Horner outlines Lawson role with a warning – The Red Bull debacle over its driver lineup is for now put to bed. Having battled through there final ten race weekends of the year to claim just 21 points, Sergio Perez has been put out of his misery, yet the decision taken over whom should replace the Mexican driver have not received universal approval from F1 observers.
Liam Lawson has had an unusual start to his F1 career, standing in for the injured Daniel Ricciardo forgive Grand Prix back in 2023. Many paddock folk believed the New Zealander had in fact done enough for a full time seat in 2024, but Ricciardo just got the nod potentially because his run in the RB team had been disrupted by a broken hand.
Daniel had been re-recruited by Red Bull because he was the only driver in a decade who had challenged and beaten Max Verstappen before the Aussie left the team for Renault F1 in 2019. Yet Ricciardo 2.0 failed to live up to the glorious memories off yesteryear where he was tagged by Sky F1 commentator Martin Brundle, “the last of the late brakers.”
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Known for his daring overtaking moves, Ricciardo blotted his copybook during the final season with Red Bull. At the Azerbaijan Grand Prix the Honey Badger had been overtaken by his team mate who had the undercut during the round of pit stops. Ricciardo attempted to retake the place at the end of the long front straight and as Verstappen moved late to defend the first corner, the resulting coming together was spectacular for everyone besides the Red Bull team.
This appeared to knock the wind out of Ricciardo’s sails who prior to the Baku smash had double the points of his Dutch team mate. Yes he did claim victory in the Monaco Grand Prix making him eligible for motorsports triple crown but week in and out he was bettered by Max Verstappen who finished the year a whopping 79 points ahead of his team mate.
With Ricciardo 2.0 out of the picture, all attention turned to Yuki Tsunoda now in his fourth year with the Racing Bulls. Yet despite the Japanese driver winning the Grand Prix qualifying battle 6-0 over Lawson and racking up double Lawson’s points tally in their six outings together, the big pow wow in Milton Keynes saw the shareholders and team management settle on the New Zealander to take on Max at Red Bull.
Tsunoda had suggested prior to the white smoke emerging from the Red Bull conclave, that should they chose Lawson over himself, it would be a “little bit weird.” Yet weird kind of defined the Red Bull F1 teams season in 2024, as Verstappen romped home in the drivers’ title race, while Red Bull dropped like a stone to third.
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Marko says Tsunoda mentality not right
Marko explained the Tsunoda decision to Kleine Zeitung stating, “The decision was certainly disappointing for him. His speed is undisputed, but he lacks a certain consistency and he is also a very emotional driver.
“Lawson’s overall package was just right, and Yuki Tsunoda is the spearhead for the Racing Bulls,” concluded the 81 year old Austrian.
Yuki was apparently back in Japan when the news was broken to him by telephone yet he had already made clear his keenness to take on the challenge of Max Verstappen. “One chance, even if it’s only one race, I’d still cherish that. One session [with Red Bull], with him [Verstappen]. I would take it with both hands,” said Tsunoda.
“I dare say that too, because I have that self-confidence now. Don’t get me wrong, he’s a fast driver, of course. This year he has impressed many people, including me. But I can fight him. I think I can do better than Red Bull thinks. So even if I only get one chance, I could prove what I can do. I would definitely do better than Checo. I could help them with the constructors’ championship,” concluded the RB driver.
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Marko sets Lawson target, but….
With just eleven Grand Prix outings under his belt, Liam Lawson will be under severe scrutiny as early as pre-season testing in Bahrain. He will be compared to his four times champion team mate and dr. Helmut Marko has outline already his expectations for Lawson.
Speaking to RTL in December, the Red Bull advisor had strong advice for the young New Zealander. “Accept that Max Verstappen is the best and see how far you can get. But don’t come into our team thinking: ‘I’m going to beat him.’ That’s where it went wrong with all his teammates.”
“If Lawson can stay within three tenths of Max in both qualifying and races, he will meet the team’s goals. That should be enough for points in the constructors’ championship. In addition, Lawson must continue to develop steadily,” Marko concluded. Come the end of June 2024, Sergio Perez had an average qualifying time deficit to his team mate of 0.3023 seconds, yet suffered a 124 point deficit to Verstappen.
Christian Horner now outlines his thoughts on the task ahead of Lawson and issues his own warning to Liam on how to approach the immediate future. “Daniel and Max were a strong pairing, we then had two juniors that struggled and that’s why Checo stepped into the car for the 2021 season, and coped with the pressure,” Horner assembled media post Lawson being announced.
RB21 needs wider operating window
“The other factor we’re focused very hard on is making sure that we’re creating a wider operating window with the RB21 than the RB20, which was very narrow and was a peaky performance window.
“For us to create a broader window will hopefully help Liam find a more forgiving car than the RB20 could be on occasion.” The erratic nature of the RB20 was evident for all to see with Verstappen at times winning handsomely then being nowhere in places like Monaco and Singapore.
“One thing we will be looking to do is protect Liam from is expectation, and of course, when Alex and Pierre were with the team, Max wasn’t the four-time world champion,” Horner continues.
The toughest challenge for Lawson
“He hadn’t won a world championship at that point, but we have a very clear positioning within the team with where Max is at in his career, and what we need from the second driver.”
Christian Horner’s observations about the struggles of Albon and Gasly before Verstappen was a four times world champion are hardly encouraging for Lawson, yet F1 is the so called pinnacle of motorsport and for now just twenty drivers in the world get the chance of taking the grid in the biggest of the global motorsports competitions.
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Newey hits out at Red Bull restrictions
Adrian Newey is considered one of – if not THE – best F1 car designers of all time. He was recruited from McLaren when the energy drinks empire bought the defunct Jaguar team and completed eighteen years with the Milton Keynes based outfit.
As with all creative geniuses, Newey has needed managing during his mammoth stint with Red Bull following disagreements at both Williams and McLaren which forced him to look elsewhere after a relatively short tenure with the teams.
Newey became disillusioned with Formula One when the V6 turbo hybrid power units were introduced in 2014 for two reasons. Firstly the regulations now favoured dominant power over his clever aerodynamics and secondly Renault who were supplying Red Bull with the new powertrains had failed to invest properly in the research and development of the new V6 engines…. READ MORE
With over 30 years of experience in Formula 1 as an insider journalist, I have built trusted connections across the paddock, from race engineers and mechanics to senior team figures. At The Judge 13, I and a handful of trusted colleagues share exclusive Formula 1 news, expert analysis and behind-the-scenes stories you will not find in mainstream motorsport media.
