Ahead of Red Bull’s home GP, the Austrian Grand Prix in Spielberg, motorsport consultant Dr. Helmut Marko is bringing a breath of fresh air to the already busy Formula 1 driver market. The reigning world champions have had their situation clarified for weeks following Sergio Perez’s contract extension, but their sister team, the Racing Bulls, still has a cockpit available for the coming season. They are looking for a teammate for Yuki Tsunoda, who the soft drink manufacturer was able to tie down for another year thanks to a clause.
The two main competitors for the vacant seat have been known for some time: Daniel Ricciardo and Liam Lawson, the current driver against the reserve driver. A decision between the veteran and the rookie on the bench should not be too far away. Marko himself confirmed a few weeks ago that Lawson would be allowed to leave the Red Bull family thanks to a clause if the racing team did not offer him a regular place for 2025. However, the bigwigs at Red Bull do not want to lose the talent under any circumstances. The promotion of Lawson, who attracted attention in 2023 with outstanding performances as a replacement for the injured Ricciardo, is becoming a top priority.
Quo vadis Red Bull? Racing Bulls to become a junior team again
“The shareholders have announced that it is a junior team and we have to act accordingly,” said Marko before the Austrian GP to Small newspaperIf the team were to give in to the will of the investors, it would mean a reversal of the team’s philosophy.
Until the 2023 season, the Racing Bulls (then still AlphaTauri) saw themselves as a training team for their own talents, i.e. a junior team. With the drivers Nyck de Vries (29 years old) and his successor Ricciardo (34 years old), they broke with tradition and relied on a combination of experience and young talent – also due to a lack of alternatives.
Ricciardo’s brutal report: No exceptional achievements – Lawson to be promoted
But this plan hasn’t worked either. Ricciardo has rarely been able to show his past form over the last year and a half and is usually overshadowed by Yuki Tsunoda. In the drivers’ championship, the Japanese driver has more than twice as many points as the seven-time GP winner, who actually wanted to use his interlude with the Racing Bulls to recommend himself for higher tasks at Red Bull.
“The aim was that he would be considered for Red Bull Racing with exceptional performances. That seat now belongs to Sergio Perez, so that plan is no longer valid,” said Helmut Marko, assessing Ricciardo’s situation soberly. If it were up to the man from Graz, two young drivers from the team’s own talent factory would be in the sister team again in the future. “We need to put a young driver in there soon,” explained the 81-year-old, and then clarified: “That would be Liam Lawson.”