Lawson’s demotion means he will be racing for Red Bull’s junior team Racing Bulls this weekend.
The 23-year-old New Zealander is certainly not the first to have experienced this at Red Bull, with the team having developed a reputation for being great for giving young talent a chance, but ruthless with a driver if they feel it isn’t working out.
In 2016, Daniil Kvyat was dropped after two high-profile crashes with then team-mate Sebastian Vettel at the Russian Grand Prix – the fourth race of the season.
Current world champion Max Verstappen, who was 18 at the time, was promoted to replace Kvyat and the Dutchman made an instant impression as he won the Spanish Grand Prix – his first race for Red Bull and one that made him the youngest winner in F1 history.
Verstappen went on to dominate the sport while Kvyat’s Formula 1 career never really recovered. He had a couple of seasons with Toro Rosso and AlphaTauri but has raced in different series’ since 2022.
Sergio Perez was Verstappen’s team-mate last season but endured a difficult run of form as he struggled with the RB20 and he was dropped by Red Bull at the end of the year.
“When I joined Red Bull, there had been great drivers who had struggled – Alex [Albon], Pierre [Gasly], they are fantastic drivers and they struggled,” Perez told F1.com, external
“For me, it was very simple, the car is just quite difficult to get 100% out of it, to get the confidence out of it – and the things I struggled with, even Adrian [Newey, the team’s former design chief] talked about them.”
Alguersuari knows all too well how tough the sport can be with all the pressure to perform, particularly at Red Bull.
He spent three seasons in F1 from 2009, mainly racing for Red Bull’s junior team Toro Rosso, where he scored 25 of the team’s 40 points in 2011 but lost his drive there at the end of that season.
“Red Bull as the ability to make you feel outside of your comfort zone, to make you doubt yourself,” Alguersuari added.
“Red Bull is a machine of destroying drivers because they have this mentality and philosophy of what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. So they always push and put pressure on you.
“Even at Toro Rosso they asked me to win a race or otherwise it was not good enough. You had this feeling of not being good enough all the time unless you are world champion.”
