Liam Lawson will replace Sergio Perez as Max Verstappen’s teammate at Red Bull for the 2025 season. The team confirmed the widely-anticipated news on Thursday morning.
This comes after Perez formally announced his departure on Wednesday evening. The Mexican had been under contract until the end of next year, with an option for 2026 too.
But in negotiations following the Abu Dhabi GP, Perez and Red Bull agreed terms for an early release. That paved the way for Christian Horner to promote Lawson from junior team RB.
Perez’s woes have effectively lowered the bar for the 22-year-old. He’s finished a combined 575 points behind Verstappen in the last two seasons.
But he still faces an enormous challenge as he graduates to a front-running seat just 11 races into his F1 career. He’s had two short stints in the car – the first in 2023 when Daniel Ricciardo broke his wrist, and the second this year when the Australian lost his seat for good.
Lawson will make his debut for Red Bull at the Australian GP next March. Fittingly, that’s the closest he gets to a home race on the current F1 calendar.
Damon Hill expresses excitement after Liam Lawson lands Red Bull seat
Lawson’s ascent to a Red Bull seat has been remarkable. At the Singapore GP in late September, he wasn’t even on the grid at all.
Before the year was out, he secured a spot alongside the world champion. Lawson won a head-to-head duel with teammate Yuki Tsunoda even though the Japanese driver has been racing since 2021.
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1996 world champion Damon Hill offered his immediate reaction on his Instagram story, reposting the announcement from the official F1 account. Hill seems excited to see what Lawson can do against the mighty Verstappen.
“Big break for Liam,” the former Williams driver wrote. He added in a subsequent story that the youngster was clearly ‘undaunted’ by the task ahead.
The test that suggests Red Bull may have made a mistake by promoting Liam Lawson
Lawson understands the ruthless nature of Red Bull better than most. He returned to the grid this year at Ricciardo’s expense, and has just seen Perez’s contract effectively ripped up.
As such, while he likely has a deal for the whole of 2025, he knows there will be talk of a mid-season driver change if he starts poorly. That could be Tsunoda’s last chance of a promotion.
Lawson admits Helmut Marko is a ‘cutthroat’ operator, having struggled to deal with his 6am phonecalls after difficult race weekends. Marko has been an advocate of Lawson but won’t hesitate to change his mind if his faith isn’t repaid.
One test outing earlier this year will be a concern for Red Bull. Reserve driver Ayumu Iwasa outperformed the ‘overdriving’ Lawson, who seemed too eager to impress.
