Liam Lawson refused to be drawn into Christian Horner’s claim in his autobiography, Drive, that he “shouldn’t have been promoted” to Red Bull in 2025.
Despite having contested just 11 Grands Prix over two seasons, Lawson was promoted to Red Bull alongside Max Verstappen for the 2025 season.
Liam Lawson has responded to Christian Horner’s should never have been promoted claim
His stint with the Milton Keynes squad lasted all of two Grands Prix.
After Lawson failed to progress out of Q1 and scored no points, then-Red Bull team principal Christian Horner stated that the team had “a duty of care to protect and develop” him before demoting him back to Racing Bulls.
Horner, writing in his autobiography, says Lawson should never have been promoted in the first place.
“Liam was another racer from the junior programme and Helmut had championed the promotion, but I felt uncomfortable,” the 52-year-old wrote.
“He was young and inexperienced, with only eleven Formula 1 races to his name, and we would be asking a huge amount from him…
“Liam only lasted two races [with Red Bull]. He struggled in pre-season testing and was clearly uncomfortable with the RB21’s difficult handling characteristics.
“His confidence was smashed and, as with Pierre Gasly and Alex Albon, his arrival at Red Bull had come too soon.
“Sensing that the pressure on Liam was unfair, we replaced him.”
“The move back [to Racing] Bulls was tough for Liam,” Horner added. “But he really shouldn’t have been promoted in the first place.”
Lawson refused to be drawn on the subject when asked about it during Thursday’s media day at the United States Grand Prix.
“Yeah, I haven’t read it yet,” he said of the book.
Asked what was said about him, he was told that Horner wrote that he shouldn’t have been promoted to Red Bull.
Lawson opted not to get into that.
“Yeah, yeah,” he said. “I mean, it feels like a long time ago now.”
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That, though, wasn’t Horner’s only revelation, as he claimed both George Russell and Lando Norris had used Red Bull’s simulator during their junior careers.
The Briton said that both Norris and Russell, as well as Oscar Piastri, “were paying us [Red Bull] to go on our simulator”.
Russell explained there isn’t anything more to the story than wanting to gain experience on a simulator.
“So back in 2013, simulators weren’t really a thing for anybody,” the now-Mercedes driver said.
“Junior teams didn’t have simulators, and yeah, there was an opportunity to do some driving on that simulator in the Formula Renault car.
“It was more as preparation for testing and driving for the series that we were racing because, as I said, no teams had had it.
“That’s the extent of it. I know… Yeah, that’s all I’ll say.”
It was the same for Norris.
The reigning world champion said: “This is when I was like 13. This was way before McLaren. I couldn’t be driving someone else’s sim when I’m with McLaren. No, this is like five years, four years before McLaren even. I don’t know. I don’t know. I’ve not seen any of this or heard any of it.
“So I was doing it with a lot of different teams. I was trying to get experience. I was learning from different people. At that age, it’s more valuable than ever to do as much as you possibly can.
“So yeah, I drove on different simulators from different teams because it was a good thing for me, especially at that age. But I don’t know what came out of it after that. So it was more just for my own learning than anything else.”
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