Horner remains confident in Lawson but does not reassure

Two small Grand Prix and then it's gone? The Chinese one had barely finished when the paddock was flooded with a new rumor, or rather new information: Liam Lawson is already under threat of being replaced at Red Bull. This was in any case the trend coming out of this second round of the 2025 season in Shanghai.

The New Zealander could thus be replaced at the Japanese Grand Prix in two weeks (April 4-6) by Yuki tsunoda according to rumors heard in China. It must be said that the Kiwi has had a complicated start to his adventure with the Austrians, almost unable to find performance in the RB21 with which he is stuck at the back of the grid.

While a rebound was expected after the wreck in Australia, last weekend confirmed this trend with a last place in qualifying (however hampered on his last flying lap. Editor's note) and a 15th place on Sunday after starting from the pit lane (finally 12th after the disqualifications of gasly, Hamilton and Leclerc). Results far from the expectations of Red Bull management while he had been able to show good things with Racing Bulls in 2024.

« Liam has had some tough races, a tough weekend here in China, recognised his team principal Christian Horner. We chose to take him off the grid to break the parc fermé and make a significant setup change. This allowed us to gather very important data over 56 laps. We'll take that, analyze it, and as a team, we'll do our best to support him. »

Will this support translate into a reiteration of their confidence? Asked about what has been said regarding Liam Lawson's future, Christian Horner seems to believe in his driver, even if his words are far from reassuring, as he was unable to confirm that he will indeed be in the shoes of a Red Bull driver at Suzuka in two weeks.

« There will always be speculation, continues the leader of Milton Keynes. As I said, we have just finished the race, we will take the information and analyze it carefully.. » When asked about the subject again, Horner simply repeated the same sentence over and over again, adding that " Lawson still has potential, but we don't realize it yet. I think the problem for him is that he's had two very difficult weekends and he has all the media on his back.

The pressure naturally increases in this business. I feel really sorry for him… you can see it's very hard for him right now. He's a young driver, we have a duty to look after him. We'll do our best to support him. Liam is still a very capable driver, we know that, but we don't see him… for whatever reason, we don't see him capable of performing right now.. » Far from being the speech a pilot would want to hear from his boss.

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