Helmut Marko pinpoints reason behind Liam Lawson’s Red Bull downfall
Helmut Marko has waged his opinions on the exact reason behind Liam Lawson's disappointing Red Bull demotion.
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Liam Lawson and Helmut Marko (via Red Bull)
Liam Lawson faced an extremely disappointing fate for his Red Bull career after being axed from the team in just two races. The Austrian constructor had banked massive hopes on the Kiwi to consistently score points for the team, much like Max Verstappen. However, Milton Keynes’ lackluster challenger performance caught Lawson in the crossfire as he failed to perform well. Now, Helmut Marko has revealed the exact reason behind the 23-year-old early exit from the team.
Liam Lawson‘s dismal start to the 2025 season after starting both the races from P20 caused rumors of his demotion to RB opening up. Yuki Tsunoda received the highly coveted promotion to Red Bull after his impressive performances with the sister team. Max Verstappen had remained against the favor of writing off Lawson’s chances at Milton Keynes so early on.
Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko had previously mentioned that the promotion of Lawson over Tsunoda was a ‘mistake’ due to the former’s degrading form. Now, after the Kiwi failed to amass any notable results, Marko has once again fired shots at the Kiwi. The 81-year-old didn’t hesitate to claim that the debutant’s results were unfortunately not good enough to keep racing at Red Bull. The Austrian speculates that the 23-year-old’s failed stint with Milton Keynes was due to his ‘lack of self-confidence’.
His performance was unfortunately not good enough, and that comes from self-confidence.
Helmut Marko told BBC
Marko insisted that Lawson lost self-confidence since the beginning of the 2025 season at the Bahrain pre-testing. The 81-year-old guessed that the Kiwi couldn’t show off his real potential due to the said pressure. The Austrian emphasized that Red Bull was worried about the 23-year-old never being able to perform well if his confidence kept on deteriorating at Milton Keynes. Hence, this was the reason behind swapping the drivers two races into the season.
[Lawson] lost confidence, and he couldn’t show his real potential. We were worried that his self-confidence is so damaged that he couldn’t bring his normal performance.
Helmut Marko added
Helmut Marko reassures Liam Lawson ‘not kicked’ out of F1
Liam Lawson still has a shot at proving his worth to the team after being demoted to Racing Bulls (RB). Max Verstappen had already pointed out that Lawson would be better off at RB due to their car being easier to drive than the RB21. Now, the 23-year-old has the massive task of overcoming the hurdle in performance and start scoring consistent results with the Faenza-based outfit.
Helmut Marko reassures that Lawson isn’t completely out of Formula 1 yet as he has a chance of scoring well with RB. The 81-year-old believes that the sister team would give him the chance to recover his performance and start afresh. Moreover, Marko didn’t hesitate to acknowledge that RB’s car was capable of finishing in the top 10 during the qualifying and the race. Therefore, the Kiwi must put forth notable results in order to retain his seat in the pinnacle of motorsport.
He’s not kicked out of F1. Racing Bulls will give him the chance to recover, and his career will start again. For the benefit of him, he goes back to Racing Bulls, which has a car capable of being top 10 in qualifying and the race.
Helmut Marko noted
Helmut Marko claims only Max Verstappen can ‘handle’ the RB21
Max Verstappen has kept up with impressive performances after finishing in P2 and P4 in the first two races of the 2025 season. The Dutchman has remained critical of the car’s performance and even scheduled a meeting with the engineers at Milton Keynes to fix the issues. Regardless, the 27-year-old remains in contention for the championship after trailing Lando Norris by just eight points.
As such, Helmut Marko reckons that only Max Verstappen is capable of handling the RB21 well at this point. The Austrian accepted that the 2025 challenger was not the fastest on the grid as compared to the rivals. Subsequently, Marko highlighted that Lawson was unable to keep up with performances in the disappointing car which ultimately led to his early exit from the team.
On top of it, the RB21 is a car which is not the fastest car but nevertheless very difficult to drive and Max can handle, but not Liam at this stage.
Helmut Marko explained
Red Bull must now find massive areas for improvement on the RB21 chassis to help both Verstappen and Tsunoda score points. The rivals have remained at the top of their game and are clearly faster than Milton Keynes. Hence, time will tell about how the final year of the ground-effect era pans out for the Austrian constructor.
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