Red Bull is not designed for Verstappen, insists Horner

As speculation over Liam Lawson’s seat intensifies, Christian Horner has denied that Red Bull’s cars are designed specifically for Max Verstappen.

Last night, France’s Canal Plus and Holland’s de Telegraaf were both claiming that Yuki Tsunoda has been given Lawson’s car for the Japanese Grand Prix, with official confirmation set to follow.

Bearing in mind the numerous false starts witnessed in recent years – Adrian Newey signing for Ferrari over the Imola weekend, anyone – we’ll wait on the official press release.

From the outset, Lawson has insisted that he needs more time, sadly however in the modern era this isn’t possible, and with so much (prize money) resting on the constructors’ title the Austrian outfit cannot give him the benefit of the doubt, after all it hardly paid off last year.

While many might see a Red Bull seat as a dream ticket, it is in fact pretty much a poison chalice, not least because it is widely felt that the car – much like the team – is built around its lead driver.

Not so, insists Horner.

“The car is difficult to drive and Max is able to adjust to that,” said the Briton in Shanghai at the weekend.

“Liam is, confidence-wise, he’s struggling with the car at the moment, which is why we made some significant changes to see if we could find a more confidence-inspiring set-up,” he added, referring to the overnight changes that saw the kiwi having to start Sunday’s race from the back of the grid.

In recent years, teammates Alex Albon and Sergio Perez have both been critical of the Red Bulls, which, they felt, are designed specifically to the Dutchman’s taste, in terms of being ‘pointy’ and prone to oversteer.

“If I think back to the beginning of 2022, we had quite a stable car but with quite a bit of understeer, which obviously Max hates,” said Horner. “We had an upgrade in Spain where we put a lot more front into the car and Max made a big step forward. Checo sort of nose-dived from that point.

“So you’ve got to produce the quickest car and you’re driven by the information that you have and the data that you have,” he continued. “As a team, we don’t set out to make a car driver-centric, you just work on the info that you have and the feedback that you have to produce the fastest car that you can. That’s obviously served us very well with 122 victories.”

Verstappen has helpfully suggested that Lawson return to RB, claiming that in the VCARB 02, “he will go faster”.

“I really think so,” said the four-time champ. “That car is easier to drive than ours.”

“The Racing Bulls car is a more settled car in terms of it probably is a little more stable on entry,” agreed Horner. “It probably has a bit more understeer in that car, and therefore, it’s easier to adapt to.

“But you can see the difference in pace in the cars on a longer stint,” he added. “In terms of finding the limit in a car that has an inherent understeer is always going to be easier than finding the limit in a car that is a little more edgy.”

Taking to X this morning, we (semi-seriously) suggested that Red Bull should consider swapping Tsunoda with Verstappen rather than Lawson.

Let’s face it, the team title is already long gone and swapping drivers in this way may well answer some questions.

And let’s not forget that despite having a contract, Verstappen may well not be at Red Bull year so what on earth would it do if it has thrown out the baby with the bathwater.