Christian Horner has praised Liam Lawson for the job he’s done in a short period of time, in what has been a six-race audition for a full-time race seat in F1 2025.

Lawson was parachuted in to replace the struggling Daniel Ricciardo for the final six races of the 2024 season, following on from his five-race substitution run in place of the injured Australian last year.

Christian Horner: Liam Lawson has done a very good job

Lawson is without a confirmed seat for next season, but is understood to be the frontrunner to replace Sergio Perez at Red Bull Racing, should the team opt to part ways with the Mexican driver as negotiations continue after Abu Dhabi.

Should the RBR drive not play out, Lawson is a near-certainty to fill the seat at Racing Bulls, with the VCARB cockpit the only one yet to be confirmed.

Having just completed his 11th race in Formula 1, Lawson may not yet be hitting the highs that Yuki Tsunoda is reaching in the other VCARB, but his potential is believed to excite Red Bull – Lawson’s comparative lack of experience relative to Tsunoda being a particularly big differentiator between the pair.

Having completed his six-race audition with a pair of ninth places, both of which came in two of his first three races this season, Lawson has been praised by Red Bull team boss Christian Horner when asked whether he had passed said audition by PlanetF1.com.

“I think Liam, in challenging circumstances, he’s done a very good job,” Horner said.

“If you analyse what he’s done, in the time that he’s had and the race pace that he’s had, I think he’s done a good job.”

Tsunoda, who outscored Lawson in that same six-race period thanks to a seventh place in Sao Paulo, also earned the praise of Horner as the Japanese driver got a further chance to impress as he took over the RB20 for a day’s testing at Yas Marina on Tuesday.

“I think Yuki has done a good job [too],” Horner said.

“So, in the event that anything we decide with Checo, [they’ll] be the candidates, obviously, that we’ll look towards.”

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Asked whether there is sympathy for Perez as the Mexican driver struggled to unlock performance from the car with which Max Verstappen won the title, Horner said: “Obviously, the benchmark is always your teammate. The car has won nine races, with Max at the wheel, it’s had 10 poles.

“It’s had, I forget how many podiums, but a significant number of podiums and fastest laps.

“It’s been far from the easiest car and Max is the hardest teammate in the world to have.

“So it’s a difficult, difficult job to sit next to Max and to extract the maximum out of the car.

“For sure, RB20 has been one of the more challenging cars that we’ve produced – its operational window to extract the maximum performance has been very, very narrow, and that’s something that we’ll be working to broaden next year.”

Speaking in an exclusive interview with PlanetF1.com, Lawson spoke of what excites him the most about the prospect of lining up alongside Verstappen at Red Bull, if the opportunity does arise.

“For me as a driver, to be able to go in against the guy who’s won four world championships and is well seasoned…. he’s been in that car for a long time,” he said.

“That car is almost… not developed around him, but he’s been a massive part of developing that car and understands it very well.

“In terms of how to drive it, it’s all right there on paper. When you see all the data that he brings in, for me as a driver to be alongside that, to be able to learn from him and have all that access, I think that’s what’s exciting for me about the opportunity… if that opportunity was to come in the future.”

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