Daniel Ricciardo is currently out injured because of a broken wrist he suffered at the Dutch GP weekend. Liam Lawson, who was called in to replace Ricciardo has performed incredibly well, even scoring points in the AlphaTauri. However, for next season, the team decided to have Ricciardo in the team instead of a young talented Lawson. This is a decision that baffles former F1 driver and Sky Sports pundit Johnny Herbert, as per Motorsport Magazine.
Ricciardo did not have a seat in F1 following his McLaren sacking at the end of 2022. He returned to Red Bull as a reserve driver and patiently waited until the management chose him to replace an underperforming Nyck de Vries at their sister team, AlphaTauri. Ricciardo performed decently in the first two races, but then, he suffered a broken wrist after crashing during FP2 in Zandvoort.
Liam Lawson, who has been a part of Red Bull’s academy for years, came in to replace the Perth-born driver. Despite getting such short notice to fill in, Lawson performed really well and even followed his good performances up with a points finish in Singapore.
Lawson was firmly in the mix to get a shot at proving himself in F1 next year too, but AlphaTauri decided to have the pairing of Ricciardo and Yuki Tsunoda instead.
AlphaTauri is supposed to be a talent team
AlphaTauri does not carry the tag of being Red Bull’s junior team, but as their sister outfit, they have provided a plethora of opportunities to some of the brightest drivers from their academy. The likes of Sebastian Vettel, Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo for that matter, started out their careers at AlphaTauri (formerly known as Toro Rosso).
Now, however, choosing to have a 34-year-old Ricciardo instead of a 21-year-old Lawson who has been impressive, seems like a bizarre decision to Herbert. In his Motorsport Magazine interview as quoted by GP Blog, Herbert even admitted that he is not impressed by Ricciardo’s return.
“He hasn’t been able to convince me since his comeback,” he said. “There was no ‘wow factor’. I think Lawson and Tsunoda should have been AlphaTauri’s rider couple. After all, AlphaTauri is a team designed to produce talents.”
For Lawson, however, not all hope is lost. He is a part of Red Bull’s future, as per reports which emerged after Ricciardo’s extension.
Liam Lawson to be a long term replacement for Daniel Ricciardo?
Ricciardo made it no secret that he wants to return to Red Bull one day. He wanted to impress at AlphaTauri this year in order to return to Milton Keynes in 2024. However, that does not look possible because of his injury at the moment. As a result, Red Bull decided to give him a full season to prove himself, before making a decision about his future in 2025.
Lawson, meanwhile, will likely stay at Red Bull as a reserve and development driver. But, all things point towards the New Zealander getting a shot at AlphaTauri or Red Bull in 2025. This is particularly because of Sergio Perez failing to live up to expectations with the Austrian squad.
