Red Bull star Liam Lawson has discussed his promotion to Red Bull and whether or not he feels sympathy towards former Racing Bulls teammate Yuki Tsunoda.
Lawson was promoted to the main Red Bull team after an initial stint with the junior team last year, replacing both Sergio Perez and Daniel Ricciardo within the space of a few months.
However, at the time, many were surprised by Red Bull's decision to promote Lawson and not Tsunoda, given the Japanese driver's vastly superior experience and increasingly impressive performances in F1.
Now, in a recent interview with the The Telegraph Lawson has revealed he has no sympathy for his colleague.
"Honestly? No," he admitted when asked the question.
"You can’t in this sport, and anyway if I look back over our career, I was team-mates with him in F3 and I beat him. In Euro Formula, I was team-mates with him in New Zealand, and I beat him there.
"And then in F1 last season, I think honestly, if I look at all the times he got promoted instead of me in those early years, then no. He’s had his time. Now it’s my time."
Will Liam Lawson be replaced?
Despite this fighting talk in the interview released ahead of the Chinese Grand Prix, Lawson went on to have a disastrous weekend in Shanghai, qualifying last in qualifying for both the sprint race and Grand Prix.
Team-mate Max Verstappen already has 36 points on the board and qualified up in second and fourth in those two sessions respectively.
Lawson's poor performances are having a knock-on effect on Red Bull's chances in the constructors' championship, where they already sit 42 points behind McLaren.
Speaking after the race in China, Christian Horner re-affirmed his commitment to extracting Lawson's potential, but speculation over his future rumbles on ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix.
GPFans have contacted Red Bull for a response to these rumors.