Replacement for Sergio Perez: Liam Lawson over Yuki Tsunoda, a “close” decision, says Christian Horner

Christian Horner said the decision to promote Liam Lawson to Red Bull instead of Yuki Tsunoda was a marginal decision.

On Thursday, Red Bull confirmed that Lawson will be Max Verstappen’s teammate in 2025 and a replacement for Sergio Perez, who has left the team.

Lawson returned to RB this year but only has 11 Formula 1 races to his name – Tsunoda was with RB’s junior team for four seasons and tested for Red Bull in end-of-season testing in Abu Dhabi.

Despite Tsunoda’s impressive recent form, Lawson’s upward trajectory has outpaced him.

“It was very, very close between the two of them,” Horner said. “I mean, Yuki is a very fast driver. He has three or four seasons of experience now. He did a very good job during the tire test for us in Abu Dhabi, where the engineers were impressed with his performance.”

“But we just felt with Liam, if you look at the analysis of his race, the pace was a little bit better in the races he ran. His qualifying pace was very close to Yuki and you have to believe the potential is there.” Having only completed 11 Grands Prix, Liam will only get better and stronger. He has shown real mental resilience and toughness.

“The engineers enjoyed working with him during the races he completed this year. He also has a good work ethic. So it’s great that Yuki is still involved in the Racing Bull scene next year. And of course he should be on standby.” He will ever be needed.

Lawson takes on a role that could be described as something of a poisoned chalice. Since Daniel Ricciardo left Red Bull at the end of 2018, Pierre Gasly, Alex Albon and now Perez have all left the team on the back of a spiraling form compared to Max Verstappen, who won his fourth consecutive world title this season.

Perez’s poor form cost Red Bull the constructors’ championship last year.

Horner suggested Red Bull have learned lessons from Perez’s effort, which will help Lawson deal with the pressure.

“I think the most important thing is not to put too much pressure on him and not to put too much pressure on himself to compete against the best driver of his generation. And I think that he should just almost ignore the data of what is.” If he continues on car 1, he’ll just focus on what he’s doing with his own technical team and just do the best job possible, then will he is fine. And hopefully we can support him in that.

“Hopefully next year we can offer a car that suits him as well as Max does and we’ll see how he goes.”