Liam Lawson and another Red Bull driver are ‘absolutely’ candidates to replace Daniel Ricciardo

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After Carlos Sainz decided that he would be racing for Williams next season, the most intriguing storyline in the Formula 1 driver’s market is within the two Red Bull teams.

Max Verstappen’s future should be a certainty given the long-term deal he’s signed, but Mercedes continue to keep a race seat open for him should he decide to jump ship.

The next most-secure driver is Yuki Tsunoda who appears to be set to drive for RB next season after already signing a contract extension following a strong start to 2024.

Sergio Perez and Daniel Ricciardo are the two drivers at risk, despite Perez having already signed a deal that theoretically could run until 2026.

The Mexican driver has underperformed for quite some time and survived a meeting at the beginning of the summer break that could have seen him replaced given clauses in his new agreement.

Ricciardo hasn’t signed a contract for next year yet and the threat of Liam Lawson is looming.

Lawson’s contract includes a clause requiring Red Bull to offer him a 2025 race seat before September, while Ricciardo has been touted as Perez’s most likely replacement, creating a bizarre situation.

Journalist Michael Schmidt was speaking on the AMuS YouTube channel and named a sixth driver that’s now in the equation.

Isack Hadjar is currently leading the Formula 2 championship and if he wins the title, he won’t be able to race at that level again.

Schmidt believes that Hadjar is also firmly in the conversation for an RB seat next year alongside Lawson.

He even suggests that both drivers could be brought in by Helmut Marko but the uncertainty highlights the difficult position Red Bull are in.

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Isack Hadjar ‘absolutely’ a candidate for Daniel Ricciardo’s RB seat in 2025

Talking about the driver situation at RB, Schmidt said: “So, Hadjar is absolutely a candidate for me for one of the two Toro Rosso [RB] cockpits.

“The other one is actually attributed to Liam Lawson but there is also Tsunoda who already has a contract.

“But that doesn’t mean the contract is with Toro Rosso [RB], that means the contract is with Red Bull Racing which means that Red Bull can put him where they want.

“Maybe he’ll move up next year if they’re not happy with Perez.

“The second half of the season will now show whether RB have worked on the upgrades that were introduced in Barcelona.

“They then switched back to the Miami specifications which they’re now running quite well again.

“But of course, if you’re running Miami upgrades and the others have moved forward a bit, something has to come again now.”

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Sergio Perez’s Formula 1 future could be decided in the next four races

Most teams would wait until the end of the season to make decisions on their driver line-ups but that’s never been Red Bull’s style.

Perez could lose his Red Bull seat in the next four races and then Christian Horner and Helmut Marko have a tough decision to make.

It would make sense to promote Liam Lawson given the pressure to find him a race seat in the coming weeks.

Hadjar has to go on and win Formula 2 to continue putting pressure on senior Red Bull personnel to find a seat for him on the grid in 2025.

That leaves Ricciardo in a difficult position and if he outperforms Tsunoda for the rest of the campaign, suddenly the decision to reward him with a new contract at the Canadian Grand Prix might look foolish.