Liam Lawson explains how he got over 'devastating' loss of 'dream drive' at Red Bull

Liam Lawson has explained how he dealt with losing his Red Bull Racing seat after two rounds of the 2025 Formula 1 season, saying a long-time mentor helped him refocus on the opportunity he still had with Racing Bulls.

The New Zealander was promoted to Red Bull alongside Max Verstappen after stepping up through the team's junior system and making his early F1 appearances with its sister team, Racing Bulls.

His break at the Milton Keynes-based squad came after Sergio Perez was fired for underperformance, but Lawson was unable to prove his abilities in just two short rounds in the RB21 before being unceremoniously switched with Yuki Tsunoda.

The brutal decision, how it came to pass and what happened behind the scenes at Red Bull over the period is well-trodden ground.

It left the 24-year-old to rebuild his career at the sister team, and since the start of the current campaign, he has been going from strength to strength.

Although he is now thriving in the VCARB 03, the experience has left an indelible mark on Lawson, who reflected on the situation on a recent episode of the High Performance Podcast.

When asked by host Jake Humphrey if he spoke to a psychologist or therapist to work through his treatment at Red Bull, Lawson shared how he came to terms with being replaced just two rounds into his tenure at the team.

"I have somebody that I'm very lucky to have in my life, who's been with me since I was young, and he's been my coach since I first moved to Europe," he said. "He is basically somebody that I continue to speak to all the time... and he's played a massive role in me as a person.

"I think I'd probably have a very different personality if I didn't actually have him growing up in Europe, racing. So I spoke to him a lot through all of it, and he was very good to talk to about it."

The Jack Doohan example

Sharing what advice helped him process the situation, Lawson said the focus was on separating what had already happened from what he could still influence.

"The main thing is, all this stuff was happening, and there was nothing I could do about it once it had happened, so I was obviously frustrated, devastated at the time, but there was nothing I could do about it anymore," Lawson said.

"And so it's a very normal thing to say, but it's just, 'Focus on the things that you can control', and like breaking that stuff down, and going, 'Okay, look, it's all done, [but] you're still in Formula 1'.

"And that's the thing I thought about a lot was, there's a lot of guys that got badly treated, and unfairly treated in Formula 1, and were out."

Lawson also referred to fellow Antipodean Jack Doohan while discussing how short spells in Formula 1 can shape a driver's career.

The Australian was given a full-time Alpine seat for 2025 but was replaced by Franco Colapinto after six rounds, without scoring a point, leaving his grand prix career at just seven starts.

Lawson said examples such as Doohan's were part of the way he viewed his own situation. Although he had lost the Red Bull seat, he still had a place at Racing Bulls and a chance to continue racing in Formula 1.

After returning to Racing Bulls, he scored 38 points across the remainder of the season. In 2026, he has 39 points after nine rounds and sits 10th in the drivers' championship, with points finishes in seven of those.

Lawson said the fact he still had a seat was the point he returned to during conversations after the Red Bull decision.

"Over the years, there are many cases where guys... you'd argue that wasn't fair... Jack Doohan, somebody who did five races, that is not fair to judge somebody," he said.

"I had two in a Red Bull, but even five races as a whole is not fair to judge somebody in Formula 1 in a season like last year.

"But I still had a drive, so that was what I tried to really focus on, and that's what we talked about a lot: 'You still have an opportunity to prove yourself here, you still have an opportunity to build a future in Formula 1. That's all still there,' without focusing on the fact that I lost the dream drive that I wanted since I was young."