Lewis Hamilton breaks silence on Liam Lawson’s BRUTAL Red Bull axing

Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton has given a strong take on Red Bull’s decision to swap Liam Lawson and Yuki Tsunoda after just two races in 2025.

Lewis Hamilton breaks silence on Liam Lawson’s BRUTAL Red Bull axing

Lewis Hamilton and Liam Lawson (Via IMAGO)

The Formula One grid was shocked when it was announced soon after the Chinese GP that Red Bull has decided to demote Liam Lawson to Racing Bulls (VCARB) just after two races in the 2025 season. Yuki Tsunoda was given his promotion to the senior team, and he is set to make his debut at his home race, the Japanese Grand Prix.

Liam Lawson’s form in the first two races was abysmal, as he failed to make it out of Q3 and couldn’t even crack into the top 10. Though issues with the car played a significant role in it, the driver was blamed for the poor performance as well. Seven times champion Lewis Hamilton shared his thoughts on the dram during the media session and admitted that he isn’t surprised with the decision.

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I am not surprised to see [it from] them [Red Bull]. I don’t really have any views on it. Both are great drivers. I think we have got a lot of really great drivers here, particularly young, talented drivers. I think there’s naturally a lot of pressure on youngsters coming in.

Lewis Hamilton said ahead of Japanese GP.

He seems to have already expected the demotion, considering Red Bull’s past and the pressure the young drives are in at the team. Hamilton believes it was a harsh decision from the team, as the Kiwi racer was given just two races to prove himself at tracks, he has no experience in and with a car that is tough to master, even for the veterans.

There is no way you can fully get on top of a car which is known to not be the easiest car to drive. Just to give him two races is pretty harsh.

Lewis Hamilton added.

Max Verstappen gave the perfect reason for Liam Lawson’s struggle

Liam Lawson’s now ex-teammate Max Verstappen wasn’t impressed with the sudden teammate change and he didn’t hessite to share his frustration with subtle social media activities, including liking a Instagram post criticizing Red Bull. He was careful with his words regarding the driver swap in the media session and refused to give direct statements on it.

Liam Lawson and Max Verstappen (Via Red Bull)
Liam Lawson and Max Verstappen (Via Red Bull)

But the four times champion did highlight how it is pretty hard for the rookies to learn at the beginning of the season. He believes that the busy schedule they at the moment, alongside the huge pressure, and lack of experience on tracks makes it harder for the new comers to immediately start proving their worth.

I think for rookies, always at the beginning of the season, you have the calendar nowadays, and F1 is very tough. Because most of the tracks, they haven’t really driven on, or they maybe have a sprint weekend. So, all these scenarios, they don’t help.

Max Verstappen said.

Almost everyone in the motorsports racing community sees the Red Bull decision as brutal and too early, as they believe Lawson deserved more time to learn driving the challenger. It will be interesting to see how Yuki Tsunoda will perform on Lawson car and will he be able to prove, Red Bull made the right call.