Red Bull names the man in Lawson’s ear for 2025 F1 season

A key piece of Red Bull Racing’s 2025 puzzle has reportedly fallen into place with the team nominating the race engineer that will help guide Liam Lawson through his first full season of F1.

Richard Wood, who previously acted as Sergio Perez’s performance engineer, has been assigned to Lawson's crew according to reports.

Wood's appointment follows a period of transition within the Red Bull engineering team. He filled in for Hugh Bird, Sergio Perez's long-standing race engineer, at the Dutch Grand Prix last year while Bird was on paternity leave.

Now, with Bird moving to a factory-based role, Wood will assume full-time the race engineer position for Lawson.

Lawson's High-Stakes Challenge

The 22-year-old New Zealander arrival at Red Bull Racing comes with significant weight of expectation.

He takes over the seat vacated by Sergio Perez, whose 2024 season, along with the team's overall performance culminating in a disappointing third-place finish in the Constructors' Championship, fell short of expectations.

Lawson, despite having a mere 11 Formula 1 appearances under his belt, faces a monumental task.

He must not only adapt quickly to the pressures of a top team but also find a way to perform alongside Verstappen, a driver who has set an intimidating benchmark that has proven too much for several of his past teammates.

Pierre Gasly and Alex Albon, both talented racers in their own right, truggled to consistently challenge the Dutchman and ultimately saw their time at Red Bull cut short.

Lawson's challenge is to break this pattern, to learn from those experiences, and forge his own path to success within the demanding environment of Red Bull Racing.

It's a high-stakes gamble, but the young gun appears ready to embrace the challenge.

Learning from the Best

"I don't know what they [Gasly and Albon] felt when they were there,” Lawson told PlanetF1.

“You can always look at it as an outsider and think: 'This is what it looks like they felt.' But I don't know what it was like for them.

“I believe, for anybody to go up against Max, you have to be realistic and know that he's the fastest guy on the grid right now and that you're not going to be outqualifying the guy by half a second.

“It's not going to be something that's really going to be happening. For me, it's more the opportunity that's there to learn from the best.”

Indeed, instead of viewing Verstappen as an insurmountable obstacle, Lawson sees him as an invaluable resource.

“For me as a driver, to be able to go in against the guy who's won four world championships and is well seasoned... he's been in that car for a long time,” he added.

“That car is almost... not developed around him, but he's been a massive part of developing that car and understands it very well.

“In terms of how to drive it, it's all right there on paper.”

An Exciting Opportunity

And it’s this access, this opportunity to learn from a driver of Verstappen’s caliber, that truly excites Lawson.

“When you see all the data that he brings in, for me as a driver to be alongside that, to be able to learn from him and have all that access, I think that's what's exciting for me about the opportunity,” the Kiwi concluded.

With Wood in his corner, a seasoned engineer with experience working with a top driver, Lawson has the support he needs to navigate the complexities of his rookie season.

The stage is set, the lights are bright, and Lawson is ready to write his own chapter in the Red Bull story.

• Read also: How one 'big overtake' changed Liam Lawson’s life

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