Liam Lawson's promotion to a full-time seat with Visa Cash App RB appears to be in doubt for 2025 based on recent comments by the outfit’s CEO, Peter Bayer.
Ahead of the 2024 F1 season, Red Bull's initial strategy for next year involved moving Daniel Ricciardo to Red Bull Racing alongside Max Verstappen, with Lawson taking the Aussie’s vacated seat at RB.
However, Ricciardo's underwhelming performance so far this season alongside an impressive Yuki Tsunoda has significantly weakened his case for a promotion.
Furthermore, reports suggest that a contract extension announcement for Perez is on the horizon at Red Bull.
Tsunoda’s strong form has undeniably solidified his position in the team, while RB could be tempted to retain Ricciardo given the F1 veteran’s marketing appeal.
The situation paints a potentially bleak outlook for Lawson’s chances of rejoining the grid after his impressive five-race cameo in 2023.
“We’re very happy with both of our drivers,” Bayer said in Monaco last weekend, adding to the uncertainty surrounding the young Kiwi. “And honestly, we’re not wasting time with discussing ifs and whens.
“We have a very strong line-up. We have a great reserve driver. We have great talent coming through F2, F3.
“Currently, it’s all about focusing on performance – the focus is more on Aston Martin in front of us than on driver discussions.”
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Bayer suggested that he’ll revisit the topic of RB’s driver line-up for 2025 during F1’s summer break
“Liam is an extremely valuable member to the team,” Bayer added. “He’s with us every weekend, obviously. He’s doing a lot of work in the simulator.
“But as I said before, currently we have two drivers in the cars.
“We are finding performance with the two. And we really do not discuss the 2025 situation, perhaps because we’re in a luxury situation of having that strong grassroot pyramid behind us.
“So the focus is really on track and on the next couple of races until definitely the summer break.”
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Red Bull Racing team boss Christian Horner stated that there was still ample time to make a call on Lawson’s future with the bulls.
“They’re all Red Bull Racing drivers, and we’re only at race eight, so there’s still plenty of time,” Horner said.
“It’s good to see the youngsters performing well, and it’s good to have that competition as well.
“Liam is undoubtedly keen to get back into a race situation. The drivers in Formula 2 are performing well at the moment, Formula 3 likewise. So we have a strong vein of talent.”
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