Christian Horner has fired a warning shot to struggling Red Bull driver Sergio Pérez by revealing the thinking behind axing Daniel Ricciardo for Liam Lawson is to provide an audition to be Max Verstappen’s team-mate, possibly as soon as next season.

Lawson’s promotion to the second RB seat for the final six races of 2024 has provided the New Zealand driver with a chance to step up to the senior Red Bull team should Pérez continue to struggle, Horner admitted. The team principal also confirmed his mind was swayed by recent successes of rookie promotions.

Ricciardo, who had a successful spell at Red Bull between 2014-2018, returned to Milton Keynes as a reserve driver last season, with a view of a potential long-term comeback in place of Pérez.

When an opportunity arose midway through last season, Ricciardo was placed at sister team RB as a “backstop” for the Mexican.

However, in an appearance on the F1 Nation podcast which you can listen to below, Horner admitted the 35-year-old Australian had not been able to perform consistently at a high enough level to make him a worthy replacement when Pérez’s form dipped earlier this year.

“I think it was the lack of consistency,” Horner conceded when asked why Ricciardo had been dropped.

“Miami [in early May] was a weekend of two halves. Friday and Saturday morning was fantastic and it looked like the Daniel of old, fighting against Ferraris and out-driving the car. Then the Saturday afternoon and Sunday were disastrous.

“Even around Barcelona, Helmut [Marko, Red Bull’s motorsport advisor] wanted him out of the car, and there was already a lot of pressure on him there.”

Horner said he had tried to give Ricciardo as much time as possible, resisting pressure from Marko to ditch the Australian. But ultimately he said Ricciardo had only been given the RB drive with Red Bull in mind.

And if he was not going to be a viable option for the main seat, then he needed to make way for junior Red Bull drivers to prove themselves.

“All the drivers are under pressure to deliver but the reason why Daniel was in that car was to get himself back into a position to ultimately be there to pick up the pieces if Checo (Pérez) didn’t deliver,” Horner explained.

“The problem was they had issues with form at varying times. Checo started the season very well, very strongly. Daniel was struggling and then as Checo lost form, Daniel found a bit of form but it was never compelling enough to say ‘OK we should switch the two drivers’.”

“In a perfect world, that [letting Ricciardo see out the season] would have been what we would have done.

“But from a broader perspective, we need answers for the bigger picture in terms of drivers. It’s the perfect opportunity to line Liam up alongside Yuki [Tsunoda], to see how he performs over the remaining six grands prix.”

‘I find it hard to read form in F2’

Tsunoda is clearly not in Red Bull’s thinking for the main team, which means New Zealander Lawson now has the chance to replace Pérez if he compares well to the Japanese in the remainder of the 2024 season.

Horner also referenced Red Bull junior drivers Isack Hadjar and Arvid Lindblad as possible candidates to step up. The lack of a clear alternative to Pérez perhaps explains why Horner also threw George Russell’s name into the mix for 2026 in Singapore recently.

“Obviously we’ve got a contract with Sergio for next year, but you’ve always got to have an eye out in terms of what comes next,” Horner admitted. “Is that going to be Liam? Or do we need to look outside the pool? Or will one of the other juniors step up in the fullness of time, whether it’s Isack Hadjar or Arvid Lindblad?”

Horner added that the impressive way in which the likes of Ollie Bearman and Franco Colapinto have stepped up from Formula 2, with little preparation, had made him rethink what was possible.

“I find it so hard to read form in Formula 2 these days because when you look at the job Oliver Bearman has done when he jumped in the Ferrari at one of the toughest tracks on the calendar in Saudi, he looked like a veteran,” Horner said. “Then again against a tough team-mate in Nico Hulkenberg more recently.

“Colapinto has been a complete surprise because he was largely unnoticed in F2, nobody was even talking about him, then he jumped in that Williams, in the couple of races he’s done, he’s been exceptional, really really impressive.

“So it’s difficult to tell, does that mean Isack Hadjar [second in F2 right now] who was beating all of them is another step on? Until we give these guys a chance, we won’t know.”

Lawson’s first chance to impress comes in Austin on October 20.