Lawson Reveals Big Promise That Christian Horner Gave Him Last Year
F1Wednesday, 16 October 2024 at 21:00
During his latest podcast appearance, Liam Lawson revealed a promise that Red Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner made to him already in 2023.
The upcoming race weekend in Austin will be Liam Lawson's first in 2024. The New Zealander took over Daniel Ricciardo's spot for the remainder of the 2024 season, and now it is up to him to show what he's got.
The 22-year-old already had one such chance in 2023 and performed above expectations, beating his teammate Yuki Tsunoda. However, at the time, that wasn't enough to earn him a full-time seat for the next season.
It seemed pretty unfair that Lawson proved himself on the track, and yet he didn't get the seat in F1. But, as he revealed in the F1 Nation Podcast, Christian Horner promised he would race an F1 car this year one way or another.
"The idea of me jumping in is something that Christian told me a year ago. When I stepped out of the car, that was one of the things he said to me that, he said 'I give you my word I'll basically have you in a race at some point next year.'"
This suggests that Horner's grand plan from the beginning was to replace one of the Red Bull / RB drivers. On the other hand, as Liam Lawson highlighted, he could never be sure until he actually got the seat.
"So I always knew that was the intention, and it had been talked about. [But] as you know, Formula 1 is a rollercoaster, and every weekend, things change."
"So one minute it looks really good and then it doesn’t look good and it’s all depending on how the guys are actually going."
One more aspect that Lawson didn't like about his position was that his future depended purely on whether the drivers in Red Bull and RB underperform. He explained:
"It’s a bit horrible to be honest because you’re sitting there wondering what your chances are of driving and it completely depends on how the guys that are currently driving are doing."
"And you don't obviously want somebody's downfall to be your way in, but for me to drive, somebody has to leave, obviously."
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