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Red Bull Formula 1 team boss Christian Horner has explained why Daniel Ricciardo was dropped in favour of Liam Lawson for the remainder of the 2024 F1 season - and revealed he successfully prevented it happening sooner.
For the first time since the announcement of the swap - done so via a brief social media statement and press release - Horner has explained the thinking behind the sudden in-season swap during an appearance on F1’s in-house F1 Nation podcast.
Why make the swap now?
While Red Bull is no stranger to an in-season swap where needed, some questioned the timing of swapping Ricciardo out when there were just six events left, rather than letting him see out the season.
“In a perfect world, that [letting Ricciardo see out the season] would have been what we would have done,” Horner explained.
“But from a broader perspective, we need answers for the bigger picture in terms of drivers.
“It’s the perfect opportunity to line Liam up alongside Yuki [Tsunoda], to see how he performs over the remaining six grands prix.”
Horner effectively confirmed what The Race predicted at the time of the announcement: this is an audition for Lawson to be Max Verstappen’s Red Bull Racing team-mate instead of Sergio Perez in 2025.
“This goes beyond VCARB, it encompasses Red Bull Racing,” Horner said.
“Obviously we’ve got a contract with Sergio for next year, but you’ve always got to have an eye out in terms of what comes next. Is that going to be Liam?
“Or do we need to look outside the pool? Or will one of the other juniors step up in the fullness of time, whether it’s Isack Hadjar or Arvid Lindblad [pictured below]?”
Ricciardo was placed at RB as a “backstop” for Perez in the words of Horner, but he wasn’t able to consistently perform at a high enough level to make him a worthy replacement when Perez’s form dipped earlier in 2024.
He even revealed Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko wanted Ricciardo gone after the Spanish Grand Prix in June.
“I think it was the lack of consistency,” Horner said when asked what cost Ricciardo.
“Miami was a weekend of two halves. Friday and Saturday morning was fantastic and it looked like the Daniel of old, fighting against Ferraris and out-driving the car. Then the Saturday afternoon and Sunday were disastrous.
“Even around Barcelona, Helmut wanted him out of the car, and there was already a lot of pressure on him there.”
‘I did my best to buy him time’
Horner strongly refuted claims that Red Bull had been too ruthless in dropping Ricciardo mid-season, pointing out his personal support for Ricciardo, in contrast to Marko’s desire to promote Lawson earlier.
When Horner was asked why he’d been so ruthless with Ricciardo but not with Perez, he replied: “I’ve done my very best to buy him as much time in the car to allow him to deliver, otherwise he’d have been out of the car after Barcelona.
“All the drivers are under pressure to deliver but the reason why Daniel was in that car was to get himself back into a position to ultimately be there to pick up the pieces if Checo didn’t deliver.
“The problem was they had issues with form at varying times. Checo started the season very well, very strongly. Daniel was struggling and then as Checo lost form, Daniel found a bit of form but it was never compelling enough to say ‘OK we should switch the two drivers’.”
Just as he did when Ricciardo rejoined Red Bull in 2023, Horner again referred to the “bad habits” Ricciardo had picked up driving during his troubled McLaren stint, saying he didn’t recognise the post-McLaren Ricciardo.
The fact Ricciardo was able to shed those in the Red Bull simulator in early 2023 and put in an “outstanding performance” in a crucial Red Bull test at Silverstone was the logic behind Red Bull putting him back in an (AlphaTauri) F1 seat to begin with last year.
The fact Ricciardo didn't deliver those same peaks anywhere near consistently enough once given the seat, explains why he's now lost it.
What about Tsunoda?
Yuki Tsunoda continues to not be taken seriously as a candidate for a future Red Bull Racing drive. He appears stuck in the benchmark role, so comparing well to him will be the key to Lawson earning the 2025 Red Bull seat.
“Last year Liam jumped in and he beat Yuki in Singapore and Japan and was quick from the outset, and he’s a tough racer. We know that. He’s very adaptable,” Horner said of Lawson.
“Certainly the testing he’s done for us in the Red Bull Racing car this year has been very encouraging.
“We know that Yuki is a very fast driver. He can definitely extract a lap.
“He’s not a rookie anymore. It’s his fourth year of grand prix racing, he’s got a lot of experience under his belt now.
“Taking him as the data point, we saw with Daniel where he compared to Yuki. It will be very interesting to see how Liam performs over the last six remaining races.”
The Bearman/Colapinto factor
It’s impossible to shake the feeling listening to Horner's logic for the swap that the stand-out performances of rookie substitute drivers Ollie Bearman and Franco Colapinto have made Red Bull rethink its answer to the youth vs experience dilemma.
“Well there’s been a few surprises, I find it so hard to read form in Formula 2 these days because when you look at the job Oliver Bearman has done when he jumped in the Ferrari at one of the toughest tracks on the calendar in Saudi, he looked like a veteran,” Horner said.
“Then again against a tough team-mate in Nico Hulkenberg more recently.
“Colapinto has been a complete surprise because he was largely unnoticed in F2, nobody was even talking about him, then he jumped in that Williams, in the couple of races he’s done, he’s been exceptional, really really impressive.
“So it’s difficult to tell, does that mean Isack Hadjar [second in F2 right now] who was beating all of them is another step on?
“Until we give these guys a chance, we won’t know.”
Theoretically if Red Bull was keen to find out the answers to more pressing junior questions, it could look to make space for Hadjar at RB for 2025 if it was to promote Lawson to Red Bull or drop him.
The original plan was for Hadjar to essentially replicate Lawson’s third driver role from this year with extensive private testing and the Red Bull reserve role that he’s now taken on.
But Red Bull’s re-found appreciation for the young talent it used to be master of promoting, could yet accelerate those plans.
“The young guys, they get in, they’re hungry, and they just drive the wheels off it,” Horner said.
“That’s what we’re seeing with all these juniors who are coming in at the moment, they’re well prepared, they race well, they understand how to conserve the tyres well.
“Bearman, Colapinto and the like have done a super job.”
‘A soft re-entry’ and a bizarre open door
For now Lawson has several weeks to prepare for his F1 return at the United States GP, having known he’d be in the car for quite some time.
Complicating his debut - or simplifying it depending on your perspective - will be a sizeable grid penalty for his RB exceeding the maximum number of engine components allowed.
“He’ll be taking an engine penalty there anyway, so he’s got a bit of a soft re-entry, but of course he’s going to be gauged against his team-mate,” Horner explained.
“He was very quick against him last year. I think Yuki has stepped it up again this year so it’s just going to be fascinating to see how quickly he adapts, how quickly he gets on with it.”
Horner insisted the ideal 2025 scenario is that “obviously Checo finds his form and rediscovers the shape he was in at the beginning of the year and nothing changes” but caveated that “but as we know in this business, two weeks is a long time”.
And amid plenty of praise for the job Ricciardo’s done for Red Bull - including his outstanding 2014 season in which Horner thinks Ricciardo was the best driver in F1 at that time - he even bizarrely left the door ajar for Ricciardo to return to Red Bull if both Lawson and Perez falter.
“I hope he stays around the sport,” Horner said of Ricciardo.
“We’ve made it very clear that we want him to remain in an ambassadorial capacity with the team.
“Of course one never really knows, if Liam doesn’t get the job done, if Checo doesn’t get the job done, we know what Daniel’s capability is.
“But I think for him he knows at the age he’s at, he’s had a great career. So many memories, the most disgusting thing ever was drinking champagne out of his sweaty boot.
“But he made it his own and got some incredible people to drink the champagne from his sweaty shoe.”
