12/04/2025 06:30
Liam Lawson's former DTM team-mate Nick Cassidy has offered his
views on the Racing Bulls driver's demotion from Red Bull,
describing it as "harsh". Lawson was partnered by Cassidy –
currently racing for Jaguar in Formula E – in the controversial
2020 DTM season-finale, where the latter replaced Williams' Alex
Albon. It has been an extremely difficult start to his first full
F1 campaign for Lawson, who was demoted to Racing Bulls after just
two races with Red Bull alongside Max Verstappen. His first race
with the sister team in the Japanese Grand Prix was not much
better, having been comfortably adrift of team-mate Isack Hadjar.
Lawson was also five-tenths slower than Hadjar on the opening day
of the Bahrain Grand Prix, further increasing the pressure on the
New Zealander. Cassidy does believe that Lawson's Red Bull axe was
cruel, but that the demotion can act as a stepping stone going
forwards. "Yeah, I think it's a tough situation for him," Cassidy
told RacingNews365 . "Ultimately, I think he would be the first to
admit that he didn't deliver probably what he's capable of. "And
yes, maybe [it was] harsh after two races. I think he had a [tough]
free practice [in China] going into a sprint. I think they [Red
Bull] were experimenting a lot with the car, maybe not just for
him, but for the greater good of the team. "Just from the outside
that's what it looks like, and then things changed quite quickly
for him. But ultimately, he didn't quite do the business in those
two races, and he got caught in a pretty harsh business as a result
of it. "I think he has a good chance to recover now though, he's
in a very competitive car. The Racing Bulls car looks strong with
Hadjar, so certainly he still has lots of opportunities to prove
himself this year."
