Responding to rumours about the Red Bull seat, Christian Horner admitted that Liam Lawson is facing a tough start to the season. He stated that the team is carefully analysing data to support Lawson, while remaining non-committal on speculation about a potential seat switch involving Yuki Tsunoda.
Just two races into the 2025 Formula 1 season, questions are already swirling around Liam Lawson’s future at Red Bull Racing following a challenging start to his campaign with the championship-winning team.
The Kiwi driver has struggled to make an impact since his promotion to the senior team, with his Chinese Grand Prix weekend marking another difficult outing. After qualifying last for both the sprint race and the main event, Lawson started from the pitlane for the second consecutive race and could only manage a 12th place finish, albeit benefitting from disqualifications further up the field.
This performance follows his Australian Grand Prix weekend, where he qualified 18th before crashing out in tricky conditions during the race in Melbourne.
Horner’s data-driven approach
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner appears to be taking a methodical approach to evaluating Lawson’s position within the team when speaking in his print media session.
“I think Liam’s had a tough couple of races, a tough weekend here,” Horner said after the Chinese Grand Prix. “We elected to take him off the grid out of parc fermé to do a significant set-up change, and so we’ve managed to get 56 laps of reasonable data from that.”
The team principal emphasised the importance of gathering information before making any decisions.
“We have quite a bit of information. Obviously, we’ll take that away, we’ll have a good look at it and as a group we’ll do our best to support him,” he explained.
Horner elaborated on the team’s analytical process, saying, “We’ll just continue to evaluate it. We’ll take away a stack of data to go and have a look at. That’s what we’ll do. Obviously, there’s 400 engineers in our team that are all trawling through the 600 sensors that are on the car. There’s an awful lot of information that we have.”
Outlining some key areas for assessment, the Red Bull Team Principal said, “Look, I think there’s so much info, how he’s adapted driving the car, what he’s getting from the car, what can we do to help, where are his major issues, what’s causing inconsistency, all of those issues.”
The speculation on Tsunoda grows
Horner was careful not to entertain speculation about Tsunoda replacing Lawson but notably did not dismiss the possibility outright.
“There’s always going to be speculation in the paddock. As I say, we’ve only just finished the race here. We’ll take away the info and have a good look at it,” he said.
When pressed on the likelihood of a driver swap, Horner remained noncommittal. “There’s nothing specific that’s been set up,” he explained. “Look, I think everything is purely speculative at the moment. I think Liam still has got potential. We’re just not realising that at the moment.”
He also avoided directly addressing the rumours of Tsunoda’s promotion, saying, “I’m not even going to comment on a change because that would be your first headline. As I say, we’re two races into this championship. We have a sample of two.”
The pressure is on for Liam Lawson
Horner acknowledged the mounting pressure on Lawson and the impact it could have on the young driver. Speaking to the media, Horner said, “I think the problem for him is he’s had a couple of really tough weekends.”
“He’s got all the media on his back, a whole bunch. The pressure just naturally grows in this business, and I feel very sorry for him. You can see it’s very tough on him at the moment.”
Despite the struggles, Horner insisted that Red Bull remains committed to supporting Lawson through his difficulties.
“I think he’s a young guy. We’ve got a duty to look after him and we’re going to do the best that we can to support him. And, yes, Liam’s still a very capable driver. We know that. We’re just not seeing it for whatever reason. We’re not seeing him able to deliver that at the moment.”
