Christian Horner gives his verdict on Liam Lawson complicating driver situation at Red Bull
Liam Lawson's future remains undecided even though he put up a stellar performance at the Singapore GP.
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Thanks to the instances of Pierre Gasly’s demotion and Nyck deVries‘ drop from AlphaTauri, it can very well be said that the hiring situation at Red Bull is always dynamic. The Austrian team and its sister squad AlphaTauri are always scrutinizing their racers’ performances to decide whether they wish to have them continue driving throughout the season. Headed by Chief Advisor Helmut Marko, the recruitment process of Red Bull is obviously very strict. None of the racers at RBR and AlphaTauri have permanent seats, and they can be dropped or demoted to a reserve role at any time–even in the middle of the season.
While Red Bull still looks to be stable with their line-up consisting of Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen, the same cannot be said about AlphaTauri. Ahead of the 2023 season, they took up former Formula E Champion Nyck deVries to partner Yuki Tsunoda as Pierre Gasly left for Alpine. But Marko decided mid-season that deVries was not performing up to the mark, hence they dropped him and promoted Red Bull reserve driver Daniel Ricciardo to replace him.
Only weeks after his comeback to regular racing in Red Bull, the Honey Badger succumbed to a horrific crash that resulted in a wrist injury. Thus, another Red Bull driver Liam Lawson was loaned to AlphaTauri for the time that the Aussie took to recover from the injury. And Lawson has now impressed everyone with his superior racing as he scored a top 10 finish with his AlphaTauri in his third Grand Prix as an F1 racer. This has led to the dilemma of whether Lawson deserves a seat at the Faenza outfit in 2024.
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Christian Horner deviates from discussing what Liam Lawson’s Singapore GP performance means
Liam Lawson stepped foot at the Marina Bay Street Circuit, one of the toughest racetracks in the calendar, for the first time. And the Kiwi was able to score a top 10 finish by leaving several heavyweight opponents behind. This obviates the fact that he deserves a seat at AlphaTauri for the next year–but it was almost fixed that the pairing of Yuki Tsunoda and Daniel Ricciardo will continue in 2024.
Denying to comment on Lawson’s future, Christian Horner simply applauded the racer, saying (as quoted by @JunaidSamodien_), “I think he’s done a great job. I mean, obviously he’s a rebel racing driver on loan to AlphaTauri, as all the drivers are there, and I think he’s done an impressive job in considering the circumstances.”
On the other hand, Liam Lawson has said that he has gotten a taste of racing in Formula One with the opportunity of replacing Ricciardo. And now, he does not want to settle for anything less than a regular racing seat in the next season of F1. This might mean that Lawson and Ricciardo will pair up to race for AlphaTauri in 2024 while Yuki Tsunoda will be kept in reserve for a seat at Red Bull.
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Riddhi Mondal
(1821 Articles Published)