As had already been rumored in the past few hours, on Thursday morning, Red Bull officially announced that Liam Lawson will be promoted to the main team and will be Max Verstappen’s teammate in the 2025 season, following the departure of Sergio ‘Checo’ Pérez.
Yesterday, the Mexican driver and the team based in Milton Keynes announced that they had reached an agreement to part ways, allowing the New Zealander to take his place, after two brief seasons with AlphaTauri/Racing Bulls in the last two campaigns.
In 2023, he was recruited as a temporary replacement for an injured Daniel Ricciardo, who had broken his wrist in an accident at the Dutch Grand Prix. Lawson participated in five races, with a ninth place as his best result in Singapore. This year he joined RB starting from the United States Grand Prix, after the team parted ways with Ricciardo, who failed to bring the expected results.
The New Zealander was beaten 7-2 in qualifying by his teammate Yuki Tsunoda (6-0 without sprints), and scored fewer points during the time they were together, however, for whatever reason, those in Milton Keynes considered that he offered more potential than the Japanese, who has already been in the Red Bull junior team for four years. "Liam's performances over the course of his two seasons with Visa Cash App Racing Bulls have shown that he is not only capable of delivering great results, but he is also a true racer, who is not afraid to mix it up with the best and reach the top," said Christian Horner, the team principal.
Bottas returns to Mercedes as the third driver
It wasn't the only market movement announced this Thursday, at the beginning of the winter season, which is usually quiet but has already seen quite a stir. Finnish driver Valtteri Bottas was also announced as the reserve driver for the 2025 season at Mercedes, after he failed to retain his seat at Sauber.
With the German squad, Bottas achieved 10 Grand Prix victories for the Silver Arrows team in a span of 100 races between 2017 and 2021, when he was teammate of Lewis Hamilton.
He was sidelined from the team for 2022, as team boss Toto Wolff chose to promote George Russell, trained as a Mercedes junior driver. Now, Russell will lead Mercedes in 2025 alongside the young talent, Andrea Kimi Antonelli, following Hamilton's move to Ferrari, instead of Carlos Sainz.