Liam Lawson rejects major Christian Horner-Helmut Marko claim

Liam Lawson has rejected the claims of Red Bull bosses Christian Horner and Helmut Marko that sending him back to Racing Bulls was to rebuild his confidence.

Lawson started the 2025 season at Red Bull, but after struggling in Australia and following a dismal weekend in China, he was demoted back to Racing Bulls, swapping places with Yuki Tsunoda. 

Horner and Marko claimed at the time that the decision was to protect Lawson from the environment at Red Bull, with the New Zealander partnering Isack Hadjar, and finally scoring his first points of the year with a P8 finish in Monaco. 

Tsunoda himself has also struggled alongside Max Verstappen in the senior team, scoring only seven points, three of which came in the Miami Sprint after multiple penalties for other drivers, having originally finished out of the points.

Reflecting on the situation around the swap, Lawson vowed that his confidence had not been shaken by his time at Red Bull and gave a firm rebuttal to the claims of Horner and Marko. 

"At the end of the day, it doesn't really change anything for me," Lawson began to tell media, including RacingNews365, if Tsunoda's struggles had given extra context to his own. 

"As much as I never got the chance to show what I was capable of in a Red Bull, it doesn't really change too much. 

"If anybody else struggles in that car, it doesn't change me, it doesn't make it any better for me, so I am just focused on doing the best job in the car that I am in. 

"My confidence hasn't changed since last year, it didn't change in the Red Bull, and it didn't change in the first couple of races back in the VCARB. 

"It was great to score points in Monaco, and as much as that looked as if it gave me a bunch of confidence, for me, that hasn't changed since [starting] the year."

When then questioned about Horner and Marko's comment that the decision to send him back to Racing Bulls was to rebuild his confidence, Lawson simply said: "That is not my story."