One day after announcing that Sergio Pérez will leave Red Bull Racing next year, the Formula 1 team has announced his replacement. Liam Lawson has been promoted as Red Bull second driver, as teammate to the four times champion Max Verstappen.
Red Bull has opted for promotiong New Zealander Lawson, 22 years old, from the their sister team Racing Bulls, frequently shortened as RB -or Visa Cash App Racing Bulls F1 Team if you want to name the sponsor-, although the most correct way of naming would be RB Honda, as it uses the engines from the Japanese company.
Racing Bulls, which can be traced back from Minardi, was previously known as Scuderia Toro Rosso and later Scuderia AlphaTauri, before being rebranded in the 2024 season. Despite being based in Italy, RB is owned by the Austrian conglomerate Red Bull GmbH since 2006, and used to act as junior team before becoming a sister team on Formula 1.
In the 2024 season, RB Honda employed Yuki Tsunoda and Daniel Ricciardo, but he was fired in September and replaced by Lawson for the remaining of the season. Red Bull got impressed with his performance (he previously also replaced Ricciardo during face races when he got injured in 2023) and has promoted him to their main team -jumping over Tsunoda, which would have been the logical choice- hoping to take back the Constructor's title next year, after loosing it to McLaren and Ferrari in great deal because of Checo Pérez's poor results.
"Liam's performances over the course of his two stints with Visa Cash App Racing Bulls have demonstrated that he's not only capable of delivering strong results but that he's also a real racer, not afraid to mix it with the best and come out on top", said Christian Hornder, Red Bull principal.
Yesterday, Horner told SkySports that Pérez had left as a mutual agreement, choosing to take a sabbatical from Formula 1.
"There's no doubt that racing alongside Max, a four-time champion and undoubtedly one of the greatest drivers ever seen in F1, is a daunting task, but I'm sure Liam can rise to that challenge and deliver some outstanding results for us next year", Horner added, also highlighting Red Bull's history of promotiong drivers within the Red Bull Junior Programme.