Christian Horner says a big factor in the decision to move Liam Lawson to Racing Bulls after just two races was because his engineers had become “concerned” by his mental state.
New Zealander Lawson, 23, was handed the Red Bull seat last winter after the team decided to buy Sergio Pérez out of his contract for performance reasons. Lawson has now been replaced by Yuki Tsunoda.
At the time, Red Bull said they were impressed by the way Lawson stepped up to the challenge of replacing Daniel Ricciardo in sister team Racing Bulls towards the back end of last year. They also suggested they saw more potential in him than in long-term Racing Bulls driver Tsunoda.
However, Lawson struggled from the outset with Red Bull’s 2025 car, stuttering in testing and then enduring a horrific time in Australia and China.
Lawson crashed out of the former and qualified last in both the sprint race and the main grand prix in Shanghai. Inevitably his struggles were made to look even worse by the brilliance of Max Verstappen.
Horner says the team became increasingly concerned by Lawson’s demeanour. “I think with everything that we saw in Australia and China, you could see that it was really affecting Liam quite badly,” the Red Bull team principal told Sky Sports F1 ahead of this weekend’s race in Japan.
“We could have left it, and I think that Liam is a driver with talent. Maybe within half a season he would have got there, but we just don’t have that amount of time.
“It was something that was very clear to the engineering side within the team, just how much Liam was struggling with it all, and you could see that weight upon his shoulders.
“The engineers were coming to me very concerned about it, and at the end of the day, I think it was the logical thing to do.”
Horner added that the team had taken the decision to be “cruel to be kind”.
“Of course, it’s horrible because you’re taking away someone’s dreams and aspirations, but sometimes you’ve got to be cruel to be kind, and I think that in this instance, this is not the end for Liam,” he said.
“I was very clear with him, that it’s a sample of two races. I think that we’ve asked too much of you too soon.
“We have to accept that and so this is for him to, again, nurture that talent that we know that he has, back in ...
