Every Red Bull junior dreams of driving for the main team, but Liam Lawson’s dream has ended in heartbreak after just two races as he is now demoted back to Racing Bulls. Red Bull decided to swap Lawson with Yuki Tsunoda after the New Zealander had two horrendous outings at the Australian and Chinese GPs, respectively.
However, Red Bull’s sudden and perhaps premature decision to swap their drivers did not go down too well with the F1 community. In fact, former F1 driver Giedo van der Garde even lambasted the Milton Keynes-based team on social media, calling the move a bullying tactic.
Paddock murmurs had suggested that even Max Verstappen was unhappy with the team’s decision to demote Lawson. And he seemingly confirmed that when he liked Van der Garde’s post on Instagram.
During Thursday’s media day for the Japanese GP weekend, Verstappen stood by his actions.
“My reaction is known within the team. I liked the text, so that says enough, right? It was not a mistake. Sometimes that happens when you click on something,” he revealed when asked about his social media activity on the Dutch former racing driver’s post.
Max about whether he still stands behind the instagram post he liked, calling Redbull’s driver swap “bullying” and a “panic move”: “I liked the post, so that says enough, right? it wasn’t a mistake. that sometimes happens when you click on something.”
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The 27-year-old’s honesty about the entire situation has garnered a lot of positive reactions from fans on Reddit. One fan wrote, “Did I stutter?” whilst another backed it up with, “Love how unapologetic he is about it. He is not happy about all the sh*t’s that been going down.”
The second Red Bull seat has acquired notoriety for being ‘cursed’, as in the last seven years, Verstappen has seen four different teammates come and go, with Tsunoda being the fifth driver who will try and match him. For the Dutchman, however, these frequent driver changes are not the solution the team needs to focus on.
“We need to just improve our car. That’s where the focus needs to be,” he explained. Team advisor Helmut Marko, however, believes that promoting Lawson was a mistake and that they are correcting it now by demoting him back to Racing Bulls.
“That’s his (Verstappen’s) opinion, and that’s a good thing. But our goal is the fifth world championship title, and there you need a second driver who is strategically in the area of the field, who brings you something and snatches points from the other drivers. You can’t become world champion as a one-man team,” said the 81-year-old.
