Revealed: The truth behind Lawson’s meeting with Horner at the Mexico GP

Liam Lawson took it upon himself to meet with Red Bull boss Christian Horner and take his telling off at the Mexican Grand Prix.

With Perez now facing what looks to be his final Red Bull race weekend at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Liam Lawson – racing with Red Bull’s junior team VCARB – has emerged as the leading candidate to take Perez’s place from F1 2025, and relations between the pair have not exactly been strong this year.

Liam Lawson sought out Christian Horner to hold hands up

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

Tension existed already and that went up another notch at the Mexican Grand Prix – Perez’s home race – when Lawson gave Perez the middle finger as part of a fresh fiery on-track battle.

Lawson would meet with Red Bull team principal Christian Horner to discuss that incident, but as PlanetF1.com’s Thomas Maher reports, it was not a meeting initiated by Horner, but rather by Lawson himself.

‘If there’s one descriptor that Red Bull hates above all else, it’s anonymity. A forgettable driver is a driver of little value, and Lawson has shown the type of fiery determination and strength of self-belief that marks out what Red Bull seeks.

‘Lawson has made mistakes, true, with his hot-headed moment of anger towards stablemate Perez not going down particularly well, but the Kiwi driver made a point of waiting around to meet Horner after the race and media sessions in order to hold his hand up.

‘Following his collision with Valtteri Bottas in Qatar, Lawson made a beeline for the Finn to apologise profusely for his error, revealing that he’d intentionally spun the car in the incident to ensure he didn’t hit the Sauber driver harder than he did.

‘In such a crucial period in Lawson’s career, it would be easy for such an inexperienced head to be reluctant to show any signs of weakness, but Lawson’s willingness to admit mea culpa shows clear mental strength and self-belief – knowing that his every move is being scrutinised intensely by Red Bull’s management.’

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Lawson did not only get a telling off from within the Red Bull camp for that Perez incident, his father also giving him a proverbial clip around the ear.

“My dad told me off, yeah, as my dad has done many times over the years,” he told TFN.

“[I’m] very fortunate to have someone like my dad who has played a massive role in, obviously, raising me as a man, but also as a driver, growing up and trying to be professional in the sport.

“And he’s kept me very grounded, I would say, and that’s been something that he’s done since I was a kid. So, you know, he wasn’t impressed with that and I completely understand why. And obviously, it’s not something I should have done, and I’ll learn from [it].”

Lawson has one final race weekend to impress in Abu Dhabi before Red Bull set about determining their F1 2025 line-ups.

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