Liam Lawson ‘ready’ to step in at RB if needed with Red Bull hurdles to jump first

Although RB CEO Peter Bayer believes Liam Lawson is ready to step up, he admits it’s not just his decision as to whether the reserve driver should replace Daniel Ricciardo.

RB have one seat available for next year’s championship and it’s a straight fight between Ricciardo and Lawson to partner Yuki Tsunoda.

A ‘summer break’ decision for the second RB seat

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

Continuing with Ricciardo this season, Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko recently admitted they’d done so with the goal of the eight-time Grand Prix winner making a play for Sergio Perez’s Red Bull seat.

Ricciardo’s struggles put paid to that, prompting Red Bull to announce a new two-year deal for Perez.

As for Ricciardo, the Honey Badger is fighting to continue in Formula 1 with Marko hinting his exit may be a done deal as RB’s shareholders have “made it clear that it is a junior team” and that Red Bull will “have to put a young driver in there soon – that would be Liam Lawson.”

However, according to Bayer, Ricciardo still has time – at least another four races – to save his seat as no decision will be made before the summer break, which begins after the Belgian GP.

“Daniel has been an important part of the team since he joined us last year,” Bayer told the media including PlanetF1.com. “He brought lots of new spirit, fresh ideas. He raised the expectations within ourselves.

“He has been very important in working with Yuki, has been important in helping us with the setup of the car.

“In terms of performance, and he stated by himself, it wasn’t the best of him that we have seen so far. I still believe there are lots of things to come from Daniel.

“We’ve seen some glimpses of that in Miami and Montreal. And we know that, simply by monitoring him he’s got the speed. He will have to deliver to be considered for 2025.”

More on Daniel Ricciardo’s F1 future

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And all the while RB have Lawson waiting in the wings with Bayer confident the New Zealander is “ready” to step up at any time. He, however, isn’t the only one who has a say in the decision with the Red Bull bosses also having a vote.

“We’re not in a rush, we have a big talent pool,” Bayer continued. “We have Liam, who is ready to join the team.

“What we really want to try and achieve is to go quietly into the summer break and then have a discussion. It will be Helmut, it will be Christian [Horner], will be Laurent [Mekies], myself, and the shareholders might be interested in the final decision. But it will be quiet and without any haste.”

In the meantime, RB have urged Lawson to have patience with the team amidst rumours Audi could come knocking.

“Part of our responsibilities is to develop drivers and Liam did a test for us in January in Imola,” Bayer added. “Then we have another one planned at the end of July where he will again be in the ’22 car.

“He’s a test driver, he’s in the sim right now. So he’s an extremely valuable and important element to the team.

“We’re just basically asking him for the patience to stick with us until we can take a final decision.”

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