Liam Lawson recently completed a testing day for Red Bull, spending one of the team’s allocated ‘filming days’ driving the RB20 at Silverstone. This session has only intensified speculation about the Kiwi potentially joining VCARB, as Sergio Perez faces growing scrutiny. As teams across the field show growing interest in Lawson’s availability, Red Bull must offer him a contract before someone else does.
Time running out for Red Bull to keep Liam Lawson
A little under twelve months ago, it would have been uncontroversial to predict that Liam Lawson would sign a full-time contract with the Racing Bulls. The Kiwi’s efforts last season were extremely impressive, scoring points and matching up well against Yuki Tsunoda in his limited appearances. This was despite being thrown into the deep end at the last minute.
Unfortunately for the 22-year-old, Red Bull decided to keep him on the sidelines. Red Bull instead chose to retain Tsunoda and Ricciardo for the 2024 season.
This was a controversial move, to say the least, and has only become more contentious in recent months. After all, with Ricciardo ruled out of contention for a Red Bull seat, the 34-year-old’s continued presence at VCARB is seen by many as counter-productive.
Some argue that if Ricciardo cannot join Red Bull, his position at the Faenza-based team only prevents youngsters like Lawson from having an opportunity.
More pressingly for the reigning Champions, there is a clause in Liam Lawson’s contract. If Red Bull fails to offer him an F1 seat, he can explore alternatives and join another team.
Helmut Marko: Red Bull won’t miss out on Lawson
Helmut Marko knows this, which is why he emphasises that Red Bull will not let Lawson slip through their fingers:
“It has now been confirmed by all decision-makers that Racing Bulls will be a junior team again in the future,” f1-insider quotes him as saying.
“We will not release him because he will get another chance with us.”
Logically, with Yuki Tsunoda performing very strongly, he should be the favourite to replace the struggling Sergio Perez. Of course, as much of the F1 paddock acknowledges, Christian Horner is not especially enthusiastic about the Japanese driver.
It is partly because Horner dismissed Tsunoda’s abilities that Red Bull rushed to give Perez a new contract—despite stating on numerous occasions earlier in the season that they wouldn’t make a decision until the summer break.
Ironically, with the Mexican driver underperforming, the Austrian outfit’s future line-up will be determined this summer anyway. Lawson is one of many stakeholders in the team’s decision-making process.
Until now, as evidenced by Red Bull’s almost immediate U-turn on Perez, predicting their choices is tricky. Looking ahead to the Hungarian and Belgian GP, it seems reasonable to expect more unexpected twists from Milton Keynes.
