Lawson's sponsor supports Red Bull's decision: 'Will be good for him'

11:19, 01 Apr

Updated: 14:21, 01 Apr

byKada Sarkozi

Only two rounds into the season, Red Bull have announced that Liam Lawson will return to Racing Bulls, and will be replaced by Yuki Tsunoda. Tony Quinn, a key sponsor in Lawson's career, is not discouraged by this decision.

Lawson's sponsor supports Red Bull's decision

Quinn supports Red Bull decision. "I actually think it’ll be good for him," he began to Speedcafe. "Carrying on for another event, and if it didn’t work out well, it would be worse for him, I think he’d be f***ing near suicidal, to be quite honest."

On the other hand, he also underlined that he still very much confident in the New Zealander's skills. "Let’s not give up hope on him. He’s definitely got the talent, he just needs to have a reboot, and once he gets on the road again, he’ll be fine."

After Sergio Perez was let go by Red Bull Racing at the end of the 2024 season, the team chose to promote Lawson over Yuki Tsunoda. However, after only two rounds, the Austrians decided to reverse their decision.

"It’s been a lot harder than I think he thought it would be.All the testing that he’s done and the simulator stuff was pointing in a very positive direction."

According to the sponsor, initially the plan was to let Lawson stay alongside the defending world champion until at least the Japanese Grand Prix, where he has experience thanks to his time in the Super Formula series.

"The feel was that, if he didn’t improve by Japan, because in theory Japan should be good, that he would be replaced with Tsunoda. That was the early talk, and that’s obviously what’s happened. But it’s happened an event before we thought," Quinn explained.

Quinn also added that Lawson gets a lot of support by the ones around him. "I’m a bit like an old-fashioned headmaster; I’ll f***ing praise you when you do something well, and I’ll rage when you don’t do anything great. It’s not the time to f***ing rage at Liam right now. I think he just needs a bit of support along the way. Obviously, I’d be there if I was needed for whatever reason because I do think he’s very talented," he concluded.

This article was written in collaboration with Nicole Mulder