The Haas driver believes the Milton Keynes operation should have stuck by its decision to promote Lawson over the off-season rather than dropping him after only two races.

Lawson remains on the F1 grid at Racing Bulls, having swapped seats with Yuki Tsunoda.

“It is not, I believe, the way it should be,” Ocon said of the Kiwi’s situation.

“If you take a decision and go for it, you need to stick to it or give as much time as you can.

“If there is a lot of pressure with points straight away, it’s a difficult one to take, must have been for everyone, but at least I’m happy for Liam that he’s able to fight in a decent spot now and not out of Formula 1.

“That’s the most important thing.”

Ocon’s career has similarities with Lawson’s.

He was promoted mid-season with Manor in 2016 before joining Force India the following year, only to be dropped at the end of 2018.

For 2019, he worked as Mercedes’ reserve driver before returning to the grid with Renault, where he remained until departing with one race remaining in 2024 to join Haas.

It leaves the Frenchman in a position where he knows first hand not only what it takes to reach F1, but how it feels to have it ripped away.

“There’s two sides of the story there,” he ventured of Lawson’s plight.

“Obviously a very difficult one for Liam and that’s something I don’t wish to any driver.

“The pressure he must have been going through and not having much support from what I’ve seen from the outside of this team is a difficult task.

“You always want to work with the people around you, and obviously, if it’s not going well, you want time as a driver to be able to fix things.

“I like Liam a lot, he’s a great guy, and it was not nice to see what he went through.

“But he’s still in Formula 1 and he’s in a very competitive car as well, so we should not be too sad for him!”

Tsunoda has slotted into the Red Bull vacated by Lawson, making him the sixth driver to partner Max Verstappen at the squad since 2016.

In that time, only Daniel Ricciardo and Sergio Perez have won races alongside the Dutchman, while Pierre Gasly and Alex Albon were both ultimately cut loose from the Red Bull program.

“There’s no reason that it should not work,” Ocon said when asked if it was possible for Red Bull’s second driver to succeed.

“We’ve seen Checo [Perez] come in and doing poles and winning races as well.

“Obviously hasn’t been the case for the teammate of Max recently – I’m not in there, I can’t really comment on why that is, but it should be possible.

“There’s no reason why they can’t have two cars performing the same way, so that’s why it will be interesting to see where Yuki performs.”

Opening practice for the Japanese Grand Prix begins at 11:00 local time today (13:00 AEDT).

2025 F1 Japanese Grand Prix – Start time, how to watch, TV times & more