Christian Horner has admitted that there is a possibility Liam Lawson could end up struggling like Pierre Gasly and Alex Albon did at Red Bull Racing alongside Max Verstappen.
After months of intense speculation, the Milton Keynes outfit recently confirmed Lawson as Sergio Pérez’s replacement for next season. The 22-year-old, however, has competed in only 11 Grand Prix weekends so far in comparison to his more experienced teammate at Racing Bulls, Yuki Tsunoda.
Given their recent history of prematurely promoting young drivers to the senior team, often to their detriment, many have called into question Red Bull’s decision to sideline the Japanese driver in favour of the young Kiwi.
Before the Mexican driver joined the team in 2021, both Gasly and Albon struggled to keep up with Verstappen after receiving early promotions. While the Frenchman was demoted to Toro Rosso in the middle of his first season with Red Bull, Albon, the driver who replaced him, was dropped and left seatless at the end of 2020. The Thai ended up in DTM before returning with Williams in 2022.
After the six-time world champions made it official that Lawson will partner Verstappen in 2025, team boss Horner acknowledged the risks associated with choosing a young driver. At the same time, he also explained why the team is optimistic about the New Zealander’s potential and how they seek to create an environment for him to thrive alongside the four-time world champion.
Lawson’s strong personality to help him to deal with the pressure at Red Bull
Acting as a substitute for an injured Daniel Ricciardo at AlphaTauri (rebranded as RB in 2024), Lawson impressed the motorsport community with his P9 finish in Singapore last year on only his third F1 outing.
In reference to how the budding careers of Gasly and Albon unravelled at Red Bull, Horner acknowledged that there is a likelihood of history repeating itself. Nonetheless, he insisted that Lawson has met their expectations so far and that he has the strength of character to cope with the pressure of driving for a top team early in his career.
“Look, the danger is there’s a repeat of that. But I think that Liam [Lawson] is a different character.
“He’s a different personality to be able to deal with that pressure. I think he’s shown real resilience and strength of character with the opportunity that’s been provided to have to turn up and get on with it and deliver—and he’s done that.”
Similar driving style to Verstappen leading to similar car set-ups
Revealing that Pérez’s massive slump in form prompted them to promote Lawson early, Horner reiterated that they are confident about the young New Zealander blossoming into a better driver at Red Bull.
Elaborating on the topic, the 51-year-old stated that Lawson’s preference for oversteer, a driving characteristic he shares with Verstappen, would allow the team to run the cars closer to each other in terms of set-up than in recent years.
“The plan initially wasn’t for that to be accelerated for this year. Circumstances have dictated with Checo [Pérez] unfortunately not having a great season that we accelerated it. But we believe where Liam is on the trajectory that he’s on, that [he] will only improve.
“And he drives the car in a similar fashion to Max [Verstappen]. He doesn’t shy away from having a very positive front end in the car. So I think in terms of driving characteristics, it will be easier for the cars to run more closely together in set-up.”
Horner reveals clear second driver hierarchy for Lawson in comparison to Gasly and Albon
When Gasly and Albon drove for the Milton Keynes outfit in 2019 and 2020, they didn’t have a fixed hierarchy in terms of a first and second driver. With Verstappen having secured four championship titles now, Horner asserted that a clear hierarchy and lower expectations would be beneficial for the growth of Lawson. Having the 63-time race winner as the lead driver would take the pressure off the Kiwi in comparison to junior drivers before, whose performances Red Bull strictly measured against the Dutchman’s.
Moreover, the Brit remarked that producing a car with a wider operating window than that of the tricky RB20 would help Lawson fare better on track next year.
“Daniel [Ricciardo] and Max were a strong pairing. We then had two juniors that struggled. And that’s why obviously Checo then stepped into the car for the ’21 season and coped with the pressures of that well.
“I think the other factor that we’re focused very hard on is making sure that we’re creating a wider operating window with RB21 than RB20’s very narrow, very peaky performance window. So for us, to create a broader window will hopefully only help Liam find a more, perhaps forgiving car than RB20 could be on occasion.
“I think one of the things we’ll be looking to protect Liam from is expectation. Of course, when Alex [Albon] and Pierre [Gasly] were with the team, Max wasn’t a four-time world champion. He hadn’t won a world championship at that point. We have a very clear positioning in the team with where Max is at in his career and what we need from the second driver.”
