Christian Horner, team boss at Red Bull Racing, admits that there is a risk that Liam Lawson will have problems with the team’s environment if he is promoted too early.

Lawson was chosen to partner Max Verstappen in 2025 despite having only competed in eleven Grands Prix. The more experienced Yuki Tsunoda was overlooked as a replacement for Sergio Perez. The Mexican was brought in after both Pierre Gasly and Alex Albon struggled in the Red Bull seat early in their careers and Horner is aware of the risks associated with young drivers.

“Look, the danger is that this will happen again,” Horner said. “But I think Liam is a different character. He has a different personality to be able to deal with this pressure. I think he showed real resilience and strength of character when he was given the opportunity to show up, go on and deliver – and he did.

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“The original plan was not to accelerate this this year. Circumstances dictated that Checo unfortunately didn’t have a great season – that was accelerated. But we believe Liam’s current trajectory will only improve.

“And he drives the car in a similar way to Max. He’s not afraid to have a very positive front end in the car. So I think in terms of driving characteristics it will be easier for the cars to drive closer together in the setup.”

Horner believes that a clear hierarchy with Verstappen as the main driver is now a different scenario that should ease the burden on Lawson compared to the juniors in front of him.

“Daniel (Ricciardo) and Max were a strong couple. Then we had two juniors who had problems. And that’s the reason why Checo obviously got into the car for the 21 season and coped well with the stresses that came with it.

“I think the other factor that we’re very focused on is making sure that we create a wider operating window with RB21 than the very narrow, very peak performance window of RB20. For us, hopefully creating a wider window will just help Liam find a car that’s perhaps more forgiving than the RB20 might occasionally be.

“I think one of the things we want to protect Liam from is expectations. Of course, when Alex and Pierre were on the team, Max wasn’t a four-time world champion. At that point he had not yet won a world championship. We have a very clear positioning in the team about where Max is in his career and what we need from the second driver.”