Helmut Marko did not inform Liam Lawson about his firing from the team
Liam Lawson's sudden demotion from Red Bull sent ripples across the F1 fraternity as questions were asked about the team's way of handling its drivers. Addressing the same, Helmut Marko, the advisor of the Austrian team, recently shared that he 'did not' inform Lawson about his move away from the team.
The Milton Keynes-based team, led by Christian Horner and Marko, swapped Lawson with Yuki Tsunoda from the Racing Bulls. As a result, Tsunoda will drive alongside Max Verstappen from the 2025 Japanese Grand Prix.
With the move, Tsunoda has become Max Verstappen's new and third teammate in four races. Although the move was made just after two races, owing to Lawson's underperformances, Marko stated that he did not inform the Kiwi driver about his move away from the team.
Instead, the 81-year-old advisor stated that it was Red Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner, who spoke to the New Zealander about his swap with Tsunoda. Speaking about this in an interview with Motorsports Netherlands, Marko said:
"The conversations were conducted by Christian Horner."
Explaining why Red Bull couldn't have informed about the decision earlier, Marko added:
"No, otherwise we wouldn't have taken these decisions. On the one hand, the unfortunate start - that might have been a mistake. Lawson had only driven 11 Grands Prix, and in this situation, he couldn't perform anymore."
Lawson had two back-to-back underwhelming performances in Australia and China. In the season-opening race in Melbourne, the Kiwi driver went out in Q1 in the qualifying and finished outside the points.
In Shanghai, the 23-year-old once again went out in Q1 in both the sprint shootout and the main race qualifying. The sprint and main race results did not improve for him either, as he slumped to another zero-point finish.
Helmut Marko pointed towards Yuki Tsunoda's performance behind Liam Lawson swap
Besides Liam Lawson's underperformances, Helmut Marko also revealed Yuki Tsunoda's surprising improvements in Australia, and China insisted Red Bull make the swap ahead of Japan:
“Yes. One was below expectations, the other was surprisingly positive.”
Tsunoda qualified in Q3 in both the race weekends including the sprint in China. However, he failed to make use of his good qualifying positions in the race because of Racing Bulls' miscalculated strategy.
The Japanese driver debuted in F1 with Racing Bulls, formerly AlphaTauri in 2021, and after 92 races, he is finally set to race for the main team, alongside Max Verstappen on his home turf. So far, he managed to grab 94 points in all the races he competed, including three this season.