Horner explains why Red Bull chose Lawson and not Tsunoda

Christian Horner motivates Red Bull’s choice to focus on Lawson for the 2025 season

After the official announcement arrived in the morning, Christian Horner gives us the explanations behind Lawson’s choice in Red Bull. The driver from New Zealand was promoted after just 11 races with the Racing Bulls team. This choice leaves a bad taste in the mouth of Yuki Tsunoda, the Japanese has been in the Red Bull orbit for several years but has never had the chance to show off within the team. A little hope had arisen for Yuki after the tests carried out in Abu Dhabi, but evidently it wasn’t enough.

Liam Lawson e Christian Horner al GP degli USA. Credits: Getty Images / Red Bull Content Pool

Horner’s explanation

In the moments following the news, Horner released some words regarding Red Bull’s choice to promote Liam Lawson and not Tsunoda. The English Team Principal said: “The decision was very complicated, it was very torn between the two. Yuki is a very fast rider, he has 4 years of experience under his belt. The work he did for us at the Pirelli tests impressed the engineers.”

“Despite this we have seen how with Liam the pace shown in the races he did was slightly faster. The times recorded in qualifying were very close to Yuki keeping in mind that his experience is only 11 races. In the future it can only get better over and over and get stronger. He has proven to be very strong mentally and the engineers have enjoyed working with him this season. As a virtue He has a good work ethic.”

Horner also added some words to keep Tsunoda on guard: “I’m happy to have Yuki still involved with the Racing Bulls project next year. It still remains in an observation period whenever necessary.”