After two seasons marked by more lows than highs, Sergio Perez and Red Bull have parted ways. An outcome that seemed inevitable, especially after a very difficult 2024 season for the Mexican, who managed to score only nine points in the final third of the championship compared to the 134 achieved by his teammate Max Verstappen.
The choice of replacement fell on the Junior Team drivers, and more specifically, on Liam Lawson. Despite having only contested eleven Grands Prix in Formula 1, Lawson convinced Red Bull to bet on him. The New Zealander’s signing came at the expense of Yuki Tsunoda. After four years spent between AlphaTauri and Racing Bulls, the Japanese driver hoped his moment had come, especially given the consistency he showed in 2024. However, the Milton Keynes team chose a different path.
Red Bull was mainly convinced to opt for Liam Lawson due to two factors: his mental strength and the performances he showcased in the limited opportunities he had. It’s no secret that Yuki Tsunoda had long hoped for a promotion, even stating a few months ago that he didn’t know what more he needed to prove to deserve a step up to the main team.
However, although the Japanese driver demonstrated significant improvement compared to 2021 and 2022, he never fully convinced Red Bull. The prevailing thought is that Yuki has already reached his potential after four years in Faenza, while Liam Lawson, who in the few GPs he raced proved not to be far off in terms of performance, still has a broader margin for growth than the Japanese driver.
While Lawson’s promotion might be seen as a rushed move or a gamble, particularly following Yuki Tsunoda’s best season in Formula 1, Red Bull believes the New Zealander has more room for improvement than Yuki Tsunoda ever could.
The second aspect is Lawson’s mental strength. Throughout his career, the future Red Bull driver has raced in multiple categories, always demonstrating adaptability on his path to F1. In Formula 3, he finished in the top 5, in Formula 2, he secured third place, and in Super Formula and DTM, he fought for titles. In DTM, he narrowly lost the championship in the final race amidst controversy surrounding Mercedes’ tactics to ensure Maximilian Götz’s victory.
Helmut Marko believes Lawson is currently the mentally strongest driver in the Junior Team, one of the reasons he was chosen over Yuki Tsunoda: “Liam Lawson is mentally the strongest of our young drivers,” the Red Bull advisor said in an interview with Sport.de. “Additionally, we see great potential for further growth given his limited F1 experience.”
It was Lawson’s DTM experience and the resilience he showed after that loss that convinced Red Bull to continue investing in him. His big F1 opportunity came following Daniel Ricciardo’s injury in the Netherlands in 2023.
“There were ups and downs during the [DTM] season, but he never gave up,” praised Marko, who also recalled Lawson’s Formula 2 season when he was teammates with Logan Sargeant at Carlin. “He [Sargeant] suddenly received a new engine when it became clear he would drive in F1. From that point, the engine made the difference, giving Logan Sargeant a three-to-five-tenths advantage on straights, depending on the track.”
“Knowing there was nothing he could do, [Lawson] didn’t give up and kept fighting. Others would have despaired, saying they had no hope,” Marko revealed, sharing insights from that season. At the end of the championship, the New Zealander, in his second F2 season, finished one point ahead of rookie Logan Sargeant, who secured enough points for a superlicense and his F1 debut in the final rounds.
Undoubtedly, mental strength is a key attribute Red Bull values, especially given that Lawson’s teammate will be Max Verstappen, a driver who has dominated the competition since 2019. The Milton Keynes team doesn’t expect Lawson to beat Max on track but hopes he can stay within a few tenths, earning valuable points for the Constructors’ Championship—a mission Perez failed to accomplish, costing him his seat.
“No one can beat him,” added Marko, who said he would be satisfied if Lawson managed to stay within three-tenths of the four-time world champion: “That should be enough to score points for the Constructors’ Championship.”
That should be the starting point, with Lawson progressing and gaining more experience GP by GP. Crucially, Red Bull advises Lawson not to fall into the trap of trying to beat Verstappen at all costs with “sometimes absurd setups” or other strategies, as some of his predecessors did, only to lose their way.
“You have to accept that [Max] is the best and see if you can get closer. But you can’t go on track with the sole mindset of ‘I want to beat him.’ That’s what went wrong with all his teammates,” Marko concluded.
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