Chandhok thinks Red Bull did not prepare Lawson: 'Mercedes did better'

The subject of Liam Lawson's form at Red Bull Racing is a hop topic in F1 at the moment. With rumours abound as to whether Red Bull Racing will axe the New Zealander or not, Karun Chandhok, looks to the past, and in hindsight, argues that the Austrians did not do a good enough job in preparing Lawson for his first season with the team, and he finds their rival, Mercedes, did a much better job at that.

One only needs to look at the results to find that Lawson has not really shown up for Red Bull Racing at all. Whether that's all down to the New Zealander, is up for debate, even if by merits, a Red Bull car should make it to Q3. Chandhok therefore looks then to Mercedes' testing schedule with Antonelli.

"They promoted him into the Racing Bulls and the argument could have been if you had left Daniel Ricciardo there to the end of last season and given Liam the 10,000km that Antonelli had in a two-year old car," says the former F1 driver regarding the extensive TPC (Testing of previous cars) programme the German team carried out with the Italian youngster.

'We gave him 11 Grand Prix'

"Because you would have been allowed to do that test programme, it would have better prepared him," argues Chandhok, who then doubts Red Bull will take that responsibility. "But they will counter it, I suppose, by saying 'we gave him 11 races [in 2023-2024] instead of a test programme'."

"But Mercedes have raised the bar in terms of rookie preparation and I think it’s something that the others have to look at," concludes Chandhok.