Liam Lawson rebuilt his F1 career after a shock demotion from Red Bull two rounds into 2025, becoming a consistent points scorer for Racing Bulls. He’s not the first to recover from a public setback — here are seven notable examples.
Pierre Gasly
Promoted from Toro Rosso to Red Bull in 2019, Gasly struggled to match new team mate Max Verstappen and was demoted back to Toro Rosso (later AlphaTauri) that same year, with Alex Albon taking his seat. Rather than collapse, Gasly returned strongly, scoring solid points in the latter half of 2019 and claiming a memorable P2 in Brazil for his first podium. In 2020 he delivered an emotional maiden F1 win at Monza and went on to lead AlphaTauri before moving to Alpine in 2023, where he remains a team leader.
Max Verstappen
Even all-time greats have rough patches. Verstappen’s 2018 season began poorly — a string of errors, collisions (including incidents with Daniel Ricciardo) and a Monaco practice crash saw questions raised about his form. He reassessed and returned to strong form later that year, collecting multiple podiums and race wins (Austria and Mexico) and finishing fourth in the drivers’ standings, a springboard for his subsequent dominance.
Jenson Button
Button impressed as a rookie with Williams in 2000 but found a difficult two-year spell at Benetton, hampered by an uncompetitive car and public criticism. He moved to BAR in 2003 and began to flourish, outperforming team mate Jacques Villeneuve. 2004 was a breakout season — his first podium in Malaysia was the start of ten rostrums that year and third in the Drivers’ Championship. Button would later win the 2009 World Championship with Brawn GP and finish runner-up with McLaren in 2011.
Valtteri Bottas
After winning his first race and finishing third for Mercedes in his debut season with the team, Bottas endured a tougher 2018: no wins, a slide to fifth in the standings and watching Lewis Hamilton claim the title. He even contemplated retirement after losing the joy of racing. Choosing to continue paid off — a revitalised Bottas began 2019 with a commanding win in Australia and went on to his best season statistically, scoring four wins and finishing second in the championship.
Alex Albon
Albon stepped into Red Bull mid-2019 and produced several encouraging results, but pressure rose in 2020 as he trailed team mate Verstappen, and he was replaced for 2021. Retained as Red Bull’s test and reserve driver, Albon spent 2021 rebuilding after admitting the year had left him mentally drained. He returned to the grid with Williams in 2022, outperformed Nicholas Latifi, established himself as a team leader, and earned a multi-year contract extension after continued strong performances.
Damon Hill
A late starter in F1, Hill debuted at 31 and gradually found success with Williams. He won his first race in 1993 and emerged as Michael Schumacher’s closest rival in 1994 and 1995, enduring criticism for not beating Schumacher despite seemingly competitive machinery. Hill bounced back to claim the 1996 World Championship with eight victories. After being dropped by Williams for 1997, he continued racing with Arrows and Jordan, taking a final memorable win in treacherous conditions at Spa.
Liam Lawson
Lawson’s 2025 promotion to Red Bull followed substitute outings for their sister team, but the move quickly turned sour: crashes, Q1 exits and non-scores in the first two races. Red Bull demoted him back to Racing Bulls and swapped Yuki Tsunoda into the senior seat, prompting doubts about Lawson’s future. Lawson said he needed time to adjust and used the move to reset. He responded with solid points finishes — P6 in Austria and P5 in Azerbaijan among them — and, with stability at Racing Bulls into 2026, scored points at two of the first three Grands Prix and in the Shanghai Sprint, demonstrating a clear recovery.
A version of this feature first appeared in August 2024.