In the round-up: Multiple reports claim Red Bull are preparing to confirm Liam Lawson as Sergio Perez’s replacement for next season.
In brief
Lawson tipped to take Perez’s drive
After Red Bull motorsport consultant Helmut Marko promised “updates in the coming days” on who would be Max Verstappen’s team mate next year, several publications claimed yesterday RB’s Liam Lawson will be appointed in place of Sergio Perez.
Red Bull re-signed Perez on a two-year deal which was announced in June. Lawson made his F1 debut in last year’s Dutch Grand Prix after Daniel Ricciardo was injured and has started 11 grands prix.
Felbermayr joins Sauber for F1 Academy
Sauber has named Emma Felbermayr as its F1 Academy driver for next year, with Rodin. The 17-year-old is graduating from karts to racing cars this winter and will also drive for Rodin in the Formula Winter Series and Spanish Formula 4 championship.Felbermayr said she was “proud and thrilled” to join the team. “This is an incredible opportunity to take the next step in my racing career and to challenge myself at this exciting level.”
Williams hires young karter
Williams has appointed 11-year-old kart racer Will Green to its driver academy. Green, who is backed by Infinity Sports Management, was champion in the World IAME (Italian American Motor Engineering) karting final last year.
“I’m incredibly excited to be given this opportunity with Williams,” he said. “I’m looking forward to the chance to further excel in my racing career and rise through the ranks, with the goal to one day reach F1.”
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Zhou's historic F1 dream hits pause: 'People remember your last few races' (The New York Times)
'At this period of my career, I think it’s not the right time yet to go into a different category because then it’s always difficult to come back. But then also for my side, you know, I want to be in this paddock.'
With fences mended, Robb eager for 2025 with JHR (IndyCar)
'When I left in 2021, it wasn't on the best of terms. I wouldn't say we burned the bridge, by any means, but, Ricardo (Juncos) and I sat down before we signed the contract this year, and I think that we kind of had a heart-to-heat, like, ‘Hey, we're recognising where things went wrong in 2021 and we feel like we have reconciled that, and we recognise this is where we are now, and this is where our heads are.’'
Aston Martin unleashes the F1-inspired Valhalla (Aston Martin)
'Taking inspiration from F1, Valhalla incorporates an F1-inspired roof scoop which feeds two air charge coolers mounted directly above the engine. When designing this component, a new mounting strategy was employed to save more than 5kg.'
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The 62-year-old joined his son in driving a 2022-specification F1-75 around the team's test track.
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Comment of the day
Is there a way for Perez to keep up his claim that he would stay at Red Bull next year?
So RB are getting another name change… Here’s a thought, Red Bull and RB swap names so Perez’ is still “technically” racing for Red Bull and his contract still stands. Should save the squad a few million in buy-out fees. Pure genius.
John Cousins (@Drone)
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to Julio Mv and Nat Lockwood!
Jim from US (@jimfromus)
18th December 2024, 0:12
So PER made the decision that LAW should drive the car next season and not him? I would have stayed for the money and a chance to redeem myself.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
18th December 2024, 0:23
It doesn’t state that perez made the decision, I doubt it’s a decision he would make tbh.
Coventry Climax
18th December 2024, 1:46
No, but we were told by Horner that it was Perez himself that was gonna make a decision, so my guess is there’s a bit of sarcasm here.
MichaelN
18th December 2024, 7:55
He just can’t help himself, whether that’s with telling the truth or other things.
S
18th December 2024, 1:36
Even if Perez had the power to decide – he doesn’t need the money and knows full well that he has no power to ‘redeem himself’ within that environment. The team isn’t going to develop the car for his driving preferences/style while Verstappen is there.
Coventry Climax
19th December 2024, 1:10
Brilliant. No team develops their car for their -proven- slowest and most error prone driver.
Patrick (@paeschli)
18th December 2024, 10:22
The only way Perez agreed to leave was in exchange of a TON of money
Coventry Climax
18th December 2024, 10:56
A ton as in a 1000kg? That’s easy, with steel, copper and nickel coins.
More correct representation of his value too.
Edvaldo
18th December 2024, 0:34
Of course, they won’t be giving Tsunda a shot when he’s likely following Honda in a year.
It won’t be surprising if he underperforms, the guy raced 11 times! Maybe they should evaluate Ricciardo again if he’s still up to it, Lawson might get burned to an early F1 exit if he doesn’t do well.
Coventry Climax
18th December 2024, 1:44
Ofcourse Lawson will underperform, but the question is whether it’ll be worse than Perez, and that would seem pretty much impossible.
Edvaldo
18th December 2024, 2:15
If he underperforms he won’t have 4 seasons plus a 2-year deal to find his feet. That’s what i’m talking about.
Patrick (@paeschli)
18th December 2024, 10:24
Albon and Gasly seem to be doing great for themselves. Only driver that really got shafted was Kvyat.
Lawson will likely be fine whether he underperforms or not.
JV
18th December 2024, 12:30
That’s not a very large sample size.
Daniel
19th December 2024, 1:37
Fisichella, substituting Massa after his injury in 2009’s Ferrari, shows that even a good driver, who had just put a Force India on pole position and finished on the podium in Spa, can perform much worse than Perez did this year, and I didn’t even mention poor Luca Badoer extending his record of most races without scoring a point before Giancarlo took over
Jere (@jerejj)
18th December 2024, 6:25
Edvaldo Coventry Climax
He may have only driven 11 GPs, but don’t forget Antonelli has 0 & will directly start in another top 4 team.
Therefore, making definitive conclusions about Lawson at this point is premature.
Coventry Climax
18th December 2024, 11:02
My comment was NOT a definitive conclusion, but a realistic observation.
Clearly:
The Red Bull might suit Lawson, and it might not.
He’s still a relative rookie, so we need to evaluate him in that light. Whether Red Bull does the same is not for us to decide.
He can’t possibly be much worse than Perez.
Jere (@jerejj)
18th December 2024, 11:26
Valid points & yes, he could just as equally succeed as he could fail in the main team, which only time will tell.
Simon
18th December 2024, 17:35
Jere (@jerejj)
18th December 2024, 11:26
Those splinters in your backside must hurt…
Dex
18th December 2024, 13:36
Antonelli might still prove to be a star in the making, as promised by Mercedes’ leadership. Lawson’s already proved a few things, mostly that he’s competent (like most guys in and around F1), but also not too impressive. There must be at least 40 drivers of similar or higher level in F1 and other categories. Red Bull are having the weirdest driver market strategy I’ve ever seen, if we can call this strategy.
SPArtacus
18th December 2024, 1:20
Of course Lawson will. His career will last one full season.
wsrgo (@wsrgo)
18th December 2024, 3:38
I know a lot of people will talk about Tsunoda deserving this, and on merit I do agree, but this could actually work out for him. That Red Bull second seat is a poisoned chalice, it could potentially ruin Yuki’s career prospects, coupled with if Red Bull requires him to relinquish his Honda links given that Honda is leaving them at the end of next year. At the end of 2 years, Yuki could be left with a worse reputation as a driver, with no obvious seat to go for.
On the other hand, sticking out for another season at Faenza, alongside an unseasoned prospect in Isack Hadjar, would allow him to have the kind of season Gasly had in 2021. A strong season in the midfield would allow him to keep Honda’s eager support and potentially make Newey sit up and ask Lawrence to replace Lance with Yuki. If Lawrence says no, Newey could potentially threaten to walk out as he would judge Aston Martin for not being a serious outfit.
El Pollo Loco
18th December 2024, 6:00
Prospects? He’s been in F1 too long to ruin his prospects. He needed a shot at a good team and he’ll almost certainly never get one.
However, you’re right, it might work out for him if Lawson crashes and burn. They’ll swap their seats.
notagrumpyfan
18th December 2024, 8:49
I haven’t made my mind up on who performed better between the two of them during the second part of the season.
But either way I’d go for the younger one who is lower on the learning curve and thus has more potential.
Liam showed that he is good enough to keep his head above the water in a top team.
Kimi I’d consider a bigger risk (unknown) as are the other (almost) rookies in the mid field teams.
Coventry Climax
18th December 2024, 11:08
Makes sense, but for the fact that it took Tsunoda so many seasons to finally ‘earn’ anything at all.
Lawson got to more or less the same level in much less time, plus has already proven to be much more level headed.
That said, we’re all just commenting from the outside really, and lack the actual data that teams have, including financial evaluation, unfortunately.
Jere (@jerejj)
18th December 2024, 11:27
@wsrgo Looking at the matter this way makes quite a lot of sense.
Antz (@antznz)
18th December 2024, 3:41
I’m a kiwi, I’ve followed Liam since F3. This is my attempt to avoid bias and be objective.
I absolutely think Liam should be kept at RB. It’s a big risk promoting him. For me, it would be better to promote Yuki and have him fail seeing as the Honda relationship is ending. Here are some reasons I think they have gone for Liam:
1. This might be Max’s last year at Red Bull. They might not get another chance to compare the two
2. They have been making Liam bulletproof. They have been throwing him out of planes, putting him through all sorts of extreme adventures, racing series, sending him to countries he doesn’t speak the language. It’s been an insane conditioning journey. Putting him against Max is a test to see how well their conditioning program has worked
3. Liam is politically neutral – no affiliations except to Red Bull itself
4. He’s shown decent potential. He has scrapped for positions showing he can race/fight and kept the car out of the wall. He’s generally been consistent
5. He’s possibly going to be more adaptable to the Red Bull car given the variety of cars he has driven in recent years. He has shown an ability to quickly adapt each time.
Melbourne '96 (@melbourne-96)
18th December 2024, 5:21
Thank you for your explanation, after reading I now think it makes sense to put Liam in that seat.
Aquila_GD
18th December 2024, 6:29
Lol..
What a long and convulated statement.. only to tell us that he wants Lawson to be in a Red Bull.
Jere (@jerejj)
18th December 2024, 6:51
Aquila_GD Those points are definitely valid to some extent at least rather than solely personal preference.
Antz (@antznz)
18th December 2024, 6:55
I would really perfer Liam had the season at RB. We get so few drivers into F1. I’d prefer him to have a permanent grid slot and going up against Max has proven to break drivers rather than make them.
notagrumpyfan
18th December 2024, 8:54
That’s a shortish statement attacking the commenter rather than discussing his arguments. :P
Coventry Climax
18th December 2024, 11:14
Aquila_GD:
Not LOL, but SIGH.
Antz does not want Lawson in the Red Bull and clearly says so.
He explains how come he thinks Red Bull might choose Lawson nonetheless.
Different things altogether.
Jere (@jerejj)
18th December 2024, 6:29
@antznz Spot-on. All these factors are clearly in favor of promoting Liam over Yuki despite the difference in F1 racing experience & the Honda factor is definitely a contributing one.
However, I still Red Bull should promote Yuki just to see how well he’d perform in a top team & if he fails, they could simply swap around him & Liam during the season.
Antz (@antznz)
18th December 2024, 7:00
@jerejj yeah me too.. Yuki has been really good, I really rate him. I don’t see any reason to rush promoting Liam.
And by political I mean, there’s the Max camp, Horner, Marco, the Thai investors, the Red Bull board. There are a lot of stakeholders involved.
Jere (@jerejj)
18th December 2024, 7:36
@antznz Indeed
Jere (@jerejj)
18th December 2024, 7:36
‘I still think’
MacLeod (@macleod)
18th December 2024, 8:02
@antznz Red Bull still have a great relation with Honda even When Honda decided to leave F1 that is the company is so large the directors and board made non-F1 deciscions for the Sports departmant. Yuki is an Honda driver so going with other drivers is just good thinking on Red Bulls part.
For Yuki this sucks as Aston Martin doesn’t swap Alonso for Yuki but maybe he will be the reserve/test driver for Aston Martin in 2026. If Lance leaves he could join Alonso as he is experienced.
So they leave him with TR or what they are going to call them selfs in 2025 and bring a new face in 2026 …
Jere (@jerejj)
18th December 2024, 9:15
@macleod Except Honda didn’t effectively leave, after all, as they’ve still physically supplied the Red Bull-owned teams, but the post-2025 period is another matter when they won’t be involved with the Red Bull organization in literally any way anymore, which puts Yuki in a difficult position regarding his long-term stay in the Red Bull organization.
Of course, Lawrence could simply decide to move Lance aside if he wanted to do so.
An Sionnach
18th December 2024, 14:44
I wouldn’t like to see Liam at Red Bull next year. It seems less than ideal for him or Yuki to be dropped in there. Liam could do with a full year at RB, where he’s doing well. I’d prefer to leave Pérez in there or replace him with Magnussen, who, like Pérez, is a scrapper, but he can qualify.
I wonder if Yuki’s now legendary level of technical feedback is why Red Bull do not want to put Yuki in the car? His loyalties lie with Honda so I would never put him in the main team.
Todfod (@todfod)
18th December 2024, 5:33
This decision seems a little harsh on Yuki, however, Liam has far more growth potential than Yuki has. At the end of the day, if Liam can show steady improvement in his first season at Red Bull, that already makes more appealing than a rapidly declining Perez and a Yuki that’s shown all his cards over the past 4 seasons.
Red Bull doesn’t have great options available for 2025, so they’re buying another year of evaluating #2 drivers before settling down on a solid 2026 option.
Jonathan Parkin
18th December 2024, 10:20
I think Yuki made the wrong choice raving about the Red Bull at the test. If he had kept quiet or maybe not gone as quick he might have got the drive
Jere (@jerejj)
18th December 2024, 6:22
That’s been the most likely outcome for a little while.
Yet another hiring of a karter way under 18. Just like with the previous one, a somewhat risky move at such an early age performance pressure-wise.
Zhou may have had a good Qatar GP, but people still remember the general average in the end, which is that he was often the outright slowest driver for the most part.
Therefore, as he hasn’t made himself a strong case by outright performance level, he realistically only stands a chance at GM Cadillac if they care about the Chinese market, especially as he doesn’t even have vast F1 racing experience.
notagrumpyfan
18th December 2024, 6:52
A bit weird that you state this now; you were always adamant that Perez had a contract (technically correct) and that he would therefore remain with RBR.
It’s been proven over and over again in this sport that contracts (and comments by us) hold little predictive value :P
Alesici
18th December 2024, 7:31
Jere, you forgot to mention that this was as expected.
Jere (@jerejj)
18th December 2024, 7:38
notagrumpyfan I was never definitively adamant, i.e., I never repeatedly claimed he’d continue in any case only because he has been officially confirmed since June. Only he’s been repeating himself.
Jere (@jerejj)
18th December 2024, 7:53
The only thing, if anything, I pointed out is that nothing will change as long as Red Bull doesn’t decide & say differently, which is always true even in life generally that things will happen or remain in a certain way as long as the relevant party(ies) don’t decide & say differently.
Simon
18th December 2024, 17:40
You were “always adamant that Perez had a contract”
But now Perez isn’t with the main Red Bull team, change the thinking to cover your tracks, eh?
Typical occy tactics…
Craig
18th December 2024, 8:14
Zhou’s one of those drivers who’s either extremely anonymous or doing surprisingly well with little in-between. He’s still done better in F1 then I feared he would.
Jere (@jerejj)
18th December 2024, 9:19
Craig Yes, he’s definitely been like those for the most part, but I still think he isn’t the first choice or priority for future driver considerations in any team.
MichaelN
18th December 2024, 8:02
What else were they going to do? Pérez, for whatever reason within or without his control, has been a flop this year. Tsunoda isn’t anything special and won’t be around when Honda leaves. Ricciardo proved his McLaren form is where he is now, and anyone else affiliated with RB is in junior categories and not doing all that great. That just leaves Lawson, who was a match for Tsunoda at times, but nowhere near the kind ofnadvantage Gasly had.
Whatever Marko once had, he’s seemingly missing it now. The RB junior program has missed all the great talent to come into F1 over maybe even close to ten years now, since Sainz and Verstappen (and those were relatively late to join the program).
MacLeod (@macleod)
18th December 2024, 8:05
I am sure this has nothing todo with Marko otherwise Perez would be gone a year ago. Looks more an decision of Horner.
MichaelN
18th December 2024, 9:01
Sure, but Marko is supposed to offer Horner a choice. He hasn’t, as the Red Bull junior program hasn’t brought in any noteworthy drivers in many years. They tried Gasly, tried Albon, then Horner eventually brought in Pérez who had been dumped by his team, tried De Vries, then Horner brought back Ricciardo who had been dumped by his team, gave Lawson a couple of goes. It’s not been great. And sure, their hands are tied a bit by having to put Tsunoda in one of the cars. But they have four!
And what is there in the pipeline? Iwasa probably missed his moment, Hadjar has a chance but they still prefer Lawson for some reason. Martí and in particular Goethe are new(ish) to F2 but would have to do much better in 2025 to have any chance.
The Red Bull junior program between like 2008-2015 was excellent and brought so many great and solid talent to F1. It was looking a bit grim without their input, but thankfully 2025 will see a raft of new talent on the grid (overdue!), suggesting other teams are starting to pick up the slack a bit.
Coventry Climax
18th December 2024, 11:30
Which might well be related. It’s not like there’s an endless supply of drivers that are truly outstanding, head and shoulders above the rest. When more teams start to fish in the pond, they’ll likely catch less each.
Then there’s the diminishing number of feeder series, with the FiA basically trying to limit that to just the FiA F4, 3, 2, 1 options. Combine that with how the car development and tyre development goes, and you’ll need the odd and and ever less occurring rain race to actually be able to notice a real difference between driver quality.
So what I’m saying is, it’s maybe not so much a Red Bull problem in particular, as it is a Formula 1 problem in general.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
18th December 2024, 16:27
The fact perez had been dumped by his previous team before joining red bull doesn’t mean anything: his team mate was the son of the team owner and they wanted to get an (albeit overrated) 4 times world champion.
It’s a bit like sainz being replaced by hamilton despite driving better this season.
Coventry Climax
18th December 2024, 17:45
@esploratore1
But that’s not what happened when McLaren ditched him.
Craig
18th December 2024, 8:10
The Red Bull Junior Program really seems to be a mess and it’s rather telling that the main team recently has hired drivers who barely touched or were never part of that program (Verstappen and Albon more or less skipped the entire thing while Perez was never involved in it)
Coventry Climax
18th December 2024, 11:39
Which might well be related. It’s not like there’s an endless supply of drivers that are truly outstanding, head and shoulders above the rest. When more teams start to fish in the pond, they’ll likely catch less each.
Then there’s the diminishing number of feeder series, with the FiA basically trying to limit that to just the FiA F4, 3, 2, 1 options. Combine that with how the car development and tyre development goes, and you’ll need the odd and and ever less occurring rain race to actually be able to notice a real difference between driver quality.
So what I’m saying is, it’s maybe not so much a Red Bull problem in particular, as it is a Formula 1 problem in general.
Picasso 1.9D FTW (@picasso-19d-ftw)
18th December 2024, 8:15
For the want of a hyphen a championship was lost…
Biggsy
18th December 2024, 8:19
There’s been a lot of discussions based on not seeing an elephant in the room.
The simple reason that Yuki is not getting the seat, is because he’d refuse to be a patsy.
And we know, with Max and Jos, respect is a one-way street.
They find Lawson to be just a tad better and reliable than Perez, but not too fast (at least at this point), and possibly willing to play the second fiddle.
I’m not saying Yuki would beat Max over the course of the season, but he sure as hell wouldn’t accept not racing Max.
All the proof you need is the fact that Red Bull skipped signing Sainz and Alonso, when they had the chance during the early season.
If there were ever to be problems arising from having them in the same team as Max, it would be because Jos’ and Max’ camp were throwing a fit, throwing dirt, and “politicizing” the situation.
It’s not Sainz and Alonso, or many other competitive drivers, that are hard to manage. It’s Jos’ and Max’ that are hard to manage, when there is a competitive teammate.
All in all, it will be a relief once this saga is over, and we don’t have to pretend there’s some hidden angles and interesting quirks as to who and why will be Max’ next team mate, reading some deep analysis to try to figure out why this or that. Red Bull simply wants a patsy that’s a bit more consistent and reliable than Perez. And probably not by much, despite how abysmal Perez was this year.
Robbie1
18th December 2024, 17:53
Show us tangible proof.
You haven’t, not a single bit.
But hey, this is what incredibly toxic people do, tell lies and falsehoods to make themselves look bettter.
Feeling better?
Robbie1
18th December 2024, 17:56
Ironically, your toxic lies make it clear that Jos has more decency than you.
bernasaurus (@bernasaurus)
18th December 2024, 8:27
It’d be interesting to know what Yuki’s reaction was when he told.
Coventry Climax
19th December 2024, 1:16
Only if it’s translated.
Or broadcast in a next Mr. Bean episode.
anon
18th December 2024, 9:09
If true I see this backfiring for Red Bull. Qualifying pace is more important than ever. This can be evidenced by Hamilton and Checo this season. Being one or 2 tenths behind your teammate in qualifying can be the difference of 5 places. It doesn’t matter how great a racer you are, if you qualify poorly, you get stuck in traffic. Liam is not a great qualifier, he lost the qualifying battle to Yuki comprehensively this and last year. It doesn’t matter if he has a calmer head, better technical feedback (read speaks better English) or even more consistency in races. If he’s slow in qualifying, he’ll start down the field and get poor results.
Red Bull management have been making horrible decisions for years now, I fear this is another one. They have Max but as soon as he’s gone this team will be mid at best.
rpla
18th December 2024, 20:22
While bringing Lawson too quickly to Red Bull is more likely to create an Albon scenario for him, Lawson has a number for points going for him. In lower categories he’s shown adept at adapting to new cars – he has a habit of winning on the first race in a new category – he’s done it in F2 and SF. In SF he has shown excellent race pace throughout the season, even though he wasn’t the greatest qualifier and his only pole came at the last race of the season. In SF he has shown himself as very composed and focused, so he might have the maturity to deal with the spotlights at Red Bull. (Contrast this to Hadjar who’s just bubbly hot gas.) Given equal machinery as Verstappen, I would not be surprised if he’s able to adapt to it and put in solid performances.
Jungle
18th December 2024, 10:20
I think the easiest solution would have been to plug the hole with Yuki for a year and see what happens. He has speed and has harnessed a lot of his Grosjean esq type antics.
Give Lawson another year in the junior team for more analysis, or swap them around mid season if the results show either is or is not cutting it…
Bullfrog (@bullfrog)
18th December 2024, 14:33
“Ever since I was a small boy,” said the 11-year-old, “I’ve dreamed of signing for Williams. I’ve been practising my signature all morning.”
bull mello (@bullmello)
19th December 2024, 0:14
Too bad. Should be Tsunoda, instead of Lawson.
Tsunoda has more experience, better driver at this time.
Lawson would have more time in the second team to prove himself.
Also, Bottas would be a much better choice than Lawson too.