Ricciardo returns in America: 'Was right to miss Qatar GP'

Lawson does an excellent job as Ricciardo's replacement

During the Grand Prix weekend, Lawson suddenly had to jump into the AlphaTauri car to replace Ricciardo. The Australian crashed in the second free practice and kept his hand on the wheel during the crash, breaking a metacarpal. Ricciardo will make his return at the next Grand Prix, meaning Lawson's adventure ends in 2023.

Lawson was given five races to showcase himself and he did well, according to Horner. "I think he's done a great job jumping in with zero mileage in the car. He's acquitted himself well as a Grand Prix driver. I think he's caught all our attention in terms of the job that he's done," Horner told GPblog.

'Not Lawson's last F1 race'

So for now, Lawson is back on the sidelines in Formula 1, unless something crazy happens again. The Red Bull team boss does know that the Qatar Grand Prix will not be the New Zealander's last F1 race. "It certainly won't be his last race in F1, I'm sure of that. With what he's done in these five races, I think that he's demonstrated that he deserves an opportunity in the future."

Horner looks ahead to Ricciardo's comeback

Ricciardo was appointed from Hungary as a replacement at AlphaTauri for the out-of-work Nyck de Vries, but ended up driving only two races. Even in Qatar, the Australian was still a spectator, which in hindsight was a good choice according to Horner.

"I think we want to see him in full fitness. I think it was right to miss this race, particularly as it turned out, the conditions that we had and I think Austin, obviously it's going to be difficult for him to jump straight back into a sprint race weekend, but I'm sure he'll be physically in good shape to take that on," Horner said of Ricciardo's comeback.

"Of course he was wanting to come back, but he has a contract secured for next year. In Liam, we've got such a great sub, it was also a good way of giving him another Grand Prix without actually putting unnecessary pressure and potential longer-term damage on Daniel, to say, ‘look, don't overstretch it’ and as it turned out, the conditions that we had here could have been very testing for him. So I think that to have had that extra, if you like, 12 days in the run-up to Austin is the best preparation for him," the team principal concluded.