{"id":639927,"date":"2026-10-24T11:20:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-24T11:20:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/639927\/"},"modified":"2026-10-24T11:20:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-24T11:20:12","slug":"liam-lawson-responds-to-christian-horners-claim-he-shouldnt-have-joined-red-bull","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/639927\/","title":{"rendered":"Liam Lawson responds to Christian Horner’s claim he shouldn’t have joined Red Bull"},"content":{"rendered":"

Liam Lawson<\/a> refused to be drawn into Christian Horner\u2019s claim in his autobiography, Drive, that he \u201cshouldn\u2019t have been promoted\u201d to Red Bull<\/a> in 2025.<\/p>\n

Despite having contested just 11 Grands Prix over two seasons, Lawson was promoted to Red Bull alongside Max Verstappen for the 2025 season.<\/p>\n

Liam Lawson has responded to Christian Horner\u2019s should never have been promoted claim<\/p>\n

His stint with the Milton Keynes squad lasted all of two Grands Prix.<\/p>\n

After Lawson<\/a> failed to progress out of Q1 and scored no points, then-Red Bull team principal Christian Horner stated that the team had \u201ca duty of care to protect and develop\u201d him before demoting him back to Racing Bulls.<\/p>\n

Horner, writing in his autobiography, says Lawson should never have been promoted in the first place.<\/p>\n

\u201cLiam was another racer from the junior programme and Helmut had championed the promotion, but I felt uncomfortable,\u201d the 52-year-old wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was young and inexperienced, with only eleven Formula 1 races to his name, and we would be asking a huge amount from him\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cLiam only lasted two races [with Red Bull]. He struggled in pre-season testing and was clearly uncomfortable with the RB21\u2019s difficult handling characteristics.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis confidence was smashed and, as with Pierre Gasly and Alex Albon, his arrival at Red Bull had come too soon.<\/p>\n

\u201cSensing that the pressure on Liam was unfair, we replaced him.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe move back [to Racing] Bulls was tough for Liam,\u201d Horner added. \u201cBut he really shouldn\u2019t have been promoted in the first place.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lawson refused to be drawn on the subject when asked about it during Thursday\u2019s media day at the United States Grand Prix.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, I haven\u2019t read it yet,\u201d he said of the book.<\/p>\n

Asked what was said about him, he was told that Horner wrote that he shouldn\u2019t have been promoted to Red Bull.<\/p>\n

Lawson opted not to get into that.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, yeah,\u201d he said. \u201cI mean, it feels like a long time ago now.\u201d<\/p>\n

More on Liam Lawson from PlanetF1.com<\/p>\n

Helmut Marko opts for \u2018difficult\u2019 Liam Lawson decision amid Racing Bulls uncertainty<\/a><\/p>\n

Liam Lawson\u2019s Racing Bulls uncertainty baffles F1 pundit<\/a><\/p>\n

Russell and Norris explain previous Red Bull visits after Christian Horner book claims<\/p>\n

That, though, wasn\u2019t Horner\u2019s only revelation, as he claimed both George Russell and Lando Norris had used Red Bull\u2019s simulator during their junior careers.<\/p>\n

The Briton said that both Norris and Russell, as well as Oscar Piastri, \u201cwere paying us [Red Bull] to go on our simulator\u201d.<\/p>\n

Russell explained there isn\u2019t anything more to the story than wanting to gain experience on a simulator.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo back in 2013, simulators weren\u2019t really a thing for anybody,\u201d the now-Mercedes driver said.<\/p>\n

\u201cJunior teams didn\u2019t have simulators, and yeah, there was an opportunity to do some driving on that simulator in the Formula Renault car.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was more as preparation for testing and driving for the series that we were racing because, as I said, no teams had had it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the extent of it. I know\u2026 Yeah, that\u2019s all I\u2019ll say.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was the same for Norris.<\/p>\n

The reigning world champion said: \u201cThis is when I was like 13. This was way before McLaren. I couldn\u2019t be driving someone else\u2019s sim when I\u2019m with McLaren. No, this is like five years, four years before McLaren even. I don\u2019t know. I don\u2019t know. I\u2019ve not seen any of this or heard any of it.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo 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\u2019s more valuable than ever to do as much as you possibly can.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo yeah, I drove on different simulators from different teams because it was a good thing for me, especially at that age. But I don\u2019t know what came out of it after that. So it was more just for my own learning than anything else.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read Next: Horner reveals Russell approach after Wolff\u2019s Verstappen pursuit<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Liam Lawson refused to be drawn into Christian Horner\u2019s claim in his autobiography, Drive, that he \u201cshouldn\u2019t have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":639928,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[55011,77078,1463,4260,5704,111,43,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-639927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-christian-horner","tag-george-russell","tag-home-page","tag-lando-norris","tag-liam-lawson","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639927","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=639927"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639927\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/639928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=639927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=639927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=639927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}