Liam Lawson falls straight into Red Bull’s trap

The The old Red Bull is back. Since the last decade, since Sebastian Vettel moved to Ferrari The energy drink team fumbled by half a dozen junior team riders who weren’t ready for the big leagues, moved up too early and died. New Zealander Liam Lawson was promoted to the second Red Bull seat and replaced that one guy who proved that Red Bull’s junior system is nonsense, 14-year F1 veteran Sergio Perez.

Daniil Kvyat, Alex Albon, Pierre Gasly and Nyck de Vries were all dropped from the team after getting too much Red Bull too quickly. Gasly and Albon have of course also proven their talent for other teams. However, the Red Bull Junior program cannot be described as a complete failure, because it produced Max Verstappen and an early career Daniel Ricciardo. In the end, Ricciardo would meet his end at the hands of a poorly managed team. Sergio Perez was the only driver who managed to pass the test and was the second regular in a Max Verstappen team for three seasons. In the end, even his spirit and talent would be broken by the butter machine in 2024.

Sergio Perez was the driver who convinced me that Red Bull had realized their mistake and that the team needed a more experienced and proven driver to partner their prodigy Verstappen. When Perez was hired at the end of 2020 and seemingly had no other options in Formula 1, it was a stroke of luck for him and the team. For 2021, 2022 and the first half of 2023, the Mexican rider made up all the points Max had lost, occasionally even pushing him to be faster and better. He was exactly what you wanted in a second driver, until he wasn’t. Now it’s been thrown away like last week’s meatloaf.

There is no doubt in my mind that Liam Lawson is a good racer and if he had been given the opportunity to develop he could probably have done incredible things, but taking him up through the ranks before he is truly ready would be the death knell for his career. The newly minted 22-year-old has made 11 Grand Prix starts for the lower-ranking Scuderia Alpha Tauri/VCARB team, finishing behind his more polished and better-prepared teammate Yuki Tsunoda in almost all cases.

As RacerChris Medland wisely points outYuki Tsunoda would have been the smart choice to support Verstappen at the top.

Yuki Tsunoda, on the other hand, can afford to play with him. He spent his time at RB, beat all of his teammates over the last few years and is definitely fast. The only question that remains is whether he can play in a top team. If he got promoted and then struggled, that would be an answer to that and Red Bull would still be behind with Lawson developing close behind him. If he shined, what a bonus.

I agree with this sentiment. There’s nothing to lose by promoting Yuki. He has done the hard work and could potentially serve as a helping hand towards another Verstappen championship. Or he can wait until mid-season until Red Bull decides Lawson isn’t up to the task, drops him for lack of results and pushes Tsunoda for the job anyway. My hope for Lawson is that he rises above all of this and showcases his talent.