if in fact he was dropped by Red Bull.
"He is a very strong minded individual and if he can understand why they are doing it and why it is happening to him, then I don't think it will affect him that badly.
"Any person that is given a high powered job, be it a captain of industry or a race car driver, and two weeks later you're told to go, that doesn't do anybody any good, but Liam is a strong person and he can cope with being moved aside.
"Hopefully moved aside and not moved out all together."
Verstappen has had five team-mates at Red Bull since arriving at the team in 2016.
"Not every team is as cut-throat as Red Bull, you talk about a poisoned chalice of that seat and you add to that the great 'sword of Damocles' of Helmut Marko (Red Bull advisor) who flicks drivers in at a whim in that second seat then that is an issue.
"Teams being worth over a billion US dollars each and high money, high praise and high reward is what Formula 1 exists on and is oiled by significant money each weekend."
