‘I know for sure’ – Max Verstappen’s F1 2025 Red Bull team-mate named in ‘crazy’ verdict

Max Verstappen will have a new team-mate at Red Bull next season with Liam Lawson “for sure” getting the job as Red Bull would be “crazy” not to promote him after Austin.

Lawson returned to the Formula 1 grid at the United States Grand Prix having been handed a six-race audition to secure his place on next year’s grid.

‘I just know for sure that he will drive next to Max next year’

But while initially it was thought he was vying for a spot at Red Bull’s junior team, VCARB, Christian Horner saying Lawson’s six-race runs “goes beyond VCARB, it encompasses Red Bull Racing” has pundits wondering if he could replace Sergio Perez at the senior team.

Although Perez signed an extension earlier this year for F1 2025, the Mexican driver hasn’t been able to pull himself out of his slump and sits on 14 races without a podium result.

The only driver from the top four teams without a win on the board, he’s P8 and over 200 points behind Max Verstappen in the standings which has cost Red Bull the lead in the Constructors’. They may even fall to third behind Ferrari.

It was very much advantage Lawson after the United States Grand Prix as the Kiwi raced from the back of the grid, P19 after an engine parts penalty, to ninth, making up 10 places. Perez could only manage two places, ninth to seventh, and finished 40s down on Verstappen. Lawson was only 10s behind Perez.

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Former F1 driver Christijan Albers says surely Lawson will be in the RB21 next season alongside Verstappen as Red Bull would be “crazy” to continue with Perez.

“Surely he [Perez] has enough experience then that he knows how to build up a weekend?” Albers told De Telegraaf before answering his own question.

“He continuously doesn’t know how to build a weekend. He is constantly focusing on Max, driving himself crazy.

“Then I look at a guy like Lawson, who is hungry, and I just know for sure that he will drive next to Max next year. If that doesn’t happen, then I’ll declare everyone at Red Bull crazy.

“There are still five races to go, and sometimes it can happen that a driver snaps. But, if it were up to me, it is certain.

“Look, if he now crashes the car into everything and does idiotic things for five races, then I still see doubt. But if you look at how he is performing now as an underdog, then I think that is very good.

“He has to keep looking at the data, keep performing, consult well and see what Tsunoda is doing.”

Red Bull were happy with Lawson’s performance in Austin as Helmut Marko called him a “man for the future” while Horner says he drove like a “veteran”.

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