Author Archives: PressBox

Liam Lawson said Red Bull’s explanation that it removed him from its Formula 1 lineup to protect his mental well-being was “entirely false,” as he reflected on a 2025 stint that lasted only two races before he was sent back to Racing Bulls. Lawson, who was chosen in late 2024 over Sergio Perez and Yuki Tsunoda, said on the High Performance Podcast that he has tried to move past the episode and has mostly acted as though it “never” happened.

Lawson said Red Bull judged him too quickly after two race weekends at unfamiliar circuits, and he rejected the idea that he was mentally struggling. He said his short run alongside Max Verstappen was made harder by limited pre-season preparation, missed track time in Bahrain and Melbourne, and a lack of confidence in the car. He qualified 18th and retired in Australia, then qualified last for both the Sprint and the Grand Prix in China, finishing 12th more than a minute behind Verstappen.

He also said the China weekend was worsened by a major setup change and a risky pit-lane adjustment requested by Red Bull, which he described as a team decision rather than something aimed at him personally. Lawson said the change hurt tire wear and race pace, and that he could not find a rhythm or feel comfortable in the car. After the Chinese Grand Prix, Red Bull replaced him with Tsunoda at Suzuka. Lawson returned to Racing Bulls, where he became the team’s leading driver with 28 points to Arvid Lindblad’s 13, helping lift the squad to sixth in the Constructors’ Championship and keeping his seat for 2026.

Mercedes pushed back against online speculation that it was favoring either Kimi Antonelli or George Russell in the Formula 1 title fight, with technical director James Allison calling the idea “alien” and “utterly alien” to the team’s Brackley culture. Allison said Mercedes wants both drivers to score as many points as possible, and that the team will continue letting them race freely unless a rival threat makes intervention necessary.

Allison said Mercedes is focused first on the constructors’ championship, which affects prize money, bonuses and overall team performance, rather than either driver’s individual title hopes. He said team orders would only become relevant if one Mercedes driver were mathematically out of contention and the other was still fighting a rival from another team. Toto Wolff voiced a similar view after the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix, saying the team would reexamine how Antonelli and Russell are allowed to race after their battle for the lead cost Mercedes time.

The debate intensified after Barcelona, where Russell and Antonelli lost time fighting each other on track before Lewis Hamilton won for Ferrari, his first Grand Prix victory for the team. Wolff said Mercedes has traditionally let its drivers race freely, but the growing title threat from Hamilton could force the team to recalibrate its approach if internal competition keeps costing wins. Antonelli leads Hamilton by 41 points and Russell by 50 heading into the Austrian Grand Prix, with Mercedes under renewed scrutiny over its title-management strategy.

Honda has reaffirmed its long-term commitment to Formula 1 even as its works partnership with Aston Martin has made a difficult start, with HRC president Koji Watanabe saying the project should be judged as a mid-to-long-term effort rather than on this season alone. He said Honda management is unhappy with the current results, but believes the challenge can be overcome, drawing a parallel with Honda’s troubled 2015 return to F1 with McLaren before its later turnaround with Red Bull.

After seven rounds, Aston Martin sat 10th in the constructors’ championship, with Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll struggling to find consistent performance and reliability. Watanabe said this project is harder than Honda’s Red Bull era because nearly everything is new, including the partnership structure, regulations, fuel, lubricant, development cycle and suppliers such as Aramco and Valvoline. He also said Honda’s 2021 exit from F1 slowed development and made it harder to rebuild technical depth and talent.

Honda plans a summer power unit update focused on the internal combustion engine, but Watanabe said it will not bring an immediate turnaround and must be managed within the engine cost cap. Aston Martin is preparing a major aerodynamic package before the summer break, and Honda believes that if the chassis and power unit gains come together, the team can move into midfield contention in the second half of the season. The two sides have also held a unity meeting as they work through the difficult early period in their relationship.

Williams heads into the Austrian Grand Prix with limited confidence after a difficult start to the 2026 Formula 1 season, with Alex Albon warning that the team remains eighth in the constructors’ standings after seven rounds and is still chasing answers. Williams has been trying to recover from a new car that arrived late and overweight, after also missing its planned pre-season shakedown and delaying its opening-race package. Albon’s best finish this season has been eighth in Monaco, a result that has done little to ease concern over the team’s pace.

Albon said Williams is still a significant step behind its midfield rivals in high-speed corners, a weakness he expects could be exposed at the Red Bull Ring, where sectors two and three are fast. He said a mechanical issue found after qualifying in Barcelona could not be fixed under parc ferme rules, leaving him unsure how the car would behave from corner to corner. Barcelona was another difficult weekend for Williams, with Albon finishing 12 laps down after a lengthy stoppage to repair a dislodged camera and both Albon and Carlos Sainz failing to score points.

Sainz said the Spanish Grand Prix showed how far Williams remains from the front-runners, pointing to struggles in medium- and high-speed corners. He said the team was surprised by how uncompetitive the car was, even though it expected a hard weekend, and identified excess weight as one problem and a lack of downforce as the bigger issue. Sainz said the result confirmed Williams is really far from its targets and needs to go back to the drawing board with more upgrades.