THREE KEY FACTS
- Liam Lawson completed six races in Formula One, as a mid-season replacement for Australian Daniel Ricciardo.
- Those six races were an effective audition to partner world champion Max Verstappen in 2025.
- Red Bull parted ways with incumbent Sergio Perez, as Lawson took his place in the senior team.
After completing his second stint in Formula One, New Zealand’s Liam Lawson has earned the ultimate promotion, and will drive for championship contenders Red Bull in 2025. The Kiwi steps into the senior team to partner four-time world champion Max Verstappen, with only 11 races worth of experience behind him. Alex Powell breaks down the results that convinced Red Bull that the Pukekohe native was their man.
US Grand Prix
After a year of waiting, and two years spent as Red Bull’s reserve driver, this was it. With a four-week break after the Singapore Grand Prix, Red Bull finally pulled the plug on Australian fan-favourite Daniel Ricciardo, and initiated a transtasman swap for Lawson.
However, while it was expected Lawson would be confirmed with Racing Bulls to the end of 2025, the 22-year-old was only locked in for the final six races of the current season.
Reading between the lines, it was all too clear Red Bull were giving Lawson six races to prove what seat he would fill in 2025. Succeed, and he’d partner Max Verstappen in the Red Bull senior team, otherwise he’d remain with Racing Bulls.
Lawson, with teammate Yuki Tsunoda and Williams fill-in Franco Colapinto, were understood to be challenging each other to replace Red Bull’s Sergio Perez, with the spotlight fixed on the shootout as much as it was the Grand Prix.
And with that on board, Lawson’s audition began.
The race
Lawson couldn’t have asked for a harder start on his Formula One return. He’d not driven in a competitive race since the end of the 2023 Japanese Super Formula Championship, and had inherited a grid penalty from an engine change to Ricciardo’s car, and would start the Grand Prix in last place.
What’s more, the United States Grand Prix was a sprint weekend, whereby practice sessions are cut from three to one, and limit drivers’ time on track.
But after finishing the sprint race in 16th, and tangling with veteran Fernando Alonso, Lawson’s Grand Prix return was nothing short of exceptional.
Starting 19th, as George Russell’s qualifying crash meant he’d begin from the pit lane, Racing Bulls’ strategy for Lawson worked perfectly.
Beginning on hard tyres, Lawson got through 37 laps before pitting to finish the race on the faster medium compound.
And with that advantage at the pointy end of the race, the Kiwi was able to cross the line in ninth, and equal his career-best finish from Singapore 2023, to take home two championship points.
Rivals
In terms of his Red Bull rivals, Lawson took bragging rights over two, and a moral victory over the third.
Despite qualifying in 11th, Tsunoda finished 14th, and was captured by team radio lamenting that Lawson had been put on a faster strategy.
Colapinto gave Lawson the biggest scare, and adopted the same strategy to finish the race with faster tyres. A late pit stop gave the Argentine the chance to reel in Lawson at the end, but ultimately settled for 10th, after running out of laps to pull off an overtake.
Perez, though, fared the best on track with seventh place and six points. However, teammate Verstappen took third in the same car, as the gulf between Red Bull’s two senior drivers continued to grow.
Rating: 8.5/10
Mexican Grand Prix
A week later, the championship headed to Mexico, where Lawson had the chance to build on his strong start.
Red Bull’s senior team principal Christian Horner described Lawson as looking “like a veteran” after the Grand Prix in Austin, as recency bias put the Kiwi at the front of the queue as the next in line.
With so much focus on Perez’s struggles, his home race in Mexico promised to give him a lift over the course of the weekend.
Rumours of an impending retirement announcement were rubbished by Perez posting the “I’m not f***ing leaving” meme from The Wolf of Wall Street, much to the delight of the rapturous home crowd.
However, the longer the weekend went on, the worse things got for the 34-year-old.
The race
In a boost for Racing Bulls, both Lawson (12th) and Tsunoda (11th) outqualified Perez (18th) for the Grand Prix. Lawson could have started even higher up the grid, only for his final qualifying lap to be aborted once his teammate caused a red flag to prematurely end the session.
Tsunoda hardly covered himself in glory once the race began, and collided with Williams’ Alex Albon to be out of contention without completing a lap.
A week after getting the better of Alonso, Lawson went wheel to wheel – literally – with Perez, and gave Red Bull a look at how he fared against his promotion opponent.
And to make Perez’s weekend even worse, Lawson won. Instead of trying to salvage his own race, Perez’s attention turned to trying to sabotage Lawson, which saw the Kiwi uncharacteristically flip the bird as he overtook him on the main straight.
However, after Racing Bulls attempted the same strategy as at Austin, the layout of the Autodromo Hermanos Rodrigues counted against Lawson, with opportunities to overtake limited.
Closing in on a finish just outside the points, Lawson’s race was ruined by a late collision with Colapinto that forced him into a pit stop to change his front wing, and ultimately saw him finish 16th. For his role in the incident, Colapinto was slapped with a 10-second penalty.
Rivals
Even with Lawson forced into an extra pit stop, Perez still couldn’t get past the Kiwi.
A late stop of his own saw Red Bull attempt to let Perez set the fastest lap at his home race, but he couldn’t even do that, as Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc took the honour.
Despite his penalty, Colapinto was still able to take 12th place, and miss out on the points.
Rating: 6/10
Brazilian Grand Prix
In the week that followed, Lawson became public enemy No 1 in Mexico. The Kiwi’s social media was flooded with abuse from Perez’s millions of fanatical supporters, joining the Ricciardo fans who still hadn’t made peace with the fact their hero’s time was up.
How did Lawson respond?: “I’m not here to make friends.”
If it hadn’t already been proven, that one sentence was all the proof you’d need to understand that Lawson belonged at the highest level.
But as rain poured down over Interlagos, Lawson would need to do his talking on the track.
The race
After being pipped by Perez for the final point in the sprint race, Lawson and the rest of the grid had to wait until the day of the Grand Prix to get through qualifying, as the rain didn’t relent.
Even though the weather cleared for long enough to get qualifying in – hours before the start of the race – conditions were difficult, to say the least.
However, as Verstappen and Perez were eliminated in the second qualifying group, Lawson and Tsunoda excelled in an inferior car. The Kiwi did enough to start fifth, while his teammate started in an all-time team-high third.
And once the race actually started – reduced from 71 laps to 69 as Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll beached his car in the gravel on the formation lap – Lawson and Tsunoda proved they’re the real deal.
Usually, rain negates any advantage a car brings, and sees the race determined by the quality of the driver. In this case, it was Verstappen taking the chequered flag from 17th, after a five-place grid penalty.
On track, Lawson put in arguably the best display of his, so far, short Formula One career.
While fifth was an artificially high qualifying position, the Kiwi got through relatively untroubled – the exception being when he was clipped by McLaren’s Oscar Piastri – and finished a chaotic race in one piece.
Holding off seven-time world champion Sir Lewis Hamilton at the end, Lawson came home for another ninth-place finish and two more points.
Rivals
Tsunoda achieved the best result of the Red Bull contenders, taking seventh to equal his best result of the season.
Perez and Colapinto, though, both had weekends to forget.
A week on from his disastrous home Grand Prix, Perez made it two on-track losses to Lawson in a row, and was unable to overtake the Kiwi after a late red flag forced a restart that narrowed the field.
From challenging Lawson for ninth, Perez had to settle for 11th, after also losing a place to Hamilton.
Colapinto began a poor run of form, which saw him write off his car after a late crash. It wouldn’t be the last.
Rating: 9/10
Las Vegas Grand Prix
After three consecutive Grands Prix, the entire grid enjoyed a short three-week break before the end of the season.
Once they were back, though, all eyes turned to how 2024 would conclude. Verstappen’s win in Mexico gave him the chance to seal a fourth straight drivers championship if results went his way in the desert.
Speculation went up a gear after revelations Williams team principal James Vowles was sighted entering Red Bull’s compound over the Brazil weekend.
There was only one reason Vowles could have done so: discussing a deal to buy Colapinto out of his Williams contract and become a Red Bull driver in 2025. Which team he’d drive for though, was anything but certain.
The race
All things considered, Las Vegas was a tough race for the entire grid, Lawson included.
In short, the race was cold, with the temperature in the low 10C range. That made it difficult for drivers to consistently get their tyres to the optimal temperature.
The strategy that Racing Bulls had devised for Lawson was severely hit and saw him finish 16th in his first taste of driving the Las Vegas circuit.
Of the 18 drivers that finished the race, only Kevin Magnussen was able to make a one-stop pit strategy work, and he finished 12th.
And while Mercedes’ George Russell claimed the win, Verstappen finishing fifth to Lando Norris’ sixth was enough to give Red Bull a fourth straight drivers championship, even as Perez’s efforts saw the constructors title fall out of reach.
Rivals
On track, Lawson’s rivals all got the better of the Kiwi during the Grand Prix. That’s not in dispute.
However, with everything considered, Tsunoda was the only real contender to take any sort of credit from Las Vegas. The Japanese driver taking ninth place gave him eight points from his last two races.
But while Tsunoda achieved back-to-back points finishes, Colapinto suffered another accident.
Despite the Argentine qualifying with the 14th best time – one place higher than Lawson – he also crashed after setting his time, and ensured he started from the pit lane.
Yes, performances in the race are a huge part of what Red Bull would look for in finalising their 2025 line-up, but continuing to write off cars saw the tide begin to turn against Colapinto, despite impressing in Austin and Baku.
Perez also had a mixed time on track, taking the final point with 10th place. But that came after starting 15th on the grid, having been eliminated in the first qualifying session for the sixth time in 2024.
If Red Bull were to be a championship-winning team, having a driver start so far down the grid couldn’t continue.
Rating: 5/10
Qatar Grand Prix
Moving to the Middle East for the final two races of the year, Qatar gave Red Bull arguably their best metric of judging how far Lawson had come.
In 2023, the Qatar Grand Prix was Lawson’s final race with then AlphaTauri, after Daniel Ricciardo suffered a broken hand at Zandvoort.
But in an otherwise impressive five-race stint, Qatar was his biggest blemish. Failure to complete the sprint after spinning into the gravel was followed by being the last driver to finish the Grand Prix, down in 17th.
Qatar was the only double-up of race weekends from Lawson’s 2023 and 2024 stints, and allowed Red Bull to see if he could improve year on year.
The race
Lawson initially showed he had learned from the previous year, and qualified 10th for the sprint race, as the only Red Bull driver beside Verstappen to reach the third session.
On track, though, he lost six places on his opening lap, and never recovered – given Qatar has one solitary zone for overtaking – to finish in 16th.
A few hours later, Lawson could only manage 17th in qualifying, although he would have bettered that mark had Stroll not slowed down on track to halt the Kiwi’s flying lap.
But after dropping six places in the sprint’s opening lap, Lawson made up three in the first of the Grand Prix.
The only issue came when he caused an incident with Sauber’s Valtteri Bottas on lap two, and never recovered after dropping to 18th, eventually finishing 14th.
Rivals
After the penultimate race of the season, the question of who should partner Verstappen next year only became cloudier.
Tsunoda was the best, again, albeit only finishing 13th to Lawson’s 14th.
Elsewhere, though, it was slim pickings for Red Bull.
Perez recovered from a poor sprint, qualifying in 16th and finishing last, to start ninth on the grid in the Grand Prix. But with five drivers failing to finish, Perez was one of them, courtesy of ruining his clutch on the 38th lap.
Things went even worse for Colapinto. With crashes in Brazil and Las Vegas, Qatar made it three in three weeks when he was taken out on the opening lap by Nico Hulkenberg.
For all the goodwill of his start to life in Formula One, three ruined race weekends saw Red Bull walk away from Colapinto altogether.
The huge financial outlay they’d have to pay to sack Perez and buy Colapinto out of his Williams contract was too great for Red Bull, when they have their own stable of academy drivers to call on.
Rating: 4.5/10
Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
The finale. A day after Qatar, reports emerged that Red Bull had finally lost patience with Perez, and Abu Dhabi was to be his last with the team.
Considering Red Bull had also pulled the plug on Colapinto, and Tsunoda’s place in the team merely being a tie to engine supplier Honda, Lawson stood alone as the frontrunner to step up.
If he could achieve the right result, there would be less debate as to whether or not he’s the right man for the job.
Helping his cause was Lawson’s record in Formula Two, where he took a first- and third-place finish at the same venue in 2022.
The race
After a qualifying that saw Perez, Tsunoda and Lawson start 10th, 11th and 12th respectively, Red Bull couldn’t have asked for a better opportunity to make their final assessment.
But by the end of the first lap, it was effectively over. Perez’s race – potentially his last in Formula One – was ended by a collision with Sauber’s Valtteri Bottas. Tsunoda, meanwhile, lost his clutch at lights out, stalled, and dropped from 11th to 16th.
There couldn’t be a more perfect scenario for Lawson. All he had to do was get to the finish line, and there could be no argument that he was the best of Red Bull’s candidates.
It’s never that easy, though.
Odds-on for a career-best finish, at one point rising as high as sixth, Lawson’s year was ended by a calamity in the pits. Coming in for his first stop in eighth place, Lawson’s front left wheel wasn’t properly fitted.
That resulted in a second pit stop on the following lap, and a penalty against Racing Bulls for seeing Lawson complete an unsafe stop.
From there, Lawson was never going to challenge for points. And after pushing too hard to catch the cars in front of him, his engine gave out on the penultimate lap.
Rivals
As Lawson and Perez didn’t finish, Tsunoda’s 13th place was the best result of Red Bull’s cars by default.
However, all eyes were on Perez, in what could be the end of his time in Formula One. For the first time, the 34-year-old admitted his uncertainty over his future, as Horner admitted conversations would be had.
“It’s just a matter of discussing what’s best for everyone going forward,” he told Formula One’s official channel. “We’ll see what happens.
“At the moment, that’s all I know. I have a contract to drive next year. It will be down to reaching an agreement, and seeing what the team wants to do.”
The week before Christmas, that agreement came. Perez and Red Bull officially parted ways after four years, and two constructors championships together.
Despite Tsunoda having more experience, Lawson’s other attributes saw him backed unequivocally by Red Bull’s decision-makers, and put into a car capable of winning titles in the future.
Now, we wait to see what 2025 will bring for the young Kiwi.
Rating: N/A (was a 9/10 before retirement)
Alex Powell is an Online Sports Editor for the NZ Herald. He has been a sports journalist since 2016, and previously worked for both Newshub and 1News.
