Liam Lawson, who replaced the injured Daniel Ricciardo in five races of the season last year and subsequently took on the task successfully, confirmed that he is ready for Formula 1, but will remain in the role of reserve driver for the time being.
We recently quoted Christian Horner saying that Lawson is a talented driver, but nothing is guaranteed for him. Peter Bayer, executive director of the Visa RB team, takes the same view.
“It is still too early to say, everything will depend on the situation in the driver market as a whole,” Bayer emphasized when asked by Speedcafe about Lawson’s chances for 2025. – If there are any changes in the composition of our team, there’s a good chance we’ll vote for Liam.
But honestly, it’s too early to talk about this. We don’t know how things will go at Red Bull. In fact, when Fernando Alonso decided to stay at Aston Martin, it was like a game of speed chess.
I believe a decision on Lawson could be made this year. But he remains our reserve driver and we are clear that Liam is our number one candidate should a vacancy become available in the team.”
But if Red Bull cannot offer the 22-year-old New Zealander a first-team driver contract until 2025, he will be free from his previous commitments and can offer his services to other teams.
Furthermore, Helmut Marko, advisor to the Austrian company on motorsport issues, emphasized that they are keen to give Lawson the opportunity to prove himself this year. Theoretically, such an opportunity could arise if, for example, Daniel Ricciardo continues to lag behind Yuki Tsunoda and does not earn any points in the near future.
A more complex series of personnel changes could take place if Max Verstappen decides to part ways with Red Bull Racing, although his contract with the championship team runs until 2028. There are many rumors on this topic, but such a development of events is still clearly less likely than the option in which both team drivers – Verstappen and Perez – keep their places.
Moreover, the Mexican started the season with confidence and, together with Max, he has already scored three winning doubles for Red Bull. Although Carlos Sainz has not yet made a decision on the choice of team for 2025, it cannot be ruled out that Red Bull will decide to resume cooperation with the fast and experienced Spaniard, after which events will develop according to a different scenario.
Source: F1 News
I am Christopher Clyde, an experienced journalist and content writer with a passion for sports. I have been writing about Formula 1 news for the past five years and am currently employed as an author at athletistic.com, one of the top sports websites in the US.
