Liam Lawson shares inside Christian Horner detail over Red Bull seat plan

Liam Lawson already knew last year that he would return to the Formula 1 grid late this season, it was just a case of who would he replace and exactly when it would be.

VCARB announced after the Singapore Grand Prix that Daniel Ricciardo had been dropped by the team with immediate effect as Lawson would replace for the final six races of the season.

Liam Lawson reveals Christian Horner’s F1 promise

The announcement brought to an end months of speculation about Ricciardo’s future, the Australian brought back into the Red Bull fold with an eye to replacing Sergio Perez at Red Bull.

However, when his results fell short of that objective, it was the Honey Badger who was given his marching orders.

Lawson will instead be in the car from Austin onwards, the Kiwi partnering Yuki Tsunoda for the second time as he also had a brief five-race run in 2023 when he filled in for Ricciardo when he was injured.

Despite impressing the Red Bull bosses, Lawson was informed by Christian Horner that he would remain a reserve driver for the 2024 season but that he would be in the car before the end of the year. But it wasn’t until last month’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix that the date for his second stint was confirmed.

“The idea of me jumping in is something that Christian told me a year ago,” he revealed to the F1 Nation podcast.

“When I stepped out of the car [last year], that was one of the things he said to me, is that he said, ‘I give you my word, I’ll basically have you in a race seat at some point next year’.

“So I always knew that that was the intention and it had been talked about. I mean, as you know, Formula One is a rollercoaster and every weekend things change.

“So one minute it looks really good, and then it doesn’t look good. And it’s all depending on how the guys are actually going.

“[It’s] a bit horrible to be honest, because you’re kind of sitting there, wondering what your chances are of driving and it completely depends on how the guys that are currently driving are doing.

“You don’t obviously want somebody’s downfall to be your way in but for me to drive somebody has to leave. So there was no clear route.

“So, it wasn’t like, ‘In 12 months’ time, you’re going to switch with this person’. It was ‘In 12 months time, we’re going to have you at seat, but we just don’t know where yet’.

“So that was kind of where throughout the year the discussions were being had, and it was only Baku time where Christian finally told me that I’d be jumping in.”

More on Liam Lawson’s Red Bull audition

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Lawson returns to the F1 grid a year after contesting his last race, which was October’s Qatar Grand Prix. It’s been his longest stint away from competition since he was seven years old.

“To be honest, this year has been the most unique, the strangest year, and probably something… I knew that I would miss driving the car because obviously, that’s what we want to do, what our dream is to race cars, especially in Formula One,” he said.

“But I knew that stepping back into just a reserve role with no racing program, I knew that I do a lot less driving, that was really my only concern.

“But what I realised very quickly is I actually missed the competition side. I actually missed racing.

“I missed not having a season like I’ve raced in a championship since I was seven years old, every single year, until this year, basically. And this year, I’ve done no actual racing. There’s been no championship or competition. It’s just been little bits of tests here and there.”