Liam Lawson’s confused radio after the Japanese Grand Prix shows how badly Red Bull swap has impacted his confidence

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Max Verstappen helped to paper over the cracks at Red Bull with a terrific Japanese Grand Prix victory to take away from the attention over their second seat.

Liam Lawson’s return to Visa Cash App Racing Bulls yielded no points, as he attempted a completely different strategy to anyone else at Suzuka.

Nobody expected the Kiwi to win the Japanese Grand Prix, but he struggled on Sunday. He was most impressive on Saturday after out-qualifying his replacement Yuki Tsunoda in the sister team car.

Now he has the lowest drivers’ championship position of any Red Bull driver. Pressure is starting to creep in as he looks to rebuild his confidence with his old team.

Racing Bulls took pressure from Lawson by welcoming him back to the team with open arms after being away for four months.

Almost immediately, Lawson realised Verstappen was right about Red Bull after switching teams. The VCARB 02 may be quicker than the RB21.

READ MORE: Christian Horner sends message to Liam Lawson after he awkwardly beat Yuki Tsunoda at Japanese Grand Prix

Liam Lawson’s confused radio message confirms Red Bull demotion has hurt F1 confidence

After failing to qualify higher than 18th in three attempts with Red Bull, Lawson fired himself straight into Q2 at the first time of asking in the Racing Bulls car.

Despite his performance, Helmut Marko thinks Lawson has a concerning ‘problem’ over one lap, and that he needs to find more pace after new teammate Isack Hadjar managed to place the car six positions higher.

Fortunately, the upcoming Bahrain Grand Prix is a track which he has been to before and has some experience at. He won’t be starting from square one.

However, even though he had been to Japan before, he was still left dumbfounded by his race performance and couldn’t understand his lack of pace over the radio.

“Copy, I don’t know what the hell that was,” he said in a dejected tone. His confidence appears to take a hit with every race that passes.

READ MORE: Jacques Villeneuve ‘could hear’ costly change from Liam Lawson before Red Bull demotion, ‘he collapsed’

Why Liam Lawson’s F1 seat may not be safe for the rest of the 2025 season

Red Bull have the exciting prospect Arvid Lindblad in their wings, about to make his Formula 2 debut after gaining enough super licence points to join Formula 1.

The team have been lobbying for an exception to be made for their driver, who is 17 years old and would be breaking the rules by competing at the highest level in 2025.

If permission is granted and Lawson continues to struggle, his future in the sport is going to come under increasing levels of scrutiny.

In other words, even though he has been demoted once, he isn’t safe from the same fate happening twice in one season.

Red Bull fans noticed a crucial change in Lawson after he was dropped which may bode well for the future. He appears to be in better spirits.