Those who maintain that second parts were never good will see their arguments supported by the example of Daniel Ricciardo, who was looking for work when Red Bull rescued him and who, a year later, is unemployed again. However, those same ones will closely observe what Liam Lawson will do in his place, who has already replaced the Australian in the five races that he did not compete due to injury (2023) and who, starting this weekend, in Austin, will get on your RB VCARB 01 permanently. Even though the decision to fire Ricciardo is completely justified if we look at Red Bull’s principles and his poor performance this season – he only had 12 points, ten less than Yuki Tsunoda, his teammate – one has to broaden the perspective to understand the composition of the maneuver. And as almost always happens in the Faenza team, which has been mutating since its founding in 1979, behind any movement is Red Bull, where its resources come from.
At 22 years old, and if we take into account that drivers are debuting younger and younger, the red buffalo brand was obliged to include Lawson if it did not want to lose him. Ricciardo’s laziness created the perfect situation to accelerate an ideal change in the eyes of Helmut Marko, one of the key pieces of the energy manufacturer’s sports gear, which would have even precipitated it much earlier. If the Austrian really wanted to send the horny boy from Perth home, his sights now point to Sergio Pérez, whom he has tormented with his comments for a long time. Marko’s influence in the selection of the drivers of the four cars that compete under the Red Bull umbrella is high, and Lawson has become the ideal lever to give another turn to the pressure valve permanently placed on the Mexican. In the six grand prix that remain before the World Cup closes in Abu Dhabi at the beginning of December, the New Zealander not only has the opportunity to prove Marko right, but he can also do a triple somersault with a pirouette that takes him on the course that he becomes Max Verstappen’s workshop neighbor.
With the progress that McLaren has shown, the double that Red Bull seemed to have assured in March is beginning to be seriously jeopardized. In Italy, a month and a half ago, the Milton Keynes (Great Britain) structure lost the lead in the table reserved for constructors, which determines the income each team receives based on its position in the previous championship. In the statistics reserved for the drivers, Verstappen continues to lead with a margin of 52 points over Lando Norris, but the Briton is quickly recovering ground, and in the last four tests he has cut 26 points. By continuing with the inertia that the papaya car provides, McLaren can have in its hands to celebrate a plenary session that it has not achieved since 1998, when Mika Hakkinen and the Woking team beat Michael Schumacher and Ferrari. With this threat becoming increasingly evident, Red Bull cannot afford the gap that has been generated between its titular partner: for practical purposes it is as if it were competing with a single car.
Verstappen accumulates a total of 331 points in his locker, which offer an average of 18.3 points for each of the 18 events held so far. Pérez, who occupies eighth position, has 144 points (8.3 points per race). Proportionally, Czech He has only achieved 43.5% of his teammate’s points, a percentage that is difficult to accept in the midst of an exchange of blows with McLaren, which has Norris and Oscar Piastri very hot, and separated by only 42 points. In this context, Red Bull once again puts Pérez’s seat, permanently questioned, on the showcase, and this year he already narrowly escaped being licensed. Despite having a contract in force until 2026, it seems increasingly difficult for him to stay at Red Bull in 2025.
This weekend, in Texas, Lawson will get on a moving train given all the filming that others are doing and that he is missing, and what he will have to learn and internalize. This is probably why you think that the most sensible thing to do is to keep a low profile regarding your expectations, in the short and medium term. “I think (thinking about driving for Red Bull) is a possibility that is very far away. The objective that I think they have set for me is for me to compete with Yuki, who is the one who drives the same car as me and with whom they can compare me,” agrees the kiwi‘, from the Circuit of the Americas (COTA). “Where I’ll be racing next year, or my future, I have no idea about that,” Lawson adds.
