McLaren boss takes a dig at Red Bull boss Christian Horner as Liam Lawson struggles expose issues with the car

McLaren boss Zak Brown took a dig at Red Bull's Christian Horner as Liam Lawson had a disappointing start to life at the Austrian team. The Kiwi made his debut with the team in Australia and had a disastrous run. He had to sit out of FP3 due to car issues, but it was then followed up by a dismal qualifying session.

In what almost appeared to be a déjà vu of how Sergio Perez's weekends used to go, Liam Lawson was knocked out in Q1. In what could not have been a bigger contrast, while the Kiwi was out in Q1, his teammate Max Verstappen qualified in the Top 3. To further rub salt in the wounds, Yuki Tsunoda qualified in the top 5, and even Isack Hadjar had a good showing.

In 2024, the battle for a seat at Red Bull involved Liam Lawson and Yuki Tsunoda jostling it out in Racing Bulls. Ultimately the seat went to the Kiwi even though there wasn't much to choose between the two drivers. The performance in the Australian GP has also raised question marks over what Lawson could achieve in the car.

Zak Brown, on his part, commented on the situation as well by claiming that Yuki Tsunoda should have been in Red Bull instead of Liam Lawson. Talking to Sky Sports, in a dig at Horner, Brown said,

"Yuki did a great job. He's probably the one who should be in the Red Bull if you look at how he's doing, but they make some strange choices there every now and then when it comes to the drivers."

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Red Bull on Liam Lawson's first race weekend with the team

Liam Lawson's entire race weekend was a bit of a disaster. The driver couldn't qualify well, and then even in the race he ultimately crashed out. Red Bull's Christian Horner did admit that it was not the best weekend for the Kiwi but pointed out that there were hints of strong potential during the race where Lawson posted the second-fastest lap of the entire race. Horner told F1TV,

“It was a difficult weekend for him. We changed the car to put a bit more downforce on the car. It’s a very hard track to overtake at. We took a risk of leaving him out longer because he was out of the points and we thought, ‘you know what, roll the dice and maybe it will come right’ at exactly the point it started to rain more, so it’s difficult to blame him for that last bit."

He added,

“I think the one flash of light that he can take out of it is that on the dry tyres, he actually posted the second fastest lap time of the Grand Prix with a 22.9 versus Max’s 23.0 and Lando’s 22.1. So if there was one positive we can take, it was that his pace on the dry was not too bad."

Red Bull has started the season decently when it comes to Max Verstappen, as the Dutch driver ended the race in P2. There would be a few concerns with Liam Lawson and how he fares because the team cannot afford another year of an underperforming second driver.