The old Red Bull is back. For the last decade, since Sebastian Vettel departed for Ferrari the energy drink team has fumbled through half a dozen junior team drivers who weren’t ready for the big leagues, promoted too soon and died on the vine. New Zealander Liam Lawson has been promoted to the second Red Bull seat, replacing the one guy who proved Red Bull’s junior system is bunk, 14-year F1 veteran Sergio Perez.
Daniil Kvyat, Alex Albon, Pierre Gasly, and Nyck de Vries all washed out of the team after getting too much Red Bull too fast. Gasly and Albon, of course, have gone on to prove their talents for other teams. The Red Bull Junior program can’t be called a complete failure, however, because it produced Max Verstappen and an early career Daniel Ricciardo. In the end Ricciardo would see his end at the hands of a poorly managed team. Sergio Perez was the one driver who managed to stand for the test and passed for three seasons as the second string player in a Max Verstappen team. In the end even he would have his spirit and talent broken by the churning machine in 2024.
Sergio Perez was the driver hire that convinced me Red Bull had seen the error of their ways, and that the team needed a more experienced and proven driver to partner its wunderkind Verstappen. When Perez was hired at the end of 2020, with seemingly no other options in F1, it was a godsend for both him and the team. For 2021, 2022, and the first half of 2023 the Mexican driver picked up whatever points scraps Max dropped, and occasionally even pushed him to be faster and better. He was exactly what you wanted in a second driver, until he wasn’t. Now he’s been tossed out like last week’s meatloaf.
There’s no doubt in my mind that Liam Lawson is a good racing driver, and given the opportunity to thrive probably could have gone on to incredible things, but promoting him up through the ranks before he’s truly ready will be a career death sentence. The fresh-faced 22 year old has run 11 Grand Prix starts for the Scuderia Alpha Tauri/VCARB lower spec team, and finished behind his more polished and prepared teammate Yuki Tsunoda in nearly all of them.
As Racer’s Chris Medland smartly points out, Yuki Tsunoda would have been the smart choice to partner Verstappen up front.
Yuki Tsunoda, on the other hand, can afford to be gambled with. He’s done his time at RB, beaten all of his team-mates in recent years, and is definitely fast. The only question remaining is can he perform in a top team. If he were to be promoted and then struggle, it would answer that and still leave Red Bull with Lawson developing close behind him. If he were to shine, then what a bonus.
I agree with this sentiment. There’s nothing to lose by promoting Yuki. He’s done the hard work and could potentially serve as a helping hand to another Verstappen championship. Or he can wait until mid-season when Red Bull decides Lawson wasn’t up to the task and dumps him for lack of result and squeezes Tsunoda into the spot anyway. I hope for Lawson’s sake that he rises above all that and proves his talent.
