Christian Horner made haunting Liam Lawson revelation during final Red Bull talk with Sergio Perez

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There’s a strong likelihood that Liam Lawson will go down in history as the driver with the shortest Red Bull Racing career ever.

In terms of time, Liam Lawson has been denied that unfortunate record by Dutchman Robert Doornbos, due to the fact that he had a full pre-season to prepare for the challenge of racing for Red Bull.

However, two disastrous weekends in Australia and China saw Lawson lose his seat before reaching Suzuka, when he was replaced by Yuki Tsunoda.

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Lawson made his feelings clear about his car on the team radio after the race in Shanghai, but instead of trying to work on his feedback with him, Red Bull made the switch.

Both Lawson and Tsunoda were promoted into a Red Bull seat only because, at the end of the 2024 campaign, Christian Horner and the rest of the team’s senior staff decided to part ways with Sergio Perez.

The Mexican driver is preparing to return to the F1 paddock with Cadillac this season, and has shared what Horner told him about Lawson and Tsunoda in their final phone call before his dismissal.

READ MORE: Who is Christian Horner? All you need to know from Red Bull to net worth

Christian Horner was happy to drop Liam Lawson in 2025, says Sergio Perez

Perez was being interviewed on the Cracks Podcast and provided plenty of interesting details about his time at Red Bull.

Speaking about his time at Red Bull coming to an end, he said: “I remember when I was on my last legs, saying goodbye to Christian.

“I said to him, ‘Hey, Christian, what are you going to do when it doesn’t work out with Liam?’

“‘No, well, there’s Yuki,’ he replied. ‘And what are you going to do when it doesn’t work out with him?’

On a scale of 1-10, how harshly did Red Bull treat Liam Lawson last season?

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“‘No, we have a lot of drivers.’ I said, ‘Well, you’re going to use them all,’ he said. ‘Yes, I know.’

“I mean, we already knew, but there was also so much pressure that year.

“Christian had some problems. So, it was also a bit of a distraction for me. I was very distracted; nobody talked about anything else but me, my performance, or how badly I was doing.”

READ MORE: Who is Racing Bulls F1 driver Liam Lawson? Everything you need to know

Why Liam Lawson was doomed from the start after his 2025 Red Bull promotion

Lawson is unlikely to consider himself lucky after his short ordeal with Red Bull, but at least he still has a seat on the grid in 2026, unlike Tsunoda.

His return to Racing Bulls was an important lifeline, and Lawson impressed behind the scenes enough to maintain his position in the sport.

Perez also revealed how much the team is set up to deliver results for Max Verstappen.

It makes complete sense to do that considering his success, but it meant that even when Perez was much closer to the Dutchman, Red Bull eventually developed the car in a direction that didn’t suit him.

By the time Lawson arrived at Red Bull, the team had already had more than three years of experience with the ground-effect rules and should have known exactly when Verstappen needed to go fast.

That didn’t initially work out, with McLaren surging into the lead at the start of last year, but the car was still incredibly difficult to drive for Lawson.

Tsunoda never truly got up to speed either, and Alex Albon admitted trying to drive like Verstappen was impossible, regardless of the hard work put in.

Lawson may have appreciated hearing Horner’s warning to Perez before taking the Red Bull at the start of last year. It might have given him fair warning of what was to come.