25/03/2025
NEWS STORY
"We need both drivers up there," admits Red Bull boss, amidst claims that Liam Lawson could be dropped before the Japanese Grand Prix.
On a day McLaren scored its 50th 1-2 and Ferrari had both of its drivers disqualified, Red Bull only added 12 points to its tally with Max Verstappen the sole contributor.
Finishing the afternoon 12th, three seconds down on RB's Isack Hadjar, Liam Lawson continues to struggle to find his feet.
Speaking at race end, while keen to give the youngster a chance, Horner admitted that time is running out.
"Everything is purely speculative at the moment," said the Briton when asked if Lawson will still be in the second car at the next race. "We've just finished this race," he continued. "We're going to take away the info and have a good look at it.
"I think Liam still has potential," he insisted, "we're just not realising that at the moment.
"I think the problem for him is, you know, he's had a couple of really tough weekends.
"He's got all the media on his back," he added. "You know, the pressure just naturally grows in this business. And I feel very sorry for him that he's... you can see it's very tough on him at the moment.
"We're two races in and I think, you know, we've just finished this race. I think we take away the information we have.
"There's performance that we need to find and we need both drivers up there if there's to be any chance of fighting for the Constructors' Championship. For the drivers' championship as well, you need to have a second car in play, you can't just do it one-legged," he admitted.
"Formula 1 is a pressure business, there's always time pressure. And Liam knows that. Hopefully he'll respond accordingly and we'll see where we go."
Pushed on whether Tsunoda might be promoted, Horner said: "I'm not even going to comment on a change, because that would be your first headline.
"As I say, we're two races into this championship, so we have a sample of two. We have quite a bit of information, we're going to go away and have a good look at it and work with Liam and do the best that we can for him."
Asked what is needed in order to make a decision, Horner said: "There's so much info. How he's adapted to driving the car, what he's getting from the car, what can we do to help, where are his major issues, what's causing inconsistency, you know, all of those issues."
"We knew it was going to be tough," said Lawson about today's race, "we started from the pitlane to try something with the car, and it unfortunately just didn't work the way we wanted.
"What was really just a hard weekend was just a bit harder today," he added.
Asked about the speculation of him being dropped for the next race, he replied: "Unfortunately, I don't really have time to get used to it, but I need to figure it out quickly.
"I don't have time to test the car and get used to it," he continued, "we're in the season already, so each race we're losing points. That's more or less what I mean when I say I don't have time.
"But I'm also not stupid and I know that, obviously, I'm here to perform, and if I'm not doing that, I'm not going to be around. So I'm focused on getting used to the car as quickly as I can."
However, when it was suggested that he be replaced by Tsunoda - his previous teammate - he snapped: "I've raced him for years, raced him in junior categories and beat him, and I did in F1 as well, so he can say whatever he wants."
Check out our Sunday gallery from Shanghai here.