While Liam Lawson prepares to take over for Daniel Ricciardo at VCARB, Red Bull wants him to be prepared for a much bigger role as Sergio Perez’s fate within the team comes to doubt as rumours escalate.
There is no doubt that Sergio Perez has not been meeting the team’s expectations. Considering how Red Bull started the 2024 season, they were expecting Perez to at least be in the top 3 in the Drivers’ Championship. But after 18 races, the Mexican driver is sitting in 8th place while his teammate, Max Verstappen is in first.
For the past few months, there have been mild rumours of Checo potentially retiring from the sport. During a recent interview ahead of the Singapore GP, Sergio Perez decided it was time to talk about these rumours.
Sergio Perez addresses retirement rumours
Ahead of the Singapore GP where he finished 10th Sergio Perez spoke about his retirement rumours.
“I don’t see myself much longer in Formula 1. For now I have two more years on my contract, and two years in F1 is a long time, but I know the end is getting closer and closer. I want to finish my career when I want to and not when someone tells me.”
Just earlier this year, Sergio Perez signed a contract extension to remain with the team for another 2 years. However, there will be exit clauses in the contract that will allow him to retire early.
🚨 | Sergio Perez said that some of the Red Bull engineers have apologised to him for ignoring his criticisms of the RB20.
“To be fair, even some of the engineers after Monza came to me and did apologise, in a way, because it’s now a lot clearer that the issues I was talking… pic.twitter.com/VbA9x5BRFy
— Fastest Pitstop (@FastestPitStop) September 20, 2024
There has also been speculation suggesting that Red Bull does not want to continue with Perez after this season. After the Belgian Grand Prix, Perez’s future with the team for the rest of the season looked in doubt. However, the Red Bull executives met internally and decided that it was in their best interest to retain Perez for the time being.
However, the Mexican driver has not improved his performance yet. So Red Bull is now preparing for the worst-case scenario and looking at Lawson to pilot that second Red Bull car.
Is Red Bull preparing Liam Lawson to replace Sergio Perez?
One interesting aspect of VCARB’s announcement was that they signed him only for the remainder of the 2024 season and not for the 2025 season. This indicates that Red Bull wants to keep Lawson available in case Sergio Perez is either going to retire or forced into retirement by the team.
Liam Lawson has already proved his worth when he drove for AlphaTauri in 5 races last year. He has proven that he deserves a full-time F1 seat. Now it looks like he could be getting better than he hoped for.
If he manages to get a seat in Red Bull Racing next year, he will become the least experienced F1 driver to drive for the team. However, this does come at a risk.
🚨 | BREAKING: Liam Lawson signs for VCARB with immediate effect
The 22-year-old New Zealander who is also Red Bull’s reserve driver has signed a contract until the end of the season after impressing in both F1 testing and the junior series.#F1 #Formula1 pic.twitter.com/s4HqAWdA3s
— Fastest Pitstop (@FastestPitStop) September 26, 2024
In the past 5 years, no Red Bull driver has performed well apart from Max Verstappen who has been a constant in the team. Even talented drivers such as Pierre Gasly, Alex Albon and Sergio Perez have tried and failed to keep up with the Dutch driver.
With Lawson having such little experience in F1, will he be able to keep up with Max? But Red Bull’s expectations are not that high. The team will just want Lawson to finish in the top 5 so they have a shot at the Constructors’ title.
How well do you think Liam Lawson will do for VCARB this year? Do you think he will be promoted to Red Bull Racing in 2025? Post your thoughts in the comments section below.
