Liam Lawson rejects 'completely false' Red Bull axe rumour

Liam Lawson has stated rumours that his confidence dropped after his Red Bull axe are "completely false." The New Zealander was promoted to the senior Red Bull team to replace Sergio Perez for 2025, but was demoted back to Racing Bulls after just two race weekends, in Australia and China. He had never driven at either track, with FP3 in Melbourne disrupted by a turbo issue, whilst the race was wet before a sprint event in Shanghai. Lawson retired in Australia and was 12th in China, but Red Bull opted to swap him with Yuki Tsunoda ahead of the Japanese GP.  Since then, Lawson has performed steadily for Racing Bulls, scoring points in Monaco and Austria - where he took a career-best sixth on his best weekend in F1 as he also out-qualified former team-mate Max Verstappen for the first time.  After the axe, reports claimed that Lawson's self-confidence had dropped, but he has categorically denied this to be the case. "I think I would say one thing to be clear about is that between the first couple of races, to the team switch, then going to Japan, mentally for me, nothing changed," Lawson told F1.  "It's been very heavily speculated that my confidence took a hit and stuff like this, which is completely false. From the start of the year, I felt the same as I always have. "I think in two races, on tracks I'd never been to, it's not really enough for my confidence… maybe six months into a season, if I'm still at that level, if the results are still like that, then I'd be feeling something – maybe my confidence would be taking a hit. "I was well aware that those results weren't good enough, but I was just focused on improving, fixing and learning, basically. I was in the same mindset as I have been since I came into F1. "I think that was the biggest thing going into a team like that, in a car like that… it was going to take a bit of time to adjust and learn.  "With no proper testing, the issues in testing, the issues in Melbourne through practice… it wasn't smooth and clean. I needed time, and I wasn't given it. "I haven't really talked much about it, because I think for a big part of this year, I've just ignored everything that happened, and I've just focused on trying to drive the car – but I know there was a lot of stuff that went out that was speculation about how I was feeling. "My confidence hasn't changed since the start of the year to now."