Red Bull boss Christian Horner has outlined the decisive trait that led to Liam Lawson being chosen as Max Verstappen’s new teammate.
The six-time constructors’ champions confirmed Sergio Perez’s departure on Wednesday after four years with the team.
Perez’s exit seemed inevitable after he recorded a paltry return of 21 points from the final ten races last season to finish an alarming 285 points behind Verstappen in the driver standings.
Despite having just 11 Grands Prix to his name, Red Bull opted to promote Lawson instead of Racing Bulls teammate Yuki Tsunoda, who has driven for Red Bull’s sister team for the last four years.
The Kiwi was drafted in to replace Daniel Ricciardo with six races remaining in the 2024 season, where he recorded two top-ten finishes in his first three races.
Interestingly, Tsunoda recorded more points than Lawson did from the final six Grands Prix last season.
However, when explaining why Lawson got the nod over his Racing Bulls teammate, Horner outlined it wasn’t necessarily a racing-related characteristic that proved to be the difference.
“There’s a process, we all have shareholders, you make a recommendation and the shareholders have always been tremendously supportive,” Horner said on talkSPORT’s White and Jordan.
“Liam’s a product of our junior team and he’s a young talent that we took on six years ago and nurtured him through the lower Formula, as we did with Sebastian Vettel and as we’ve done with Max.
“I think we’re seeing in him a character and a robustness to deal with the pressure of being Max’s teammate. He’s only done 11 Prix but he impressed us and the engineering staff and, of course, the scrutiny he will be under as Max’s teammate.
“If you liken it to football you can’t have two centre-forwards, you’ve got to have strength and depth in your team, and Liam with the experience he has coming into the team is there to provide that strength and depth in what we need from an engineering and tactical perspective because it’s going to be tight next year.
“Ferrari have got [Lewis] Hamilton and [Charles] Leclerc, two very strong drivers, McLaren have [Lando] Norris and [Oscar] Piastri.”
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Horner also outlined how Red Bull operates with a different approach to some of their rivals on the grid in terms of how they choose which driver to back.
“We’re perhaps slightly different to other teams where it’s about communication and being up front with the drivers and we go, ‘Max Verstappen is the most valuable asset in Formula 1, he’s our lead driver, if you can get close to him, fantastic.’ But the reality is, the expectation is for Max to win.”
The Red Bull boss added he felt a line-up like Ferrari’s for next season, which boasts two superstars in Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton, can be ‘divisive’ given the team has to throw their full support behind both.
For Tsunoda, the snub means it will be a fifth year racing for Red Bull’s sister team.
Lawson’s promotion also means Tsunoda will have a new teammate at Racing Bulls for the fifth time, having raced alongside the Kiwi, Ricciardo, Pierre Gasly and Nyck de Vries.
Although Tsunoda was understandably disappointed at the Red Bull snub, Horner refused to shut the door on the Japanese star eventually earning the promotion he craves.
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“I spoke to him a short while ago and he’s more motivated than ever,” Horner said.
“He wants to prove us wrong, obviously. And as I said to him, this sport moves so quickly. This industry moves so quickly that he just needs to keep doing a great job in the Racing Bulls team.
“I think that he’s got a lot of talent. He drove our car at a test just a week or so ago as we wanted to really evaluate him and he impressed the engineering staff.
“It’s just we felt that Liam’s trajectory that he’s on in the short space of time that he’s had, together with his mental strength and resilience, were the right assets to partner Max next year.
“Arguably that seat is the toughest in Formula One, going up against Max Verstappen who is at the peak of his career.”
Lawson will look to get his Red Bull career off to a promising start when the 2025 season begins with the Australian GP in Melbourne on March 16.