Despite conflicting sporting goals, Racing Bulls sees the loss of drivers to Red Bull as a success – “Full support” for returnee Liam Lawson
Racing Bulls team boss Laurent Mekies sees the loss of Yuki Tsunoda to Red Bull as a success for his Formula 1 team – despite the fluctuating driver lineup, which conflicts with the team’s performance goals.
“Our main goal is competitiveness. Our second goal is to contribute to the development of Red Bull drivers,“ he explains in the ‘James Allen on F1’ podcast.
”So if our drivers perform well enough to attract the attention of the entire Red Bull family and get promoted, that’s a success. Sometimes this second goal conflicts with the first, but nonetheless, it was a success last year when we brought two potential drivers to the table who could go to Red Bull Racing,” said the Racing Bulls team boss.
The British-Italian team has been given ‘very ambitious goals’ to compete in the upper midfield – a goal that the team is slowly but surely achieving.
Strategic decisions cost points in the first race weekends of the 2025 Formula 1 season, but otherwise Racing Bulls has produced a car that can fight for points – a battle that will be decided by extremely narrow margins as they compete against Williams, Haas, Alpine, and Aston Martin.
High praise for Yuki Tsunoda
The aforementioned driver merry-go-round could easily become a disruptive factor. Racing Bulls lost Liam Lawson to Red Bull at the start of the season, but the New Zealander was demoted after only two races and replaced by Tsunoda from Racing Bulls.
Mekies emphasizes this point: “It’s also a success for us this year to see Yuki get this opportunity. And Yuki is a driver who has developed incredibly over the past year and beyond. We’re used to drivers growing in the first two years of their careers. But what Yuki has achieved in his fourth and fifth years is exceptional.”
“It’s a great moment for him. He deserves it. It’s a great moment for the team to see him move there, so we’re obviously very happy.”
Liam Lawson back to his old strength?
On the other hand, Lawson struggled back at Racing Bulls from the start to keep up with the latest junior talent from the Red Bull squad – the impressive Isack Hadjar, who quickly adapted to the demands of Formula 1.
Lawson qualified ahead of Hadjar for the first time in Saudi Arabia, and the Frenchman admitted that Lawson had put him under pressure throughout the weekend – but the New Zealander needs to continue to improve over race distances to keep up with his more experienced teammate.
“He’s still the talented driver who drove for us a few weeks or months ago,” Mekies said of Lawson. ”We know how ruthless it can be at the front of the field, and we’re confident the pace is there.
“He knows he has our full support. He’s been able to reflect, learn, and improve with us. And you can already see a step forward in every race. In Jeddah, he was only about half a tenth off Q3. We’re confident he’ll get back to the pace he showed last year.”
