Max Verstappen has doubled down on his decision to ‘like’ an Instagram post accusing Red Bull of “bullying” Liam Lawson by dropping him to Racing Bulls after just two races of the season.
Speaking ahead of this weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix, Verstappen said his interaction with the post had been no accident.
“I liked the comment, the text, so I guess that speaks for itself, right? It was not a mistake,” the four-time world champion confessed.
Verstappen was rumoured to be unhappy about the decision to switch rookie Lawson with Racing Bulls driver Yuki Tsunoda even before internet sleuths picked up the fact that he had ‘liked’ a post from former Formula One driver Giedo van der Garde.
Van der Garde, who drove for the Caterham F1 team in 2013, said he was “tired” of the narrative that F1 was the toughest sport on earth in terms of delivering under pressure.
“Yes, you gotta perform. Yes, the pressure is insane. But in my opinion this comes closer to bullying or a panic move than actual high athlete achievements,” van der Garde wrote. “They [Red Bull] made a decision – fully aware – gave Liam two races only to crush his spirit.”
Lawson admitted this week that he had been “shocked” by the speed of his demotion, and had “not seen it coming”.
Verstappen, who trails Lando Norris by eight points in the drivers’ championship heading into the Suzuka race weekend, refused to elaborate on his opinion on the swap to the media.
“My reaction was shared with the team but in general, about not only the swap, but about everything,” he said. “We discussed that already during last weekend and back at the factory.
“Everything has been shared with the team, how I think about everything. Sometimes it’s not necessary to always share everything in public. I think it’s better”
Verstappen was more forthcoming about Red Bull’s 2025 car, the RB21, about which so much has been written in the last week.
Lawson’s inability to adapt quickly enough to a car which has been developed according to Verstappen’s preferences – with a strong front end, meaning the rear can be unstable – has been mooted as one of the major factors in the New Zealander’s demotion.
Verstappen said he was unsure how RB21 felt to anyone else, or indeed compared with any other car, since the Red Bull is all he has ever known. But he admitted the car was “not where we want it to be”.
The Dutch driver has managed to maximise his results so far, finishing second in Melbourne, third in the Shanghai sprint and fourth in the main race, but he said the car needed to be “more competitive and more drivable”.
“From my side, it’s very difficult to say how difficult or how well the car drives because I’ve not really driven any other car in my career or been with another team. I just adapt to the situation that I’m in the best that I can.
“[But] from what I see out there, it [the Red Bull] is a little bit more nervous, a little bit more, I would say, unstable in different corner phases than maybe some other of my team-mates have been used to it before,” he added.”I think our main issue is that our car is not where we want it to be.
“I think everyone knows that within the team as well and that’s what I focus on, to be honest, because as soon as the car is more competitive and more drivable in general, then I think even in the other car it will come to you anyway a bit more naturally.”
Tsunoda, meanwhile, said he was confident he could get to grips with the RB21 at his home track, where he will have huge support.
“I’m not saying I have the confidence that I can perform straight away like Max, but I have confidence that I can do something different, hopefully, compared to other drivers that will be in the car,” he said. “If I didn’t have confidence, I wouldn’t be wearing this [Red Bull team clothing]. I would have stayed in [junior team] Racing Bulls.”
Tsunoda added that he had not been given “any specific number of races or time to prove myself”. The Japanese was at the team’s Milton Keynes headquarters last week and drove this year’s Red Bull in the simulator.
“I mean, in the simulator obviously it’s not fully correct in terms of trickiness of the car, but at least it didn’t feel crazy tricky,” he said. “I can feel what the drivers mentioned about the instability or lack of driving confidence.
“I did multiple set-ups that I wanted to try to make it better and those two days seemed pretty productive. I know what kind of direction I want to start and it seems to be a good baseline in terms of overall performance.”
Intriguingly, Tsunoda admitted that he had not sought out advice from Verstappen. “I think even if I tapped his shoulder and asked about the car, I don’t think he’s going to say the truth, you know? So I just try to discover it myself in the data, how he’s driving, also on onboard videos. I already checked multiple videos from him in the last two grand prix.
“Like I said, I didn’t feel the trickiness yet - the clear trickiness of the car. I’ll feel it myself, and I’m sure it also depends on driving style. It will behave a little bit different.”
