Red Bull Racing have admitted they handled the promotion of Kiwi Liam Lawson — and axing of Australian Daniel Ricciardo — badly, as they changed rivers midway through the current Formula One championship.
After a brief stint as a substitute last year, Lawson, 22, has returned behind the wheel of a Honda for this weekend's United States Grand Prix at Austin, Texas, finishing 16th in the sprint race, before contesting the main race on Monday morning (NZ time).
The youngster has been biding his time in pitlane, waiting for another chance to impress, and finally received it, when Red Bull announced he would replace Ricciardo after last month's Singapore Grand Prix.
Red Bull boss Laurent Mekies concedes the team did not manage the change as well as they could have, leaving the popular Aussie unable to confirm nor deny rumours of his impending departure.
"We are not happy with ultimately how we handled it and, of course, we are very conscious that we could and we should have done a better job at that," said Mekies.
"Now, Daniel and us, we were talking on a very regular basis and then we went into that weekend knowing both of us what the situation was. For a number of reasons, we decided to go into [Singapore] trying to keep it [not] public and it proved very, very quickly in the weekend that, unfortunately, it was not the right decision.
"Certainly, we would do things differently if we had to do it again. Now, I’d like to think that, from what we saw in Singapore, from the reaction of the fans, from the reaction of the paddock, it was unbelievable how, in one way or another, all these streams of love, all these streams of support did arrive nonetheless, even if it was not official, even if it was not the most classic send-off."
During his five-race 2023 stint, Lawson gained his first championship points, finishing ninth at Singapore, and has been given the rest of this campaign to push his case for a more permanent seat next year.
So far, he has made every post a winner, using the US sprint qualifying and race to familiarise himself with the car. He is under little pressure to perform this weekend, with his car carrying a 10-spot grid penalty, after Ricciardo exceeded engine limits.
"He has been doing a very good job," said Mekies of Lawson. "He has been waiting for this moment for a very long time now – he's been sitting with us in the office since race one.
"It’s a very long time for drivers, when you don’t have another racing programme, just to come to the racetrack and see all the other guys going racing.
"He has been preparing himself, he has been trying to get all the possible learnings from all the technical meetings, from all the exchanges between Daniel, Yuki [Tsunoda] and the engineers. He jumped in the car this morning, he did a very good job straight away.
"I don't want to say that we were expecting it, but obviously, we knew from last year, we knew from what he has shown also in testing that he would be ready and he has shown he’s certainly ready to take on the fight."
Lawson started 15th for the Austin sprint race, advancing to the second stage of qualifying, but losing his Q2 performance for driving off the track at turn one. Soon after the start, he lost another place to Frenchman Esteban Ocon.
The Kiwis' main rival for a Red Bull seat is Japanese teammate Yuki Tsunoda, who started ninth and finished 11th in the 20-car field.
Four-time defending champion Max Verstappen took full advantage of his pole position for his first win since June, heading Spaniard Carlos Sainz by more than three seconds over the 19 laps.
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