Red Bull rushed Albon, Gasly and Lawson into F1, Horner says
NXTbets Pro | Published On: October 21, 2026
Horner on Red Bull
Christian Horner said the three drivers were pushed into Red Bull’s senior Formula 1 team too early, and he blamed Helmut Marko for driving that approach. Horner said on the High Performance Podcast that he did not agree with the speed of the promotions, arguing that each driver needed more time to develop before joining Red Bull’s lead team. He said each one had only about a year or less of Formula 1 experience before getting the call up. Horner said the step up became even harder because Red Bull placed them in a difficult car alongside a generational talent, which made success almost impossible. He also said Red Bull’s junior system pushed quick promotions in part to justify its own existence. In his view, the pathway rewarded urgency over patience, and the jump from the junior ranks to the front line came before the drivers were ready for the demands of the main team.
Albon and Gasly
Horner pointed to Alex Albon and Pierre Gasly as examples of how Red Bull moved too fast. He said he worked hard to secure Albon a Williams seat after Red Bull dropped him, a move that kept the driver in Formula 1 after his run with the senior team ended. Horner also cited Gasly’s struggles in 2019 as part of the case for why Red Bull should have waited longer before making the promotion. Those examples fit the broader criticism he leveled at the team’s talent pipeline. Horner said the junior system often promoted drivers quickly, then asked them to handle the pressure of the top team before they had enough mileage behind them. He said that process created a tough environment for young drivers and left little room for a steady adjustment period. In his telling, the issue was not talent. It was timing. Albon and Gasly both arrived at Red Bull before they had enough experience to absorb the demands that came with the seat, and Horner said the structure around them only made the challenge harder.
Lawson’s promotion
Horner also singled out Liam Lawson, whom he said he opposed promoting to Red Bull for the 2025 Formula 1 season. He said Lawson was too inexperienced for the seat after only 11 Formula 1 starts. Lawson’s short stint with Red Bull then unraveled quickly, with a crash in Australia and a 12th-place finish in China. Red Bull later replaced him with Yuki Tsunoda before the Japanese Grand Prix. Horner said Lawson’s stay at the top lasted only a brief two-race stretch at the start of 2025 before Red Bull sent him back to a junior or affiliate team. That sequence matched Horner’s larger point about rushing drivers upward before they were ready for the pressure that comes with the senior seat. He wrote in Drive that he had opposed the promotion, and his comments on the podcast extended that view across Red Bull’s recent driver pipeline. Across Albon, Gasly and Lawson, Horner said the pattern stayed the same. Red Bull moved drivers up fast, then left them to handle a difficult machine, steep expectations and very little experience at the level where results matter most.
