Red Bull Racing are one of eight teams on the Formula 1 grid starting the 2025 season with an updated driver line-up.
Max Verstappen goes into the upcoming campaign as the reigning drivers’ champion and will be desperate to win a fifth consecutive title.
The Dutchman is joined by Liam Lawson at Red Bull this season after impressing during two brief cameos with Racing Bulls.
Lawson initially got his break at very late notice, replacing Daniel Ricciardo at the 2023 Dutch Grand Prix after the Australian was injured during practice.
He took part in five races, scoring points and outqualifying Verstappen in Singapore before making way for Ricciardo for the rest of the campaign.
The 23-year-old was then given a more permanent role within the team for the final six Grand Prix of 2024 when it became clear that Ricciardo was no longer an option to replace Sergio Perez.
Lawson and Perez clashed in Mexico City and the Kiwi quickly ruffled Fernando Alonso’s feathers but he impressed on his return to the grid.
Ultimately, once Red Bull knew they would be replacing Perez, they had to decide between promoting Lawson and his teammate Yuki Tsunoda.
In an interview with the Beyond The Grid Podcast, Lawson shared how Horner told him the news and the hilarious response he sent back to his new team principal.
Liam Lawson explains gym photo response to Red Bull boss Christian Horner after F1 promotion news
Lawson was asked how he discovered he would be driving for Red Bull this season and explained: “I knew about the meeting that was being held on the Monday after the race.
“And yeah, I couldn’t not do anything during the day, so I just went to the gym.
“Normally, I would say we don’t do an intense gym session the day after a Grand Prix because we’ve just done a Grand Prix.
“But I couldn’t think of anything else to do, and we had testing the next day, so we were just sitting in a hotel in Abu Dhabi.
“So I went with my trainer, and we just did a workout that I would enjoy doing. And it was a midway through that session that I had a text from Christian.
“It was one line, it was basically, ‘All good, keep it to yourself,’ that was a text and then he called me a couple of hours later. He gave me the one-liner, ‘Welcome to Red Bull Racing’.”
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Lawson was asked if the news ended his gym session and he admitted: “Yeah, we carried on! It was a much more fun second half of the gym session.
“I sent him [Christian] a photo! Yeah, I sat on this for like 20 minutes.
“Like, should I send him a photo of me in the gym? Should I show him that I’m working hard? And I did.
“And it’s literally just me, grinning in the mirror! Such a proud photo!”
Liam Lawson’s Red Bull expectations explained ahead of the Australian Grand Prix
Although pre-season testing doesn’t provide conclusive evidence of how the campaign will play out, it looks like the four strongest teams from last year have re-established that position.
McLaren and Ferrari both have incredible driver line-ups but that could play to Verstappen’s advantage.
Lawson won’t be expected to challenge Verstappen initially, instead, Horner will hope he can regularly score decent points to mount a constructors’ championship challenge.
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If Verstappen opens up a lead over Lawson in the standings early on, then he may be subject to team orders if he’s ever running in front of the Dutchman to let him pass.
Lawson is popular within Verstappen’s camp already and actions like that would only enhance his reputation.
However, the New Zealander has already shown that he doesn’t take any prisoners out on track and will be keen to show that same sort of attitude again this season.
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