Formula 1: What does Red Bull sacking Christian Horner mean for Liam Lawson?
The only thing keeping them afloat is world champion Max Verstappen, even if he's destined to lose that title to one of the two McLaren cars.
In short, Horner has overseen Red Bull squandering the most dominant position in the team's history. On his watch, key personnel have departed the team, weakening Red Bull and strengthening other teams at the same time.
The Herald understands Verstappen's last contract contains a performance clause meaning he can leave Red Bull, depending on where they stand in the constructors championship at this year's summer break.
Max Verstappen has enjoyed great success with Red Bull. Photo / Red Bull
And given the current links between Verstappen and Mercedes for 2026, it would be very surprising if that clause doesn't still exist in the deal he's currently signed to, through to 2028.
That's not to mention the widely understood disconnect between Horner and Jos Verstappen, father of Max Verstappen, dating back to 2016.
Make no mistake, this move is Red Bull's last-ditch attempt to keep Verstappen. Surely, that's the first – and realistically – only job for Laurent Mekies, who's been named to step in as both team principal and chief executive.
Over the past 18 months, Mekies has proven to be one of the most understated team principals on the grid.
He's been instrumental in Red Bull's junior side currently sitting seventh in the constructors standings and guiding the likes of Isack Hadjar, Yuki Tsunoda, and most importantly Liam Lawson.
Having been demoted by Red Bull and Horner just two races into this season, Lawson has started to rebuild at Racing Bulls, under Mekies' guidance.
New Zealand driver Liam Lawson. Photo / Getty Images
And regardless of how many seats Red Bull have to fill for 2026, given Tsunoda's struggles, Mekies will now have a large say in who lines up in an RB22 in Melbourne next year.
What does that mean for Lawson, though?
For most of Lawson's time at Red Bull, Horner was understood to have been somewhat of a road block.
When Nyck de Vries was sacked by the then-AlphaTauri team in 2022, Horner ensured that Daniel Ricciardo took his place in the junior side, despite being well past his best.
And while Lawson was able to turn Horner, notably with a private test at Silverstone last year, a two-race demotion sent the Kiwi back to square one.
Short-term, not much changes for Lawson, who's impressed in patches, with points finishes in both Monaco and Austria.
However, he'll be the first one to tell you that he should be doing more, especially if he wants a Red Bull return in 2026. No driver has ever been demoted from Red Bull and later returned to the top team.
Pierre Gasly was forced to move to Alpine, while Alex Albon did the same with Williams. Sergio Perez is still waiting on his next chance, with Cadillac expected to offer him a lifeline next year.
Lawson is different though. From the moment he was dropped, Red Bull's language outlined their support for the Kiwi, while the other three had been simply thanked for their services.
Of all the Red Bull employees to succeed Horner, Mekies taking that role could give Lawson the best chance at a return to the senior side.
In the meantime, he'll need to stay on course at Racing Bulls, with an upturn in form that sees him regularly competing for and scoring points.
Liam Lawson (left) and teammate Isack Hadjar at the Miami Grand Prix. Photo / Red Bull
The flipside of that, though, is that Lawson's biggest obstacle for a Red Bull return remains unchanged.
As of right now, his competition for that Red Bull seat is Hadjar, with whom Mekies has also worked closely.
The 20-year-old has been the standout rookie on this season's grid, scoring points in five out of 12 races, and holds a nine-point advantage over his teammate.
Recent form, though, has seen Hadjar come back down to Earth. He finished 16th in Canada, was off the pace in Austria to finish 12th, and failed to finish at Silverstone after crashing into the back of Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli.
Having seen the struggles of Lawson after such a rapid elevation, Red Bull might be more restrained in their handling of Hadjar.
Team senior adviser Dr Helmut Marko has already ruled out any further change to the driver line-ups at both Red Bull or Racing Bulls.
That effectively leaves Lawson and Hadjar both driving to earn promotion for 2026 – as was already the case.
The only change from there, though, is that the person making the decision is someone who already understands exactly what each of his two former drivers are capable of.
Now more than ever, Lawson's future is in his own hands.
Alex Powell is a sports journalist for the NZ Herald. He has been a sports journalist since 2016.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Otago Daily Times
11 hours ago
- Otago Daily Times
Obituary: Jochen Mass, racing driver
Jochen Mass. Photo: file German racing driver Jochen Mass turned his back on a career in the merchant navy to ascend to the peak of motor sport. Mass drove in 105 F1 grands prix, winning the 1975 Spanish Grand Prix in a McLaren. Mass was on the podium a further eight times in a career which spanned from 1973 to 1980, with a brief comeback in 1982. That year Mass was involved in the crash in which Gilles Villeneuve was killed. After leaving F1, Mass established himself in long-distance sportscar racing with Porsche, and then Sauber-Mercedes. His victories included the 1989 Le Mans 24 Hours race. Mass then became a mentor to young drivers, including rising star Michael Schumacher, as well as a regular driver on the historic cars racing circuit. Mass died on May 4, aged 78. — APL/agencies
Otago Daily Times
12 hours ago
- Otago Daily Times
Winter driving often more demanding
EDITORIAL Driving mishaps seem to have been the stock-in-trade of the Otago Daily Times ' editorial and online pages in recent weeks, a phenomenon that I have noticed is invariably associated with the onset of true winter weather. Or perhaps to be more accurate, associated with the failure of ever so many Otago drivers to adjust to winter weather which, while unpredictable for sure, is still a mild version of what is experienced in some other parts of the world. I make this observation having witnessed some pretty poor driving so far this month, additional to my perennial bugbears of inattentive, distracted and discourteous driving. My particular winter gripes so far have been motorists failing to adjust their speed to slippery conditions, and far too many following far too close when conditions are wet and visibility is low. Some useful rules of thumb to keep in mind are that compared with a dry road, stopping distances are up to twice as long in the wet, and up to four times as long in the snow. As for ice, well, think in terms of five to 10 times longer, and with the attendant possibility that you are quite likely to stop only by hitting something. It might do us all good to remember that we are not engaged in a grand prix motor race, and even if racing is not your thing, perhaps take five minutes to watch the highlights of last weekend's British Grand Prix,which shows how even the most talented of drivers struggle in the wet, and how quickly and dramatically things can go wrong when a road is slippery and visibility is poor. This year's British Grand Prix was a disappointing one for New Zealand's Liam Lawson, though he was blameless in his first-lap exit from the race: rather, he was the victim of being in the wrong place at the wrong time as Yuki Tsunoda put the squeeze on Esteban Ocon, who in turn rammed Lawson off the rack and into a very early retirement. While that left Kiwi race fans with little to cheer about in F1 last weekend, there was every reason to be both proud and cheerful after big wins for both Scott Dixon and Shane van Gisbergen in the United States. That van Gisbergen was in with a good shot of winning the Nascar Cup race at Chicago's Street Circuit was something I predicted in Drivesouth last weekend; no special second sight was involved in that call, just an appreciation that SVG has won there before, in both the premier Nascar Cup category, and the second-tier Xfinity category. He contested both categories and won them both last weekend, which was a great result. Much more surprising was Scott Dixon's IndyCar win at mid-Ohio. Heading to the race, Dixon had his truly remarkable tally of 58 career wins in IndyCar, including at least one win in each of the past 20 seasons. But in recent races, the old Dixon sparkle appeared to be missing, to the extent that it seemed to me he might never win in IndyCars again. Then up the old master popped, running a two-stop strategy when three stops was easily the favoured option, and pouncing late in the race when his team-mate and series leader Alex Palou ran wide exiting a bend. In winning for the first time this season, Dixon became only the third driver to win in IndyCar this season, the previous nine races having been won by either Palou (six wins) or Kyle Kirkwood (three wins). So now it's 59 Indycar wins for Dixon (second only on the all-time list to the great AJ Foyt) including wins across 21 consecutive seasons. Once again, I am reminded that Dixon's a driver whose achievements place him up there with 1967 F1 world champion Denny Hulme and the legendary Bruce McLaren as one of the three greatest race drivers New Zealand has produced.
Otago Daily Times
12 hours ago
- Otago Daily Times
Queenstown player still right on cue
Simon Singleton with his recent South Island singles title-winning trophy. PHOTO: SUPPLIED Queenstown's Simon Singleton continues to prove he's New Zealand's best pool player. Last weekend, playing Australia's biggest 8-ball tournament for prize money, the Slate Pro Championship in Geelong, Melbourne, he finished equal third in a top-class field of 64. He won five matches and only dropped two — his first of two lives and his semifinal — to arguably Oceania's best pool player, Aussie Jake McCartney. In his last-16 game he potted a vital 'Z' shot and in his quarterfinal he won 11-9 after being 6-0 down. His performance was even more meritorious in front of a hostile crowd — "that was pretty tough, not something I've experienced before". On other hand, he says "the messages of support from all around NZ were unbelievable". Recently, Singleton, who's 42, through a feat of logistics managed to win the North Island and South Island 8-ball singles titles even though they were being competed for at the same time. "They tried to overlap the events so people couldn't play both." Singleton, who's ranked no.1 in NZ in Kiwi rules pool, also holds the NZ title which he'll defend in October — "I'm the first person in NZ to hold all three titles". Meanwhile, he'll be representing NZ for the second year running at the World Eightball Pool Federation champs in Ennis, Ireland, next month.
