Racing Bulls CEO Peter Bayer believes Liam Lawson will soon rediscover his form after being left «sad» and «a bit puzzled» by his seat swap.
Lawson has had a rollercoaster 2025 season following his demotion by Red Bull after just two race weekends as Max Verstappen’s team mate, having been promoted to the senior squad in the winter to replace Sergio Perez.
With Yuki Tsunoda heading the other way to replace the 23-year-old, Lawson found himself back at the Racing Bulls outfit for the Japanese Grand Prix – the team he had made his previous 11 Grand Prix appearances for prior to getting the senior squad call-up.
However, with the triple header sequence of races now complete, the Racing Bulls driver remains without a point in 2025, as he delivered P17, P16 and P12 results in Japan, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia respectively.
Bayer admits Lawson was ‘sad’ and ‘a bit puzzled’ by his switch from Red Bull
While it has been a turbulent start to Lawson’s first full F1 season, Racing Bulls CEO Peter Bayer insisted that he was in “great spirits” after bedding himself back in with the team over the triple header, though he acknowledged that Lawson had been “sad” in the days that followed his Red Bull demotion.
“I had breakfast with him this morning, [he’s in] great spirits,” said Bayer on the Friday of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix weekend, when asked how Lawson was settling back in.
“It took him a short moment, to be honest; when he came to us the first time, when I saw him in Faenza, Italy, for the seat fit, he was sad.
“He was a bit puzzled by all the events because everything happened very quickly. But, at the same time, we also told him that you [must] not forget that you’re still an F1 driver with a team that you know – you know the people, you know the set-up, and you’ll be able to extract performance from this car, the way you drive and the way how the team will support you. And I see that he’s picking up the pace.”
Racing Bulls CEO Peter Bayer believes Lawson «will be back and he will be quick»
While Lawson is yet to bag his first points of 2025, with rookie team mate Isack Hadjar scoring five, Bayer insisted he had already seen progress from the New Zealander as he backed him to get up to speed soon.
“If you look at Bahrain last week, in Qualifying Sector 1 and Sector 3 he was [equal] with Isack,” Bayer continued.
“He had a little issue then with the DRS in Sector 2 but we’re honestly very confident that he will be back and he will be quick.”
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