Red Bull fire Sergio Perez and replace him with Liam Lawson for the 2025 F1 season: Reports
Red Bull Racing has reportedly sacked Sergio Perez from its F1 seat to put RB driver Liam Lawson for the 2025 season. Although there has been no official announcement from the side of the team, paddock chatters appear to suggest that the Austrian team has decided on Lawson as Max Verstappen's teammate for next season.
Perez's underwhelming performances throughout the 2024 season cost Red Bull as the Milton-Keynes-based team failed to compete with McLaren and Ferrari for the constructors' championship.
While Verstappen tried his best to push Red Bull, Perez's struggles allowed McLaren and Ferrari to edge ahead. As things stand, the Christian Horner-led team has lost faith in the Mexican driver and Lawson will reportedly be his the replacement.
Motorsport Italia on Friday reported that the Red Bull F1 team is likely to bring in Lawson alongside Verstappen for the 2025 F1 season. The team promoted the New Zealand driver recently to RB by sacking Daniel Ricciardo after the 2024 Singapore Grand Prix.
Lawson made his debut for RB (formerly Toro Rosso) last year when he replaced an injured Ricciardo. He got an opportunity again this season and showed glimpses of his brilliance.
Yuki Tsunoda, the most senior driver after Verstappen and Perez, is out of contention, as Horner made it very clear that they have no intention of bringing the Japanese driver to the top team even though he praised his talent.
On the other hand, the Austrian team also dropped the idea of bringing Franco Colapinto alongside Verstappen. Strong rumors surfaced recently that linked the Williams driver to Red Bull.
How did Sergio Perez perform in 2024?
Sergio Perez's performances in 2024 have been underwhelming to say the least. The Mexican driver is the only driver in the top four teams to not win a race. Whereas seven other drivers have claimed multiple victories.
Perez is currently sitting in P8 of the drivers' championship with 152 points, 59 points behind Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes. His teammate, Max Verstappen, claimed his fourth consecutive F1 title in Las Vegas and is currently leading the championship.
Perez and Verstappen have a massive gap in points (277) and this was not something Christian Horner, Helmut Marko, and Red Bull top brass wanted despite having the formidable RB20 at their disposal.
Sergio Perez arrived at Red Bull from Racing Point in 2021 and played an important role in helping Verstappen claim his maiden world championship in Abu Dhabi that season. He starts the 2024 Abu Dhabi GP from P10.