How Liam Lawson replaced Sergio Pérez at Red Bull after a year of waiting

Liam Lawson is no stranger to Formula One.

He stepped in at AlphaTauri (now RB) during the 2023 season when Daniel Ricciardo injured his hand and underwent surgery, the recovery time benching the Australian driver for five race weekends. And while Lawson admits he felt overwhelmed with how rapidly he was thrown into the car while competing in a different series, he starred from the get-go.

That moment, though, opened a door. Conversations about Lawson’s future began, and a midseason driver swap happened at RB after this year’s Singapore GP.

“To be honest, the opportunity I got is what has given me a chance now,” Lawson said in Austin this year, his first race replacing Ricciardo for a second time — and more permanently. “But without that, I wouldn’t have really … I don’t think I was really being heavily considered for a seat anyway.”

The remainder of the 2024 season became an end-of-season test of sorts. The performances of the four Red Bull drivers, which include Red Bull Racing and RB, are always periodically reviewed, and Lawson’s benchmark for those six races and three sprints was Yuki Tsunoda, who has been with RB since 2019.

It had been a long journey to reach this moment. There were times in 2024 when Lawson thought he may not have ended up with a seat at RB. With every seat filled, he had to watch from the sidelines despite displaying consistent skill. And even when this year ended, RB had yet to announce its 2025 lineup.

Then came the big break.

Sergio Pérez and Red Bull Racing announced Wednesday they were parting ways ahead of the 2025 season, and less than a day later, news broke that Lawson would take his place at the senior team. It’s a full circle moment for the New Zealander, who joined Red Bull’s junior team in 2019 and served as Red Bull’s reserve driver for the last two seasons, but it was a tough journey filled with plenty of unknowns.

“In football and other sports, there’s so many positions, or so many teams you can play for,” he said in Austin. “In Formula One, there’s 20 seats in the whole world. It’s super hard to have everything lined up for you to get one of those seats.”

The waiting game

By the time F1 arrived in Austin for the United States Grand Prix in October, it had been nearly a year since Lawson raced competitively.

His last F1 race in 2023 was the Qatar GP on Oct. 8 before Ricciardo hopped back into the car following his hand injury. His last race in Super Formula came later that month at Suzuka Circuit, where he qualified first and finished the Oct. 29 race in second place. Then came the lengthy offseason and returned to life as a reserve driver.

“I knew that I’d miss driving going into a reserve season, just doing reserve. I knew I would miss driving the car, but I didn’t realize how much I’d miss the competition side of it, actually being in a championship and competing,” Lawson said in Austin. “That’s probably been the hardest part about this year.

“It feels like you have no purpose, almost.”

Liam Lawson looks on in the pit lane during qualifying ahead of the British GP on July 6, 2024. (Rudy Carezzevoli / Getty Images)

Lawson began racing competitively in go-karts at 7 years old, and ever since, he’s competed in a championship, watching the scoreboard and reviewing the stats. He’s always thought the last few weeks of an offseason “feel a bit weird, and you feel like you’re sort of missing out, or you just feel a bit disconnected with the sport.” That contributed to the last 12 months feeling “more tough and probably, obviously, made it more frustrating.”

Once healed, Ricciardo rejoined and finished the 2023 season alongside teammate Tsunoda, and they formed this year’s lineup for the rebranded RB. It left Lawson, now 22, on the sidelines again, with five grands prix under his belt. As Red Bull’s reserve driver, the New Zealander was at the race weekends and following along from the garage.

Even he’ll admit that he’s “never been a good spectator.”

“Throughout all of it, as much as I was trying to make the most of even just being trackside and trying to still learn and absorb, every weekend was tough.”

Lawson revealed that the beginning of the season was harder. He tested on January 24 and 25, but after that, things grew quiet, including discussions with the team about his future becoming less frequent.

“There’s a lot of races, and as we know, everything in F1 changes very, very quickly,” Lawson told The Athletic in Las Vegas. “So it was horrible because it was most of the year. So where it started, potentially the first couple of weekends, the conversations we were having were, ‘It’s looking like you might get a seat at this point,’ or, ‘We’re looking to put you in the car maybe here,’ ‘we have some tests planned’ or whatever. And then all of a sudden, the next weekend, it changes, and you’re not going to drive so much and then it looks less likely.

“There was points of the year I wasn’t sure if I was going to get a seat at all.”

Although he showed up each race weekend and did his job as the reserve driver, Lawson tried to limit how much he thought about certain things, such as if someone raced well. Going back to London after races and making the most of life between races helped him stay mentally strong throughout the process.

“I was very focused on training. I think I used maybe a lot of that frustration and spent a lot, maybe more time than I normally would have in the gym, just because it was a good way to sort of focus on still improving and still getting better and still being ready,” he said. “And then it’s just trying to keep my mind off F1, honestly.”

Playing guitar was one outlet. It was his father who introduced Lawson and his brother to the instrument at a young age, and Lawson kept playing throughout his life. He didn’t anticipate it becoming as important as it has. He said, “I played guitar a lot when I was younger, and then when I got into racing, especially international racing, I stopped playing just because I thought I didn’t really have the time for it. But in the end, it’s actually quite a useful thing to take your mind off stuff.”

Watching others compete grew frustrating at times. Lawson missed the competition and fighting for a championship. The 2024 season became a waiting game for his dream.

“You always imagine what it’s like to be a Formula One driver. This year, I didn’t really have to imagine anymore because I knew what it was like from last year,” Lawson told The Athletic. “That side of it was not as fun. But I would say I knew that if I was ever going to get a shot, it would be this year or next year, and I was just trying to keep working towards that.

“I don’t think it’s something I could have done forever.”

Liam Lawson tangled with Sergio Pérez in Mexico City. (Jared C. Tilton / Getty Images)

Putting pen to paper

It was six months before Lawson tested twice in July. Another round came on Sept. 4, 20 days before news broke he’d replace fan-favorite Ricciardo at RB for the remaining six race weekends (which included three sprints).

Conversations about Lawson ending up on the grid began after he drove last season. He had multiple eye-catching performances across those five race weekends, such as advancing to Q3 and scoring points in Singapore. Lawson said to The Athletic, “I had many conversations with Christian (Horner) and Helmut (Marko) about what I would be doing, and I knew that they wanted to have me in the car at some point.

“I just didn’t know when, and during the year, it was very up and down.”

Lawson explained how some conversations sounded like the eventual 2024 move would happen near the end of the year, while others suggested that it might not happen at all. He added, “As much as I trust them, it’s also very hard to fully trust something that you just don’t know (if) it’s going to happen.”

He didn’t put pen to paper on the contract until “just before Singapore,” he said, and it was a “very special” moment for him. Lawson added, “It was done directly with Christian and something that obviously I thought about for a very long time.”

The 22-year-old immediately called his father. “It’s been his dream as much as mine,” Lawson explained. “He’s been with me since I was very, very young in go-karts, starting this journey. It was cool to be able to tell him that. I thought about it for a long time, what it would be like to call my dad and tell him I’m a Formula One driver.”

The general feeling was one of relief before the excitement set in, considering the wait for that moment. It was a whirlwind to prepare for the U.S. Grand Prix, including two testing days (Oct. 8-9). Lawson made an immediate impact, qualifying P15 for the race and finishing ninth — two valuable points considering RB’s goal was P6 in the constructors’ championship. His only other points finish in those final six races was in Brazil, another P9.

As the season progressed, Lawson’s goal for his future remained the same: “The only thing I’m focused on is staying in Formula One,” he told The Athletic in Las Vegas. Performance was there, though Tsunoda had the edge on Lawson in every grand prix qualifying and race finish aside from Austin. But after having the first tripleheader and two sprint races under his belt, Lawson didn’t have any kind of concern or worry in the back of his mind about how the season would pan out.

“Compared to last year, I think this year has been even stronger so far, on average, and I think that going into these last races, the mindset doesn’t really change from how it’s been the last couple of races,” he said in Las Vegas. “It’s very much weekend by weekend and trying to do the best drive I can, and that’s really all I’m thinking about, to be honest.

“I’m not the guy who makes a call on where I’m driving next year and things like that, but I know that what I do in the car is obviously what’s going to persuade them to do something.”

Liam Lawson and Max Verstappen will be teammates in 2025. (Mark Thompson / Getty Images)

When the season ended in Abu Dhabi, RB had yet to announce its completed 2025 driver lineup. Lawson’s final test of the year came on December 10, and eight days later, news broke that Pérez and Red Bull would part ways.

The announcement seemed inevitable, considering the amount of rumors and rumbling throughout the latter part of the season and the continued downturn in performance. The RB20 had issues, but Pérez seemed to struggle more with the car. And considering Ricciardo had been replaced by Lawson, that left the New Zealander and Tsunoda as the likely candidates to be promoted to the senior team.

Tsunoda joined the F1 grid in 2021 with then-AlphaTauri and has remained with the team ever since. Earlier this season, the Japanese driver was putting together consistent performances and looked poised to have his best year yet. He had 19 points to his name by the time RB announced his contract extension for a fifth season in early June.

Though the 24-year-old ended the season ahead of his teammates in head-to-head qualifying and race comparisons, it was Lawson who was tapped as Pérez’s replacement.

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said that Lawson’s performances thus far in F1 had “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.”

Horner also acknowledged the challenge that Lawson would face going up against Max Verstappen across the garage. “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,” Horner said. “But I’m sure Liam can rise to that challenge and deliver some outstanding results for us next year.”

As Lawson left the Singapore GP weekend, Ricciardo gave him a parting message: “Good luck with everything,” Lawson recalled in Austin. “You get one shot at F1. Make sure you make the most of it.”

This year may not have unfolded as Lawson had anticipated. He faced plenty of unknowns and what-ifs as he waited to find out about his future, yearning to get back into competitive racing again. He focused on training for a different type of car, moving from Super Formula to F1, and doing his job as a reserve driver. Lawson may not have met the results benchmark set by Tsunoda, but he arguably did make the most of his time during the final two tripleheaders.

The saying goes that you’re only as good as your last race. Considering he’s stepping into one of the most difficult seats on the grid as Verstappen’s teammate, the question is whether Lawson is ready for the challenge.

(Top photo: Peter Fox / Getty Images)