Christian Horner and Laurent Mekies review Lawson’s demotion and Tsunoda’s promotion

Here are the two teams in the midst of turmoil at the moment: Red Bull and its little sister Racing Bull. During the team principals’ press conference, F1 had scheduled the presence of Christian Horner, director of Red Bull, and Laurent Mekies. The questions directed at them almost exclusively revolved around the transfer between Lawson and Tsunoda.

Christian Horner stated that Yuki Tsunoda was having a good start to the weekend. The home Japanese driver had good feelings despite the change of car to the RB21, confirmed by Horner: His feelings were really different from what he was used to.

On the RacingBulls side, Liam Lawson is happy and confident, as confirmed by Laurent Mekies. Liam is in a good position. He is in good spirits. I’m not going to tell you he was happy about the news last week because it was certainly hard to digest, but honestly, the next day he was with us in Faenza to do the seat fitting.

The questions quickly turned to shock and surprise at Christian Horner’s decision to sign Liam and then demote him after 2 races.

« I think we were all surprised. Of course, I think no one expected him to be back on the grid for these two races. It was certainly a very tricky set of circumstances. » Starting

Knowing the song, he went on to say that nothing had been anticipated, but to tell you that one of us would have anticipated it would be a lie.

For his part, Christian Horner, tired of repeating what he had said in several interviews with the press in the past days and weeks, reiterated his comments: « As I have already said, I think we just asked too much of Liam too soon and on a lot of things. And sometimes, you need to be cruel to be kind. But we didn’t do that. We haven’t excluded him from Formula 1; he’s just been demoted to another team. »

The Briton continued by talking about Yuki, about his valuable experience for the engineers in the car’s development. He added that he was very satisfied with the feedback the Japanese driver provided over the radio and after the sessions.

« The feedback Yuki gives us is really very clear and concise, I think he brings experience and has that very useful knowledge. » Ending by saying that the season will be entirely dedicated to development and that it was a good decision to transfer the drivers.

Laurent Mekies was also questioned about his former driver and the doubts surrounding him and whether he is ready for a team as large as Red Bull. « Yes, surely he is ready. We have had these questions here repeatedly in the past, and we have continuously said that Yuki made incredible progress last year compared to his previous seasons. » Adding that drivers do not only grow in maturity and analytical ability, but Yuki had progressed and grown « 360°. We have seen him become calmer, more mature, and significantly improve his technical feedback. »

Everyone seems to be in their right place now and ready to give their best for this season.