After months of deliberation, Red Bull has finally announced that Liam Lawson will replace Sergio Perez in 2025. It is a monumental moment for Lawson and his loved ones, something he spoke about shortly after the news was made official.
On the Pitstop podcast, Lawson revealed that he spoke to his father as soon as he learned Red Bull would promote him from RB. Naturally, Lawson Sr. felt very surprised and emotional for his 22-year-old son.
A new-look Red Bull
Liam Lawson joins Max Verstappen at Red Bull, replacing Sergio Perez #F1 pic.twitter.com/3JUb4J4Cok
— Formula 1 (@F1) December 19, 2024
Initially, Lawson was messing around. Not wanting to break the news right away, he wanted his dad to guess it. He hinted how he would have to go to Silverstone instead of Imola for the winter shakedown, which startled his father a bit as Britain was where Red Bull held theirs.
This was when Lawson actually told his father he would become Max Verstappen’s teammate. “For like two minutes, it was really minimal reaction, like ‘Are you serious?’ and two minutes later, he just started crying,” Lawson said.
Despite the outpour of support Lawson received from his father, the F1 community could not help but feel a bit startled about this decision. Yuki Tsunoda was also in the hunt and was arguably the better RB driver in 2024. Still, Red Bull went for the Kiwi.
How Tsunoda lost out to Lawson
Tsunoda has competed in F1 for four seasons and has significantly more experience than the driver set to replace Perez. For context, Tsunoda has 87 race starts compared to Lawson’s mere 11. Yet, Red Bull seemingly preferred Lawson, perhaps due to lingering doubts about the Japanese driver’s maturity and mental fortitude.
Tsunoda has long been a driver who is prone to losing his cool more often than not. On top of that, Red Bull reportedly feels that he won’t be able to handle the psychological pressure of being Verstappen’s teammate.
Lawson, on the other hand, has shown that he is rather equal on pace with the Japanese driver and could be better when he gains more experience. On top of that, the Kiwi has shown the mental toughness to fight it out with established drivers like Perez and even Fernando Alonso.
Lawson isn’t shy of sending it on track and standing his ground off track, making him a ruthless driver. Red Bull may have found that eerily similar to how Verstappen was back in the day. Now, the counterargument is that even Tsunoda could have done so, and to be fair, he has matured over the years.
However, with his top backer Honda leaving Red Bull for Aston Martin, Tsunoda’s long-term scope at Milton Keynes weakens a bit. Nevertheless, it is a very bitter pill to swallow for the young Japanese dynamo.
