Christian Horner says Liam Lawson shouldn’t have been promoted to Red Bull in 2025. Image: XPB Images
The former Red Bull team principal has detailed his concerns over the decision in his new autobiography, Drive, arguing Lawson should never have been placed alongside Max Verstappen with so little experience.
Lawson was selected to replace Sergio Perez after making just 11 grand prix starts, but lasted only two races before being sent back to Racing Bulls.
Horner explained that Helmut Marko, who oversaw Red Bull’s junior driver program, had been instrumental in securing Lawson’s promotion despite his own reservations.
“Helmut [Marko] has championed the promotion, but I felt uncomfortable,” Horner wrote.
“He was young and inexperienced, with only 11 Formula 1 races to his name, and we would be asking a huge amount from him, and meanwhile, Helmut was playing games.
“Before the final race of the [2024] season in Abu Dhabi, he had informed Liam that he would be driving for Red Bull because of his influence.
“When I challenged Helmut on this, he typically denied everything.”
The decision unravelled almost immediately, with Lawson crashing out of the Australian Grand Prix before finishing 12th in China.
Red Bull subsequently replaced him with Yuki Tsunoda ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix, leaving Lawson to rebuild his career at the sister team.
Looking back on the decision, Horner maintained that the mistake had been made before Lawson even entered the cockpit.
“The move back to Racing Bulls was tough for Liam. But he really shouldn’t have been promoted in the first place,” he wrote.
Horner’s account adds another perspective to a decision Lawson has continued to question, having revealed earlier this year that he was completely blindsided by his demotion.
Speaking on the High Performance Podcast in June, Lawson said he had dismissed rumours about losing his seat because he trusted the team, only to discover he would not be returning for the next race.
He also detailed how Red Bull had experimented with substantial set-up changes in China, believing the difficult weekend would provide useful information for the races ahead.
Lawson suggested he would have approached that weekend differently had he known it would be his final appearance for the team.
However, Lawson was handed an unexpected opportunity to return to Red Bull earlier this season, replacing the injured Isack Hadjar for three races.
His second stint produced markedly different results, with seventh at Zandvoort and sixth in Madrid contributing to a 14-point haul.
The performances drew praise from Horner’s successor Laurent Mekies, who highlighted the progress Lawson had made since his first experience with the senior team.
Lawson has since returned to Racing Bulls and continued his strongest Formula 1 season, sitting ninth in the drivers’ championship with 75 points.
His fifth-place finish in the sprint and seventh in the grand prix at the previous round in Singapore brought his contribution to Racing Bulls to 61 points this season, accounting for 61 percent of the team’s total.
Despite those results, his place on the grid for 2027 remains unconfirmed, with Racing Bulls yet to finalise its driver line-up amid speculation surrounding Formula 2 contender Nikola Tsolov.
Team principal Alan Permane has indicated a decision will come in the coming weeks, with Lawson and current teammate Arvid Lindblad both being tipped to remain.
Formula 1 returns this weekend for the United States Grand Prix in Austin.