Red Bull clips your wings.

People get sacked all the time in sport. It’s a performance based industry and if you don’t get results then there are plenty of others waiting to show that they can.  So why has Red Bull Racing demoting Liam Lawson caused such a stir?

I discussed the possibility of it happening in my last Substack. I’m not a clairvoyant but straight after the Chinese Grand Prix the rumours grew with intensity. Since it was announced, it has been met with shock and anger.

I predicted that the sacking of Lawson, after just two Grand Prix, would be reframed by Red Bull bosses as ‘putting an arm round him and letting him rebuild his career at RB’ and that’s exactly what has happened.

The racing advisor to Red Bull, Dr Helmut Marko said this week on Radio 5  Live “He's not kicked out of Formula 1; we are in an extraordinary position to have two Formula 1 teams and with Racing Bulls, they will give him the chance to recover and his career can start again.”

Of course, this is correct but I do wonder if the Japanese Grand Prix had still been in its former spot in October and not next weekend, whether they might have persevered with Lawson for  a couple of races more before they threw in Yuki Tsunoda.

It’s not the first time this has happened at RBR. Pierre Gasly and Alex Albon were demoted after 12 races and 26 races respectively. They have both remained in the sport unlike Daniil Kvyat who made way for Max Verstappen. Good foresight from Red Bull you could argue, but the Russian’s F1 career never recovered after he was demoted back to Toro Rosso.

But this season the Red Bull sister team, now called RB or Racing Bulls, seem to have a decent car. Rookie Isack Hadjar and Tsunoda have qualified well, even if the race results have been less impressive. So what will happen after Suzuka if Lawson in the RB outqualifies Tsunoda in the Red Bull and beats him on race day? The answer is nothing. Red Bull can’t afford any more backtracking or embarrassment so the Japanese driver will stay until the end of season but I’d be interested to see how they handle it.

The current and 4 x world champion Max Verstappen is not happy with how Red Bull has dealt with this. He liked a social media post which described the situation as a “panic move” and Helmut Marko has said publicly that the Dutchman isn’t pleased.

Lawson hasn’t performed, not just by Red Bull standards, but he’s been far off from what he produced when standing in last season after Daniel Ricciardo was sacked. Qualifying 20th and last twice in China was baffling. But normal procedure would be to make a gesture; let him come back after two long haul races and spend time on the sim, get his head together, support him and give him another chance. Two race weekends at two tracks he had never driven on doesn’t seem enough time to evaluate his suitability for the team. In fact,  his suitability had been evaluated and given the green light by the same people who booted him. Sorry, demoted him.

I can imagine when we get to Japan next week, other drivers will only continue to put the heat on Red Bull and their handling of the situation. The drivers and team bosses press conferences will be lively and definitely worth watching.

Ultimately, it’s what happens on track that matters. Suzuka is a circuit that both Lawson and Tsunoda know well and one that sorts the wheat from the chaff. Let’s hope that both drivers have a strong weekend in Japan. For themselves, not for their bosses!