Liam Lawson Joins F1

With the departure of Adrian Newey (Red Bull’s Chief Technical Officer), it’s hard to argue that Max Verstappen isn’t the most valuable asset within F1’s Red Bull Racing team.

Red Bull is on the cusp of winning a fourth Drivers’ Championship this season thanks to Max Verstappen, however they trail McLaren and Ferrari to win the constructor’s title.

The main reason is down to Sergio Perez being unable to find the required performance out of the second Red Bull car that’s become increasingly difficult to drive compared to his rival’s cars. Perez faces losing his Red Bull seat before the beginning of the 2025 season, with several drivers being considered to take his place. It puts the Mexican in a sticky position, although he’s survived similar votes of no confidence already this year.

Keeping Max Verstappen and his team, including his father Jos Verstappen, happy is essential to the long-term success of Red Bull according to many reports.

Perez represents a safe option as Verstappen knows he’ll never reach his level, but finding a driver willing to play the number two role isn’t always that easy. Max Verstappen’s camp think that the New Zealander, Liam Lawson, is the perfect fit to be his Red Bull teammate.

However, talking about Lawson, a leading F1 journalist mentioned that his biggest asset is the fact that he is favoured by the Verstappen’s. Even Jos Verstappen came out after the Brazilian Grand Prix saying that Liam Lawson is doing a really good job, and he couldn’t remember Jos Verstappen saying something good about any other Red Bull driver as far as he could remember.

So that’s enough of an endorsement and they think it looks as if Red Bull Racing wants to preserve the Verstappen relationship, which has been a winning formular for almost four seasons. So, that would mean bringing someone alongside Verstappen who he likes, which makes a perfect fit for Liam Lawson.

Becoming Max Verstappen’s Formula 1 teammate could limit championship possibilities for Liam. While Lawson is ultimately aiming to become a F1 race winner and champion himself, reaching that goal is much easier said than done.

F1 has been dominated by the likes of Max Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton, and Sebastian Vettel in recent years. Only Hamilton was ever beaten by one of his teammates in that time, and bad luck played its part in him losing out to Nico Rosberg in 2016. I guess the decision will ultimately come down to Lawson and what he sees as his future in F1, but securing a seat in a strong winning team may prove too big an opportunity for him to pass up.

Lawson will be aware of others that have teamed up with Max Verstappen over the last four years of Red Bull’s domination in F1. Most of those have been incredibly competent but have failed to succeed.

Drivers like Pierre Gasly and Alex Albon have been superb for Alpine and Williams respectively, but never made the required step up alongside Verstappen.

Sergio Perez will be remembered as being a very solid F1 driver, but his reputation may be tainted in the minds of modern fans of the sport if they only consider his final years at Red Bull.

Lawson has the required levels of confidence and self-belief to deal with that, but only time will tell if he ultimately has the talent to go the whole way and win. Lawson will be great to watch from a New Zealand perspective as long as he gets the chance, especially if you are a F1 fan.

December 2024