Christian Horner praises 21-year-old Red Bull youngster, but didn’t consider him for AlphaTauri seat

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Red Bull Racing chief Christian Horner has praised youngster Liam Lawson but admitted he wasn’t in the running to drive for AlphaTauri.

Horner was speaking on the F1 Nation Podcast amid a busy period for the Red Bull group.

After ten races, the first casualty of the Formula 1 grid was confirmed.

Nyck de Vries lost his seat at Red Bull’s junior team AlphaTauri while sitting bottom of the Drivers’ Championship.

His best finish of 12^th place this year wasn’t good enough to convince the team to keep giving him chances.

The fact that he didn’t even make it to the summer break is not a good sign for the Dutch driver’s long-term F1 ambitions.

Daniel Ricciardo has been brought in to replace him after starting the season as Red Bull’s test driver.

He’s now back with one of his first teams and will be looking to prove to the rest of the grid he’s worth hiring full-time for 2024.

One name Christian Horner could have considered to fill the vacant AlphaTauri seat is Liam Lawson.

The 21-year-old Kiwi is currently racing in the Super Formula Championship in Japan and is doing a fine job.

However, Horner didn’t want to interrupt his brilliant season by taking on arguably the worst F1 car on the grid.

Horner didn’t consider Lawson for AlphaTauri

Asked by journalist Tom Clarkson if any Red Bull young drivers, including Lawson, were considered, Horner said: “Liam’s doing a great job out in Japan. You know we felt it was perhaps unfair to throw him in a situation where we’re putting him straight into a car like that.

“So, I think it made logical sense subject to the tests going OK for Daniel [Ricciardo] to step up into that cockpit.

“And of course, by lap seven of the test he’d already confirmed that.”

Lawson is doing an excellent job in Super Formula and already has three wins to his name after just six races.

He currently sits second in the championship, one point behind leader Ritomo Miyata.

Lawson is an AlphaTauri test driver and Horner would have thought about bringing him into the team now.

He may get his chance in 2024 if he continues to impress in Japan and will hope the car is much quicker by then.

Until then, F1 fans get to enjoy the return of the Honey Badger alongside Yuki Tsunoda.