Red Bull could pay ‘a load of money’ to sign hugely popular driver for RB if Liam Lawson struggles

Follow us on Google Discover

Liam Lawson will replace Daniel Ricciardo at RB for the remainder of the 2024 season, the team announced on Thursday. But they still haven’t confirmed their plans for 2025.

Still, with just six races remaining, Red Bull have only locked in half of their four-driver line-up for next year. Max Verstappen, on course to become a four-time world champion this year, will stay after Mercedes signed Kimi Antonelli to replace Lewis Hamilton.

Meanwhile, the team triggered the one-year extension option in Yuki Tsunoda’s deal back in June. Sergio Perez signed a new contract around the same time but the team may not honour that agreement.

Red Bull have become more sympathetic to Perez after hearing Verstappen repeatedly complain about the handling of the RB20. But that doesn’t mean they can tolerate the kind of performance he produced in Singapore.

After perhaps his best weekend of the season in Azerbaijan – he outclassed Verstappen until a race-ending crash with Carlos Sainz – Perez slumped to a Q2 exit and a 10th-place finish. He’s only scored 30.3% of his team’s points this season.

That means Lawson could get the Red Bull seat if he convincingly outperforms Tsunoda in the final six rounds. But all options remain open to Christian Horner and Helmut Marko.

Helmut Marko could move for Franco Colapinto as Liam Lawson plan-b

Speaking on The Race F1 podcast, journalist Scott Mitchell-Malm suggested RB hadn’t made any reference to 2025 when announcing Lawson because he may yet move to the top team. But there’s also another way of reading the situation.

Lawson ‘underwhelmed’ Red Bull in a test at Silverstone during the summer, so the team may be harbouring private doubts ahead of his six-race spell. Christian Horner isn’t ‘sure’ if Lawson is as good as Antonelli or indeed his PREMA teammate Oliver Bearman.

If the 22-year-old struggles in the next couple of months, then RB may assess alternatives. The logical choice would be Isack Hadjar, the junior driver who’s competing for the F2 title.

But they could also look outside their existing pool. Williams driver Franco Colapinto is without a seat for 2025 and is bound to be on Marko’s radar.

“If it was just a warm-up, I think we’d know that he was going to be a 2025 RB driver,” Mitchell-Malm said. “It’d be as simple as that.

“There’s no reason not to announce him for that now, unless he’s so unconvincing in the 2022 car tests and tyre tests he’s done that they’ve suddenly changed their mind on him as an RB driver entirely. And now he’s only got six races to prove himself before Helmut Marko decides that they need to pay a load of money to get Franco Colapinto in the RB off of Williams.”

Franco Colapinto has more mentions than Charles Leclerc since his F1 debut

Colapinto has been hugely impressive since he replaced Logan Sargeant at the Italian GP. He’s immediately been a close match for the highly-rated Alex Albon over a single lap, and scored four points in just his second race in Azerbaijan.

However, with Albon under contract and Carlos Sainz due to arrive, he may have to settle for a reserve role next year. Sauber are set to keep Valtteri Bottas and overlook Colapinto.

James Vowles will still see the 21-year-old as a long-term candidate. But Marko could test him with an offer if the Lawson experiment fails or the Kiwi replaces Perez.

A report from MARCA reveals that Colapinto has recorded more social media mentions than any other F1 driver in the last 30 days. Argentina’s first driver for 20 years, he’s more than doubled the tally of nearest challenger Charles Leclerc.