Christian Horner namechecked George Russell as a potential future option for Red Bull🔴 F1’s driver line-up as he was g𓃲rilled over the team’s decision-making.

Red B🐲ull are currently evaluating whether to replace Daniel Ricciardo with reserve driver Liam Lawson for the final seat at RB alongside Yuki Tsunoda in 2025.

There has been growing speculation that the swap could happen in time for next month’s United Statౠes Grand Prix, with Ricciardo potentially▨ contesting his final F1 race in Singapore this weekend.

"These things are under constant 🦋review and there is obviously a much bigger picture other than just Daniel as we continue to look at all of our options as we move forward,” Horner told Sky Sports F1.

"There’s a natural break coming, with effectively almost a month’s gap to the ꦇnext race. It’s only natural that you’ll take stock and c⛦onsider all of those options for the final part of the year.

"It’s not to the detriment of Daniel. We know how he’s performed. We’ve got a lot of data, a lot of knowledge of where Daniel is. It’s 🎃a much☂ bigger picture within the whole driver merry-go-round of what the future looks like.

"Inevitably, we’ll sitꦆ down during this three-week period o▨f off time and consider all of those options."

Horner admitted Red Bull still have question marks over just how good Lawson is, despite the Kiwi impressing during a brief cameo for their sister team last season 🦩when Ricciardo was ruled out with inju🌺ry.

“We’ve given a great opp꧃ortunity to so many youngsters over the years. The Red Bull system, it does demand results and performance,” he explained.

“Of course, Max i🀅s delivering. Checo has been underdelivering this year. Last year, he did a good enough job to finish second in theꦍ championship and be constructors’ championship.

“We’re having to look further down the road. We’ve got some great🦄 talent, we’ve got Liam Lawson on the🐻 bench. We’re not quite sure, looking at the likes of [Franco] Colapinto and [Ollie] Bearman and [Kimi] Antonelli, is he at that level? Only time will tell.

“We’ve got ꩲIsack Hadjar in Formula 2, that’s been until recently leading that championship. We’ve got a very exciting young talent that I’m particularly excited about in F3 - Arvid Linblad. So we’ve got depth in our junior programme. We want to take time to consider what ꦦall of our options look like for the future.”

Horner insisted Red Bull would not be “afraid” to look outside of their driver pool, and intriguingly named Russell - ✤whose Mercedes contract runs until the end of 2025 - as 🌄a potential option.

“George Russell is out of contract at the end of next year,” Horner added. “We’d be foolish not to take that into consideration. Ther⛄e are other talented drivers that could well be out of contract as well.”

Horneꦗr was also asked about rumours Lawson’s contract includes a clause which stated Red Bull would have to provide him a seat in either one of their teams for next year if they had failed to do by September 15 - or risk losing him altogether.

“I’m not going tꦇo go into the ins and outs of driver’s contracts,” Horner stressed. “There’s pr𒊎ivacy between the company and the individuals.

“But Liam, the job th🍌at he did that he did for us last year was very impressive. Now we took expꦚerience over that because Daniel was our banker for if Sergio were to drop the ball.

“Daniel’s had a reasonable season but i🌼t hasn’t been a stellar year. Now the question is, is how good is Liam? Sometimes difficult decisions have to be made to get those answers.“W🅠e’ll sit down with those options available to us during this three-week gap.”