Christian Horner lays down law to Liam Lawson over Max Verstappen

Christian Horner has confirmed that Liam Lawson is to support Max Verstappen at Red Bull in F1 2025, with the reigning World Champion “the most valuable asset in Formula 1.”

Red Bull announced this week that Lawson will become Verstappen’s new team-mate for the F1 2025 season after Sergio Perez vacated his seat.

Christian Horner confirms Liam Lawson to support Max Verstappen at Red Bull

Lawson’s place alongside Yuki Tsunoda at the Racing Bulls team has been inherited by Isack Hadjar, who will be one of five rookies on the grid next season.

Lawson’s rise to a Red Bull seat comes despite the New Zealander making just 11 F1 appearances, spread across the 2023 and 2024 seasons, to date.

The 22-year-old faces the greatest test of his career so far as he slots in alongside Verstappen, who has established himself as one of the greatest drivers in F1 history over recent years by winning four consecutive World Championships.

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Horner has made it clear that Lawson is expected to fulfil a support role in F1 2025, confirming that Verstappen is Red Bull’s “lead driver.”

And he reckons Lawson will be a “fantastic” signing if he can just “get close” to his illustrious team-mate on the timesheets next season.

Asked if Lawson has been signed to “complement” Verstappen, Horner told talkSPORT: “Absolutely.

“If you liken it to football, you can’t have two [elite] centre forwards – you’ve got to have strength and depth in your team.

“I think that Liam, with the experience that he has coming into the team, is there to provide that strength in depth in what we need from an engineering perspective, from a tactical perspective, because it’s going to be tight next year.

“You’ve got Ferrari that’ll have [Lewis] Hamilton and [Charles] Leclerc two very strong drivers; you’ve got [Lando] Norris and Oscar Piastri at McLaren.

“There’s contradicting aspects [within F1] because, on the one hand, you’ve got the team and the drivers are contractors to the team.

“On the other side, you’ve got the Drivers’ Championship where the interest and the individual interest is. It’s about communication and being up front with the drivers.

“We’re perhaps slightly different to other teams where we go: ‘Do you know what? 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.’

“A team like Ferrari next year, for example, are going to have two drivers that are going to be taking points off each other – and which horse do you back?

“You have to back both of them, but that sometimes becomes divisive within a team.

“Different teams have different approaches.”

Long-serving adviser Helmut Marko revealed this week that Red Bull’s shareholders were involved in a driver change for “the first time” with negotiations with Perez proving “positive.”

It comes after Marko admitted earlier this year that the shareholders were keen to see Red Bull’s F1 teams return to a focus on youth with Perez and Ricciardo, 34 and 35 respectively, both making way in the months since.

Horner commented that the shareholders were “tremendously supportive” of the team’s plans to make a change for F1 2025 and claimed that Lawson has the personality to thrive as Verstappen’s team-mate.

Asked if he had final say on the decision to replace Perez, he said: “There’s a process we have.

“We all have shareholders, so of course you make a recommendation and the shareholders have always been tremendously supportive and back that.

“Liam’s a product of our junior team. He’s a young talent that we took on six years ago and have nurtured him through the lower formula as we did with Sebastian Vettel, as we have done with Max.

“I think that we’re seeing in him a character and a robustness to deal with the pressure of being Max’s team-mate.

“He’s only done 11 grands prix, but what he’s shown in those 11 grands prix has impressed us, the engineering staff.

“Of course, the scrutiny that he will be under as Max’s team-mate [will be immense].”

In an exclusive interview with PlanetF1.com at the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix (bottom), before his move to Red Bull was announced, Lawson declared himself ready to partner Verstappen.

And he brushed off comparisons with Pierre Gasly and Alex Albon, who were both dropped by Red Bull after damaging stints as Verstappen’s team-mate.

Lawson said: “I don’t know what [Gasly and Albon] felt when they were there.

“You can always look at it as an outsider and think: ‘This is what it looks like they felt.’ But I don’t know what it was like for them.

“I believe, for anybody to go up against Max, you have to be realistic and know that he’s the fastest guy on the grid right now and that you’re not going to be outqualifying the guy by half a second.

“It’s not going to be something that’s really going to be happening. For me, it’s more the opportunity that’s there to learn from the best.

“For me as a driver, to be able to go in against the guy who’s won four world championships and is well seasoned… he’s been in that car for a long time.

“That car is almost… not developed around him, but he’s been a massive part of developing that car and understands it very well.

“In terms of how to drive it, it’s all right there on paper.

“When you see all the data that he brings in, for me as a driver to be alongside that, to be able to learn from him and have all that access, I think that’s what’s exciting for me about the opportunity.”

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