Liam Lawson of Red Bull Racing crashes during the Australian Formula One Grand Prix, 2025. Photo: PHOTOSPORT
Red Bull boss Christian Horner has given his backing to two of the team's young stars.
Liam Lawson and Isack Hadjar both failed to finish the opening Formula 1 round in Melbourne at the weekend.
Rain before and during made the race chaotic with six drivers spinning off the track and failing to finish.
New Zealander Lawson was one of those, with his race ending ten laps from the finish.
Hadjar, the French-Algerian driver for sister team Racing Bulls, crashed out during the formation lap of his debut event.
Formula 1 heads to Shanghai in China this weekend, another track that Lawson hasn't raced at.
Red Bull team principal Horner has backed both Lawson and Hadjar to recover from a difficult Australian GP.
Lawson had a tough weekend after missing part of practice with car issues and failing to make it out of the first part of qualifying.
"We changed the car to put a bit more downforce on the car," Horner told F1. "It's a very hard track to overtake at.
"We took a risk of leaving him out longer because he was out of the points and we thought, 'you know what, roll the dice and maybe it will come right' at exactly the point it started to rain more, so it's difficult to blame him for that last bit.
"I think the one flash of light that he can take out of it is that on the dry tyres, he actually posted the second fastest lap time of the Grand Prix with a 22.9 versus Max's 23.0 and Lando's 22.1."
Horner said Lawson's pace on the dry was one positive they could take.
"The problem is that missing P3, you're on the back foot and then the pressure builds," Horner said. "He grabbed a brake on the second set of tyres and then the third, he was half a second up before another mistake there."
Horner expected next weekend to be tough because it's a sprint race at a track Lawson has not been to before, but expects his resiliency to overcome the rare mishap in Melbourne.
The F1 car of Isack Hadjar of Racing Bulls is removed from the track, Australian Formula One Grand Prix, 2025. Photo: PHOTOSPORT
As for Hadjar, Horner said he performed very well through the practices and qualifying.
"You forget that these guys are just kids really, and obviously, there's a lot of emotion for him," he said. "But when he strips it back, there's an awful lot of positives that he can take out of the weekend. He's got many bright days ahead of him."
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