Rhonan Colquhoun 5:05pm 19th December 2024
LIAM Lawson has been named as Sergio Perez's replacement at Red Bull and will drive alongside 2024 World Champion Max Verstappen next year.
Lawson's promotion from Red Bull's junior team comes just hours after it was announced that Sergio Perez would leave the team following a difficult season.
The New Zealander, who has only driven in 11 Grand Prix's, has been chosen over more experienced Racing Bull's driver Yuki Tsunoda.
As a result of his promotion, the 22 year-old will become the least experienced driver to have been promoted from Red Bull's junior team since it's creation in 2006.
It's been a dream that's been in the making for 15 years for the Kiwi and is looking forward to partnering Verstappen.
"When the F1 2010 game came out I was 8 years old. I used to play as Mark Webber so that I could try and beat Sebastian Vettel. I've dreamed of being a Red Bull driver since then."
Lawson has had two short stints in the sport with Racing Bulls, Red Bull's junior team, but has made a significant impression with his mentality and determination.
He first drove in place of the injured Daniel Ricciardo for five races in 2023 - scoring points in Singapore and impressing up against Tsunoda. The team chose to retain Ricciardo and Tsunoda for 2024 but Ricciardo's wavering form throughout this year meant that Lawson replaced the Australian full-time from the United States Grand Prix onwards.
With Ricciardo as Red Bull's back-up option to the out-of-form Sergio Perez gone, Red Bull management looked to Lawson and was given the task to impress the higher-ups that he could compete at their top team.
Two point scoring races - 9th place at the United States and Brazilian Grand Prix's - followed and despite being out-qualified by Tsunoda, Lawson always seemed the preferred candidate by Red Bull.
Tsunoda, who has heavy backing by Red Bull's engine supplier Honda, has been driving for Racing Bulls since 2021 and improved each season - finishing a career best 12th in the Championship this year.
Red Bull gave Tsunoda a final chance to convince them that he deserved the promotion if Perez was to be axed by competing in the post-season tyre test at Abu Dhabi with the Japanese driver behind the wheel of the RB20.
It's been reported that Red Bull management have preferred Lawson's ability to handle himself under pressure better than Tsunoda while the former is also better at giving technical feedback to the team during their engineering briefings.
Tsunoda will stay at Racing Bull's next season and it likely to be joined by Red Bull's junior driver Isack Hadjar who finished runner-up in the Formula 2 Championship and narrowly lost out to Champion Gabriel Bortoleto.
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