'He collapsed' - Villeneuve delivers Lawson damning Red Bull verdict

Jacques Villeneuve has delivered a damning verdict on why he feels Red Bull demoted Liam Lawson. 

Just four days after the Chinese Grand Prix, Red Bull announced it would swap Lawson and Yuki Tsunoda from this weekend's Japanese GP. 

The news came as a huge shock to Lawson, who was informed of the "done deal" decision via a phone call ahead of the team's official announcement. 

Lawson endured a horrific two grands prix for Red Bull in Melbourne and Shanghai. He crashed in the season opener, failed to escape the first part of qualifying in any format, and did not score a point. 

The 23-year-old's issues have come as a slight surprise to Villeneuve, who was impressed by Lawson's mentality during his six-race spell at RB last season. 

Despite this, the 1997 F1 champion is convinced Tsunoda should have replaced Sergio Perez from the beginning, with the Red Bull seat too much pressure for Lawson.

"Ultimately, Tsunoda should have been the one going in right away [at Red Bull]," Villeneuve said on Sky Sports F1. "He had done all the years in the Racing Bulls team, and it's the team to prepare drivers for the main team.

"But they [Red Bull] did not want him in the main team because he made a lot of mistakes last year, and he was a little bit out of control as well, sometimes on the radio. 

"But then Lawson, who was very strong mentally last year, you could hear it in his comments, this year he was just brought down. 

"He collapsed, so there was no point keeping him there. It would just have done more and more damage to him as a driver."