Purple Bull Racing staff principal Christian Horner admits there’s a hazard of Liam Lawson struggling inside the staff’s atmosphere by being promoted too quickly.
Lawson has been picked to accomplice Max Verstappen in 2025 regardless of having began simply 11 grands prix, with the extra skilled Yuki Tsunoda neglected to interchange Sergio Perez. The Mexican had been introduced in after each Pierre Gasly and Alex Albon struggled within the Purple Bull seat early of their careers, and Horner acknowledges the dangers which are related to younger drivers.
“Look, the hazard is there’s a repeat of that,” Horner stated. “However I believe that Liam is a distinct character. He’s a distinct persona to have the ability to cope with that strain. I believe he’s proven actual resilience and energy of character with the chance that’s been supplied to have to show up and get on with it and ship — and he’s completed that.
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“The plan initially wasn’t for that to be accelerated for this 12 months. circumstances have dictated with Checo sadly not having an awesome season — that has been accelerated. However we consider the place Liam is on the trajectory that he’s on, that may solely enhance.
“And he drives the automotive similarly to Max. He doesn’t draw back from having a really optimistic entrance finish within the automotive. So I believe when it comes to driving attribute, will probably be simpler for the vehicles to run extra intently collectively in setup.”
Horner believes having a transparent hierarchy with Verstappen because the lead driver is now a distinct state of affairs that ought to take the strain off Lawson in comparison with juniors which have gone earlier than him.
“Daniel [Ricciardo] and Max have been a powerful pairing. We then had two juniors that struggled. And that’s why clearly Checo then stepped into the automotive for the ’21 season and coped with the pressures of that nicely.
“I believe the opposite issue that we’re centered very exhausting on is ensuring that we’re making a wider working window with RB21 than RB20’s very slender, very peaky efficiency window. So for us, to create a broader window will hopefully solely assist Liam discover a extra, maybe forgiving automotive than RB20 might be now and again.
“I believe one of many issues we’ll be trying to shield Liam from is expectation. After all, when Alex and Pierre have been with the staff, Max wasn’t a four-time world champion. He hadn’t gained a world championship at that time. We’ve got a really clear positioning within the staff with the place Max is at in his profession and what we’d like from the second driver.”
