The New Zealander will partner world champion Max Verstappen at Redbull next year
Finlay McSporran
Published: 14:15, 19th December 2024
This news follows yesterday’s announcement that Sergio Perez and Redbull had agreed to part ways following the Mexican drivers poor performances this season.
Lawson will be stepping up to Redbull with just 11 Grand Prix under his belt, however team boss Christian Horner believes that the 22-year-old is ready for challenge.
“I’m delighted to announce that Liam Lawson will join the team in 2025. Liam’s performances over the course of his two stints with Visa Cash App Racing Bulls have demonstrated that he’s not only capable of delivering strong results but that he’s also a real racer, not afraid to mix it with the best and come out on top.
“His arrival continues the Team’s long history of promoting from within the Red Bull Junior Programme and he follows in the footsteps of championship and race-winning drivers such as Sebastian Vettel and of course, Max Verstappen”.
What About Tsunoda?
This announcement means that Lawson’s teammate at VCARB, Yuki Tsunoda, will not be promoted to Redbull and will instead stay at VCARB for what will be his 5th with the “junior team” team in 2025.
During their time together in the sister team Tsunoda was often the quicker driver between the two, outqualifying Lawson 10-1 and finishing ahead of him five times in the races where neither of them had a DNF.
Redbull have never been convinced of Tsunoda despite these statistics however, as they don’t think that he would be a suitable driver for the senior team for reasons that aren’t really known, which begs the question:
Have Redbull Chosen the wrong driver?
Who is Liam Lawson?
Lawson joined the Redbull family as a junior back in 2019 after winning the Toyota Racing series in New Zealand. From there he would move to Europe, competing in Formula 3 in 2020 and finishing 5th in the standings, 21 points behind champion Oscar Piastry.
Two years in F2 soon followed, finishing ninth in his first season and third in 2022. In 2023 he became the official reserve driver for Alpha Tauri whilst competing in super formula in Japan, narrowly missing out on the title.
Lawson would make his Formula one debut at the 2023 Dutch Grand Prix, replacing the injured Daniel Riccardo for five races. He impressed in that time, finishing a respectable P13 on debut during a wet race at Zandvoort, and scoring points in Singapore with a P9 finish.
Lawson replaced Riccardo once again this year, starting his second stint at the team with a strong drive to finish ninth in Austin after starting 19th, which was enough to convince Redbull that he might be worth a shot at the main team, as he was usually on or near the pace of his more experienced teammate.
Effect on the Driver Market
With Lawson now confirmed to be going to Redbull it leaves just one more seat on the 2025 grid, that being the vacant VCARB seat alongside Yuki Tsunoda.
This seat will almost certainly go to F2 runner-up Isack Hadjar, who is already the teams reserve driver. There were also questions over whether Redbull might swap their drivers around with Perez going back to VCARB, however Christian Horner himself confirmed that this wont be happening.
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