Lawson wins F1 seat

Liam Lawson has replaced Daniel Ricciardo at Racing Bulls’ Formula One team for the rest of this season.

One of the sport’s worst-kept secrets has finally been made official with the New Zealander to be assessed over the remaining races before Red Bull finalises its plans for 2025.

Ricciardo has been dropped with six races to go with the team’s management being left far from unconvinced by the 35-year-old’s performances.

Lawson, 22, came in for five races last season after the Australian broke his wrist in a crash at the Dutch Grand Prix. The Kiwi scored two points with a ninth-place finish in Singapore last year.

“I get one shot at F1,” says Lawson. “It’s come now. I need to take that opportunity with both hands. I need to perform and do a similar job to what I did last year.

“I’ve dreamed of being a F1 driver since I was a kid and I’m very happy that dream is finally coming true. I want to thank VCARB and Red Bull for this opportunity. I’m extremely grateful and excited to get to work.

“Basically, I’ve got until the end of the season. I’ll find out more as the season goes on. At this stage, it’s the six races.”

The decision to promote Lawson means he will step into the Racing Bull’s cockpit for the next grand prix in Austin, Texas. He becomes the first Kiwi to secure a full-time F1 seat since Brendon Hartley in 2018. 

Over the remaining six races of the season, Lawson will be evaluated against team-mate Yuki Tsunoda before Red Bull decides on the make-up of its teams for the 2025 season. 

As it stands, Tsunoda has another year on his contract at Racing Bulls, while world champion Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez are locked in to drive for Red Bull’s senior team. That said, a strong end to the year by the Kiwi could change things.

There had been rumours that more than one team was interested in acquiring Lawson should Red Bull not have utilised him, but the man from Pukekohe didn’t appear to be interested in taking his services elsewhere.

Red Bull has backed Lawson since he was a teenager, and seen him rise through junior categories Formula Three, F2 and Japan’s Super Formula in the hope of developing him into his current position.

Dr Helmut Marko, Red Bull’s senior adviser, has championed Lawson’s cause in the team’s ranks. 

On at least three separate occasions, Marko made it clear it was Red Bull’s prerogative to have a junior driver in the Racing Bulls seat alongside Tsunoda, with that team intended to be a development pathway into the senior team.

Lawson’s presence on the F1 grid will be a huge boost for the senior team with Perez only contracted to the end of 2025. His rise to the full-time seat comes at a good time for Kiwis fans with five of the six final races taking place at more TV-friendly times.

Laurent Mekies, RB’s team principal, says: “Liam drove for us last season and coped well under difficult circumstances, so it’ll be a natural transition.”

As for Ricciardo, Mekies says: “Daniel has brought a lot of experience and talent to the team with a fantastic attitude, which has helped everyone to develop and foster a tight team spirit.

“He has been a true gentleman on and off the track, and never without that smile. He will be missed, but will always hold a special place within the Red Bull family.”

Lawson’s promotion means he has a chance to stake a claim to a future at Red Bull, either at Racing Bulls or in the senior team.

Perez, who has the second seat at the senior team that’s fronted by Verstappen, was under pressure for his own drive last year. He had a lacklustre first half to this season.

Red Bull went into this year’s summer break considering dropping the Mexican for the second part of the season, but ultimately kept Perez in place because of the risks involved in any other course of action.

Perez’s continued struggles mean his position is less than secure despite him signing a new contract in May.

Lawson now has a golden opportunity to put himself in the frame for promotion to the senior team in the future.

Ricciardo, with his jovial character and sense of humour, has been one of F1's most popular characters throughout his 13-year career. From 2014 -20 inclusive, he was considered one of the sport’s leading drivers.

He was promoted to the Red Bull team from the junior outfit in 2014 and outperformed four-time champion Sebastian Vettel in his first season, scoring three wins to the German’s none.

They were the first of seven wins in his five years at Red Bull at a time when Mercedes was dominating the sport, many of them thanks to late-dive overtaking manoeuvres, which became a Ricciardo trademark.

However, his career began to go into decline after he decided to leave Red Bull at the end of 2018. Ricciardo felt the team was coalescing around team-mate Verstappen, who was promoted from the junior team in 2016.

Verstappen then imposed his superiority over Ricciardo, who felt there was no way for him to reverse the trend as management leant towards the Dutchman.

Ricciardo took a lucrative offer from Renault for 2019-20. His performances remained strong before moving to McLaren for 2021.

That switch was the beginning of the end for Ricciardo. Although he took his final victory in the 2021 Italian Grand Prix, he was outperformed by team-mate Lando Norris. McLaren dropped Ricciardo in favour of Oscar Piastri at the end of the 2022 season. 

He was then given a lifeline by Red Bull, who made him their reserve driver for 2023 and then promoted him to a race seat at their second team midway through last season as a replacement for Dutchman Nyck de Vries.

At the time, Red Bull’s thinking was Ricciardo could be a potential replacement for Perez. But, on balance, he has been outperformed Tsunoda.

F1 is on a four-week hiatus before the final six races of the 2024 season, with the US Grand Prix in Austin, Texas, next up from October 18-20.