Purple Bull Racing crew principal Christian Horner admits there’s a hazard of Liam Lawson struggling inside the crew’s setting by being promoted too quickly.
Lawson has been picked to associate Max Verstappen in 2025 regardless of having began simply 11 grands prix, with the extra skilled Yuki Tsunoda neglected to switch 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 can be related to younger drivers.
“Look, the hazard is there’s a repeat of that,” Horner mentioned. “However I feel that Liam is a unique character. He’s a unique character to have the ability to take care of that stress. I feel he’s proven actual resilience and power of character with the chance that’s been offered to have to show up and get on with it and ship — and he’s performed that.
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“The plan initially wasn’t for that to be accelerated for this yr. circumstances have dictated with Checo sadly not having an ideal season — that has been accelerated. However we imagine the place Liam is on the trajectory that he’s on, that may solely enhance.
“And he drives the automobile in a similar way to Max. He doesn’t draw back from having a really optimistic entrance finish within the automobile. So I feel when it comes to driving attribute, it is going to be simpler for the automobiles to run extra carefully collectively in setup.”
Horner believes having a transparent hierarchy with Verstappen because the lead driver is now a unique situation that ought to take the stress off Lawson in comparison with juniors which have gone earlier than him.
“Daniel [Ricciardo] and Max had been a powerful pairing. We then had two juniors that struggled. And that’s why clearly Checo then stepped into the automobile for the ’21 season and coped with the pressures of that properly.
“I feel the opposite issue that we’re centered very arduous 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 automobile than RB20 might be once in a while.
“I feel one of many issues we’ll be seeking to shield Liam from is expectation. After all, when Alex and Pierre had been with the crew, Max wasn’t a four-time world champion. He hadn’t gained a world championship at that time. We’ve a really clear positioning within the crew with the place Max is at in his profession and what we want from the second driver.”
