Horner denies rumours: 'No guarantees of anything in life'
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- Sam Godber
Red Bull Racing was facing a luxury problem for 2024. Daniel Ricciardo, Yuki Tsunoda and Liam Lawson are all doing/did well at AlphaTauri, but obviously not all three drivers could drive for the Italian team next year. In the end, Lawson fell out and Tsunoda and Ricciardo were appointed AlphaTauri drivers for 2024. The New Zealander will be Red Bull's reserve driver and was rumoured to have been promised a 2025 seat, but according to team boss Christian Horner, none of this is true.
AlphaTauri faced problem in F1
AlphaTauri has had as many as four drivers in 2023, the three aforementioned Lawson, Ricciardo and Tsunoda, but Nyck de Vries also drove for Red Bull's sister team this season. However, the Dutchman was sent away from AlphaTauri after only ten races and Ricciardo was appointed as his replacement. However, the Australian was injured after only two races due to a crash in free practice and he too had to be replaced. This time Lawson was the lucky one.
Lawson did an excellent job as Ricciardo's replacement in the last four races and even scored points, something not common for an AlphaTauri driver in 2023. Despite finishing ahead of teammate Tsunoda in three of his four weekend so far, Lawson was not given a permanent seat for next year. The New Zealander will have to make do with a reserve role. Horner said earlier that Lawson could also have done little else to get the 2024 seat, but did indicate that it will be a matter of time before his driver gets a permanent spot in Formula 1.
Horner denies Lawson rumours
Following the announcement of the roles of Lawson, Ricciardo and Tsunoda for 2024, rumours surfaced that because of his reserve role in 2024, the New Zealander did get a guaranteed seat a year later in 2025. However, Horner reveals to Sky Sports that these rumours are nonsense: "There is no guarantees of anything in life. He's done a great job; he's really impressed us".
Indeed, Horner only mentioned the New Zealander as a "candidate" for the 2025 season. "He's done exactly what we could have asked for in terms of grabbing the opportunity in Daniel's absence to really show his capability. That's turned some heads and it's done him a lot of good. We'll keep developing him when he goes back into that test and reserve role and he'll be a candidate certainly for 2025."