Verdict: Have Red Bull picked the right driver to replace Sergio Perez?

After Sergio Perez announced his Red Bull exit, the team has moved to confirm Liam Lawson as his successor.

And so, after two super-sub stints with the Red Bull second team, Lawson will be next to take on the challenge of being team-mate to four-time World Champion Max Verstappen. But, has Red Bull made the right decision? Let’s discuss.

Has Red Bull got it right with choosing Liam Lawson?

Jamie Woodhouse: Red Bull are never afraid to go against the grain and I feel should be applauded for that, but this is a big risk.

What’s more, while Sergio Perez may have descended into a driver broken and totally bereft of confidence in 2024, it is hard to see what makes Lawson the clear and safe pick for better on-track results to make the financial benefits lost along with Perez – a key cog in Red Bull’s marketing machine in the Americas – worth the hit.

Rewind back to 2023, and after his first stint with the Red Bull second team, I was all for Lawson joining the grid full-time and thought he represented the ideal unflappable figure to place alongside Max Verstappen. But, his F1 2024 antics with Perez – sticking up the middle finger quickly coming to mind – leave me not so sure.

Personally, I am surprised Yuki Tsunoda was not selected. Not just because he has four seasons’ of experience under his belt, but also because Tsunoda feels like the more disposable asset for Red Bull if things had not gone well for the Japanese racer as team-mate to Verstappen. F1 2025 will be Red Bull’s final season with Honda power after all.

Sure, if Lawson struggles, he can be sent back to Racing Bulls, but as we saw with Pierre Gasly, returning to and impressing with the B-team after a first burn from Verstappen does not mean the recall comes.

At this stage in Lawson’s career, do Red Bull really need to risk tainting his F1 reputation? Of course, the decision has been made to take that risk, and it will be intriguing to see how this one plays out.

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Thomas Maher: With Red Bull unlikely to choose someone who could do worse than Perez managed in 2024, there was very little to pick between Lawson and Tsunoda.

In their races together at the end of this season, Tsunoda clearly had a slight edge over Lawson – but the outright speed isn’t what Red Bull is interested in right now. What matters is mentality, and the fortitude each driver will have in the face of what is nearly certain to be very adverse conditions in 2025.

There’s no reason to believe that Verstappen will suddenly decline so, when paired with the most relentless performer in Formula 1, Red Bull had to make a choice based on who they believe is better equipped to handle being beaten on a regular basis and, on top of that, settle into a supporting role.

Tsunoda, while much improved, still lacks that maturity – even with four years of Red Bull influence on him in F1, he still shows the red mist when things go against him. And it was only at the start of this season that he nearly caused a big crash with his own teammate after the chequered flag over being unhappy with a team order.

Lawson, with only 11 races behind him, may not have the depth of experience Tsunoda has but, given he wasn’t far off, the current implication is that Red Bull believes his ceiling to be higher. If he’s as mentally strong as they believe him to be, he will handle playing a supporting role and racking up points while understanding that Verstappen is the priority.

If he can’t hack it, then perhaps Tsunoda’s extra year at Racing Bulls will do him the world of good to prove to Christian Horner and Helmut Marko that he has lost the impetuousness that he is most associated with, and this snub may be a blessing in disguise.

It’s a sink-or-swim situation for Lawson, and Tsunoda will be ready to swoop if Lawson sinks.

Sam Cooper: Right decision, made at the wrong time.

It does not take much studying to see the pattern of Sergio Perez over the course of the year and instead of accepting the truth in front of their eyes, Red Bull held onto a hope that he could turn it around.

In delaying what seemed an inevitable call, they left themselves in a weaker negotiating spot and now better targets have gone off to other teams. I am of course talking about Carlos Sainz.

Warring fathers or not, Sainz was the only top level driver available to Red Bull but they let the opportunity slip through their fingers.

It is clear they want a number one driver and number two but 2024 showed that achieving this one-sided balance no longer results in a Constructors’ title.

I will wait and see how Liam Lawson does but it does feel like a lamb feeling led to the lion.

Elizabeth Blackstock: Red Bull were very much stuck in a dilemma of its own making when it came to finding a Sergio Perez replacement.

As my colleagues have noted, Red Bull clung to the hope of a Perez rebound for so long that all other options were exhausted, and it was left choosing between two drivers with as many drawbacks as positives.

Still, I’m inclined to say Red Bull made the wrong choice in Liam Lawson.

The logic is there, of course. Lawson is a young driver with a fire burning hot in his belly, and if he doesn’t hack it at Red Bull, well — there’s always someone waiting in the wings.

But if Red Bull were looking for nothing but a stand-in, why not choose Yuki Tsunoda?

I have a feeling Tsunoda’s time as a Red Bull junior driver is limited; his ties to the team were primarily forged through Honda, an automaker whose power units Red Bull will be giving up in 2026. With Tsunoda being overlooked by the primary team time and again, it’s difficult to see him as a driver with a future at Red Bull.

So why not give him a year at the top? If Tsunoda performs well, then that’s great news for a team who just lost a WCC. If he doesn’t, then it would be simple to cut him from the lineup ahead of 2026 — which would have given Lawson a full season in Racing Bulls to mature his race craft.

Like everyone, I’ll have a keen eye on Red Bull and Racing Bulls in 2025 to see how Lawson and Tsunoda fare.

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