Christmas and the Formula 1 winter shutdown are on the horizon, but so it change within the ranks at Red Bull Racing.
The FIA confirmed F1’s official entry list for the 2025 season during their prize giving in Rwanda, but there were a couple of glaring issues related to Red Bull.
Firstly, their sister team RB, still have a vacant spot in their driver line-up next year.
Yuki Tsunoda isn’t sure who his teammate will be in 2025, but not necessarily because RB haven’t decided who will partner him going forward.
Helmut Marko has confirmed that Tsunoda could be promoted to Red Bull due to the concerns they have over Sergio Perez’s form.
Perez’s future will be confirmed in the coming days, but the other candidate to replace him is Liam Lawson.
Lawson only has 11 Grand Prix under his belt across two spells with RB – and AlphaTauri – over the past two seasons.
However, Lawson is also being considered by Red Bull, which could end up meaning both Red Bull-backed teams will look very different in 2025.
Christian Horner and Helmut Marko already decided to Liam Lawson replacing Sergio Perez
In a report from Autoracer.it, the process by which Red Bull are deciding if and who Perez will be replaced is explained.
After the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Red Bull’s shareholders held a meeting with Horner and Marko to discuss their driver line-ups.
Marko admitted it was the first time Red Bull shareholders were involved in a driver decision, highlighting how important Perez’s contribution is to the team.
However, the report suggests that Marko and team principal Christian Horner didn’t necessarily need to wait around for that meeting to take place.
It’s believed that the pair were already decided that Lawson was the candidate they wanted in the second Red Bull alongside Max Verstappen.
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However, their primary partners and power unit suppliers Honda urged them to wait until after the post-season test on Tuesday to make a final call.
That’s because Tsunoda was taking part in his first Red Bull outing – at the request of Honda – and they wanted the 24-year-old to prove that he was a candidate for the role during his nine-hour stint in the RB20.
Yuki Tsunoda’s Red Bull test may have complicated who replaces Sergio Perez
Tsunoda’s Red Bull test was excellent, impressing many of the staff with his feedback and Marko.
However, tellingly, Horner didn’t stick around in Abu Dhabi for Tsunoda’s test, and Marko as well as technical chief Pierre Wache had also departed by then.
Although they would have been given detailed feedback on how Tsunoda fared, the fact they didn’t want to witness him in action personally suggests that they may be heavily leaning towards promoting Lawson.
READ MORE: Visa Cash App RB driver Yuki Tsunoda’s life outside F1 from height to parents
Tsunoda claimed that the RB20 suited his driving style better than the RB in an effort to convince Red Bull that he would be even faster were he promoted in 2025.
Unfortunately, it’s likely to be a request that falls on deaf ears, leading to the Japanese driver racing for Red Bull’s sister team for a fifth consecutive campaign.
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