Christian Horner Gives His Final Verdict On Liam Lawson’s F1 Performance

Posted on October 9, 2023 | by Charley Williams *sad violin noises* Well, as far as we currently know, the Qatar GP was Liam Lawson’s last race as a replacement for Daniel Ricciardo. As much as we’re looking forward to welcoming Danny Ric back, in the short time Liam was on the grid, we all became huge fans of his work ???? Lawson has exceeded fans’ expectations as Ricciardo’s stand-in over the past five races. He stepped into an underperforming AlphaTauri and made the best out of a bad situation. In his time as a Formula 1 driver, he’s raced in dry conditions, intense heat conditions, mixed with slicks, mixed with inters, and torrential rain – all whilst managing consistent results (sometimes in front of his much more experienced teammate Yuki Tsunoda) and even grabbed his first ever F1 points finish in Singapore. Not bad, huh? Daniel’s possible return date was pushed back to the US Grand Prix, and he FaceTimed Liam earlier in the week to let him know he was giving him one last drive in the AlphaTauri. With the Qatar GP supposedly being Lawson’s last race, Christian Horner was asked by the media to give his verdict on Lawson’s performance as a stand-in. “I think he’s done a great job, jumping in with zero mileage in the car. He’s acquitted himself well as a grand prix driver, I think he’s caught all our attention in terms of the job he’s done.” Then, the part we’ve all been wanting to hear: “It certainly won’t be his last race in F1 with what he’s done in these five races, he’s demonstrated that he deserves an opportunity in the future.” ???? YESSSSS! That doesn’t solve the confusion surrounding why he wasn’t signed up for 2024, but we can rest easy knowing that Horner is keeping Lawson around. Do you think we’ll see Lawson on the F1 grid in 2025?