Laurent Mekies shares what ‘lessons’ he learned from Liam Lawson’s 2025 Red Bull demotion

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Laurent Mekies had to deal with significant upheaval during his 18 months as Racing Bulls team boss. There were two mid-season driver changes, both involving Liam Lawson.

Lawson replaced Daniel Ricciardo for the final six races of the 2024 season and impressed the senior management at Red Bull. When Sergio Perez left, they fast-tracked the New Zealander into the top team.

However, just 11 races into his F1 career, Lawson looked unprepared for the challenge of being Max Verstappen’s teammate. After two fairly disastrous weekends, he was demoted back to Racing Bulls.

Prove me wrong: Liam Lawson can show he deserves another chance at Red Bull

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Yuki Tsunoda, who had been the one constant for Mekies, was called up in his stead. Lawson slotted in alongside Isack Hadjar for the remainder of the season.

Laurent Mekies says Red Bull drivers need support to ‘express their talent’

Mekies followed Tsunoda to Red Bull after Christian Horner was sacked in July. By that point, Lawson was starting to show signs of recovery with points finishes in Monaco and Austria.

Now under new leadership, Red Bull are reviewing the struggles of Verstappen’s teammates. They have sacked or released five drivers since Ricciardo’s departure at the end of 2018, most recently Tsunoda.

Speaking on the James Allen on F1 podcast, Mekies acknowledged that drivers need to work in a positive ‘environment’ in order to unlock the ‘last bit of performance’. Horner and Helmut Marko, both of whom left last year, were regarded as ruthless and impatient operators.

🔢 Rank Max Verstappen’s five teammates since Daniel Ricciardo

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Asked what lessons he could take from Lawson’s demotion, Mekies said: “We are well aware that the psychological effect is huge, but not just for that situation about the second car.

“Like for any very high-level athlete, that last bit of performance is intimately linked to what’s in your mind. We are really trying to support both our drivers with the best environment possible for them to express their talent.

“It’s the same spirit that you try to have for any of our employees. You need to create the environment for the drivers to express themselves and go fast, you need to create an environment for your engineers, for your mechanics, for your staff to express their full potential, their talent the best.”

Why does Liam Lawson think his move to Red Bull went wrong?

Lawson had never raced in Australia or China, the tracks where he made his only appearances for Red Bull. His running in pre-season testing was also limited.

He believes that, with more time in the car, he could have improved on more familiar circuits.

Lawson admits he was ‘naive’ to think the team would make those allowances. He was treating the Shanghai weekend as a test session for a new set up, ‘but that performance was used to demote me’.

Now that he’s settled at Racing Bulls, though, David Coulthard expects Lawson to be in F1 for ‘several’ more years, whether or not he stays in the Red Bull family.