F1 News: Liam Lawson Receives Immense Praise From Christian Horner Amid Fight For Red Bull Seat

Saajan Jogia | Oct 22, 2024

Liam Lawson of New Zealand and Visa Cash App RB looks on in the garage during qualifying ahead of the F1 Grand Prix of Hungary at Hungaroring on July 20, 2024 in Budapest, Hungary. (Photo by Rudy Carezzevoli/Getty Images) / Red Bull Content Pool

VCARB driver Liam Lawson has received immense praise from Red Bull team principal Christian Horner for his spectacular P9 finish at the United States Grand Prix after he started from the 19th position on the grid. Horner also complimented him for his bravery and aggression, considering his "elbows out" spat with Aston Martin driver Fernando Alonso.

In his official 2024 F1 debut at the Circuit of the Americas last weekend, Red Bull placed Lawson in its junior team to gauge if he or his teammate Yuki Tsunoda would be best to secure a future seat alongside Max Verstappen over the last six races of the season. The Kiwi driver replaced Daniel Ricciardo, who departed the team after the Singapore Grand Prix.

However, Lawson's USGP start was fraught with challenges, as he was required to start from the back of the grid after being given a grid penalty for using an additional power unit. Despite the uphill task, he managed to race to the ninth spot and score points for the team. Horner was happy with his performance, saying he did well if he managed to annoy two-time world champion, Alonso. He told the media:

"I think if you're getting into a spat and getting your elbows out with Fernando on your first race back in, you're doing alright.

"I think that he drove an exceptional race today from 19th to ninth. He was fast, he was courageous and I thought it was an excellent comeback for him."

Speaking of the encounter with the Aston Martin driver, Lawson attempted an aggressive overtake on Alonso during Saturday morning's 19-lap sprint, which left Alonso frustrated, fearing the move could have led to a collision. After the session, Alonso threatened the rookie driver, saying that he would "scr*w" him, but Lawson maintained his stance. The VCARB driver told the media:

“I don’t know, he said he would scr*w me, and I guess he kept his word.

“He was really upset, I’m not sure why. We were racing for P16 and I don’t know why he was so upset. Yeah, I don’t know. It is what it is. Hopefully he can get over it and we’ll move forward.

“Just out of the box playing games. It is what it is, it’s part of it - it doesn’t bother me.

“I understand he had a pretty horrible race so I can understand why he’s upset. But if I did anything wrong I’d have got a penalty. So, yeah…”

When asked if this would develop into a rivalry, he said this was a one-off clash good enough to let go. He added:

“I don’t think we have a rivalry! We just had an incident in the race, and we can just get over it and move forward.”