Oscar Piastri's close aide gives a blunt assessment on Liam Lawson's performances at Red Bull

McLaren driver Oscar Piastri's manager and former Red Bull driver Mark Webber recently mentioned that dropping Liam Lawson from the Austrian team was the right decision. The Kiwi driver was demoted to the Visa Cash App Racing Bulls after just two races into the 2025 season as he was unable to extract the required performances out of the RB21 and help his teammate Max Verstappen.

Liam Lawson failed to get out of the Q1 session in qualifying in the first two races of the year in Australia and China. He was replaced by Yuki Tsunoda for the remainder of the year ahead of the Japanese GP.

When appearing on the Formula for Success podcast, Oscar Piastri's manager Mark Webber said that he believed that this was a necessary step, as there had been no contribution on Lawson's part and Max Verstappen has been the one doing all the heavy lifting for the team.

‘I think he would be going: he needs the vice released because he’s going to have a chance to cool his jets a bit, go back to the smaller team where he’s got some experience already, where he’s got some experience already. He’s only done two races with the big team but clearly it looks so challenging. Max is the only one who can extract the lap time out of that car. (1:10 onwards)

‘Three or four-tenths is a huge gap in our business but Liam is not connecting with that car or hasn’t connected with that car. Can he go and just find his feet in his career and get going again in a smaller team? And if Yuki doesn’t fire up in this other car, what happens then if they’re all on the ropes? That’s going to be a very interesting dynamic," he added. (1:42 onwards)

The 23-year-old joined the Milton-Keynes outfit at the end of the 2024 season when he was chosen as the replacement for Sergio Perez. Lawson impressed the Red Bull hierarchy with his mentality and performance in just 11 races with the junior team but unfortunately got replaced only two races into the season.

"Very cocky" - Former F1 driver comments on Liam Lawson's attitude heading into Red Bull

Former F1 driver Juan Pablo Montoya believes that Liam Lawson's reputation currently was not good given his attitude heading into Red Bull.

Speaking with Vision4Sport, the Colombian reflected:

"I think right now his reputation is not good. You can see all the memes on social media. He's very cocky. A little arrogance is OK. But the problem is that when you're arrogant, you need to deliver. You need to back it up. This was a real slap in the face for him.”

Liam Lawson will have the opportunity to build his confidence back for the remainder of the 2025 season at the VCARB F1 team and compare himself alongside rookie Isack Hadjar for the next 22 races and five Sprints this year.