Liam Lawson reacts to Zak Brown's claim that Yuki Tsunoda should have been promoted to the Red Bull seat.

While Drive to Survive might have brought a whole new audience to the sport, it has also led to some of the characters in the paddock deliberately playing up to the cameras.

While on-track success eluded him, Guenther Steiner rapidly became a start of the series with his no-nonsense approach and endless expletives.

Another who relishes being the centre of attention is Zak Brown, who not only takes every opportunity to share his endless pearls of wisdom, but also to take digs at rivals, what in the cricket world used to be known as sledging.

In particular, the American likes to wind-up his nemesis at Red Bull, Christian Horner, and to that end absolutely nothing is off the table.

When Red Bull opted to promote Liam Lawson to the vacant seat alongside Max Verstappen at the 'big team', Brown expressed surprise that Yuki Tsunoda had been shunned.

"I think it's going to be a very exciting year," the American told Sky Sports in Melbourne. "Yuki did a great job, probably the guy that should be in the Red Bull if you look at how he's performed, but they seem to make some strange driver choices."

Asked about Brown's comment, Lawson's reaction was short and to the point: "I couldn't care less what Zak says, to be honest with you," he told reporters in Shanghai.

"I don't think I've spoken to him, ever, and I haven't read any social media over the last two weeks."

Of course, the New Zealander will already be smarting after a less than impressive weekend in Melbourne, a performance that led to the social media vultures taking to their keyboard to tell the world; "I told you so!"

Despite his understandable disappointment, Lawson now has four races over the next five weeks to prove himself.

"Always as a driver, if you have a good weekend, sometimes you want to sit on it for a little bit," he said. "Then you have a bad weekend, you just want to go racing again. So for me, yes, it's good.

"But also, it's good to have lots of races at the start of the season. We have a week off and then a triple header.

"With how short of little experience having this car, it's just going to be good to do more weekends to get more comfortable and familiar."