Christian Horner pinpoints when Liam Lawson looked like a ‘seasoned campaigner’ before Red Bull promotion

Speculation surrounding who would be driving for Red Bull in 2025 has existed for months, but finally, the team have come to a decision.

Team principal Christian Horner sat down with Red Bull shareholders and chief advisor Helmut Marko after the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix to determine who should partner Sergio Perez next year.

Perez sunk to eighth in the Drivers’ Championship in 2024, costing Red Bull the Constructors’ title as Max Verstappen romped to his fourth consecutive championship.

Ultimately, Liam Lawson was promoted ahead of Racing Bulls teammate Yuki Tsunoda, becoming the least experienced driver to race for Red Bull since Vitantonio Liuzzi.

Lawson has taken part in just 11 Grand Prix after being parachuted into the 2023 Dutch Grand Prix following an injury to Daniel Ricciardo.

Despite missing out on a permanent race seat for the 2024 campaign, Lawson made enough of an impression that Horner and Marko were very keen to get him back into an F1 car this year.

Speaking to the media, including The Race, Horner explained why Red Bull decided to promote Lawson ahead of the alternatives available to the team.

Tsunoda was a candidate for a Red Bull seat and earlier in the year, Franco Colapinto impressed Red Bull staff with his cameos for Williams.

Red Bull opted for the young Kiwi over his rivals for several reasons, and Horner has pinpointed one race in which he was a level above the other inexperienced drivers on the grid.

Christian Horner impressed by Liam Lawson at the 2024 Sao Paulo Grand Prix

This year’s race in Sao Paulo was chaotic, with heavy rain forcing qualifying to take place on the morning of the race.

There were five red flags, but RB starred, with Tsunoda qualifying third and Lawson fifth, before the pair finished the race in P7 and P9 respectively.

Lawson held off Lewis Hamilton and Perez to achieve that feat despite being spun by Oscar Piastri and speaking about the race, Horner said: “Brazil was an interesting one where all the rookies looked a little bit like rookies this year.

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“Liam didn’t drop the car. He didn’t make any mistakes. He’s looked a seasoned campaigner.

“If you look at his performances, he’s agile as well. We put him in a DTM car for a year alongside Alex Albon, he was very quick in that.

“He races hard, and he’s got broad shoulders, and I think you need that to be in that seat. Checo, certainly, for three of the four years, coped with that pressure and comparison very well.

“And I think Liam has got the right character to be able to cope with the pressure [of] being Max’s team-mate and the expectations on him are very clear.”

Liam Lawson was one of the stars of the Brazilian Grand Prix as Colapinto and Bearman struggled

Although Lawson nearly crashed out in Sao Paulo, he kept his car on the track when many others failed to do so.

Colapinto brought out the safety car that helped Verstappen achieve one of his greatest victories as the Argentine tried to catch up to the safety car.

Oliver Bearman was deputising for Kevin Magnussen at Haas but also had a race to forget.

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He was penalised for colliding with Colapinto and spun on multiple occasions on his first experience in an F1 car in the wet.

Lawson knows he’s about to experience a different kind of pressure at Red Bull in 2025 compared to his two outings with RB.

Instead of racing for a permanent race seat, he racing for silverware and while supporting Verstappen is ultimately the goal, he will want to get a first podium under his belt quickly to avoid comparisons to Perez during his final moments with the team.