Red Bull want young VCARB driver, Lawson set to replace Ricciardo

Ricciardo's 'Prodigal Son' tale is well told. After rejection by McLaren, his connections and marketability reopened a door he once closed. And from the outset, Red Bull allowed Dan to spew away about taking Sergio Perez's seat back adamant a return to being Max Verstappen's was top of his agenda.

A year down the road and the Ricciardo of old (Red Bull days) has gone apparently forever. The 34-year-old Australian got a second chance at F1 came at the expense of a rapidly dispensed Nyck de Vries, a rookie. But the veteran has also struggled alongside 24-year-old Yuki Tsunoda for a longer spell.

Delusional Red Bull seat ambitions aside, Ricciardo has been lucky. Maybe protected by the likes of Christian Horner who lobbied hard to get his former driver back on the grid at the expense of De Vries.

That plan has backfired mightily, so much so RBR extended Sergio Perez's contract for two more years. Clearly sure that neither Yuki nor Dan are F1 material. And the latter is not a youngster anymore either, which is an issue it appears.

The whole objective of buying Minardi and transforming it into Scuderia Toro Rosso to develop young drivers before moving up to Red Bull. The 'formula' worked the rise to F1 for Sebastian Vettel, Max Verstappen and Ricciardo as well.

Interviewed by his local Austrian news outlet Kleine Zeitung, Marko revealed: "The shareholders have made it known that it is a junior team and we have to act accordingly. We have to put a young driver in there soon. That would be Liam Lawson."

As for Ricciardo's failings, Marko said: "The goal 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 That seat now belongs to Sergio Perez, so that plan is no longer valid."

The RBR consultant explained the reasoning: "The requirement for Riciardo was that he had to be clearly faster than Yuki if he wanted to have any hope of securing a seat at Red Bull. That hasn't been the case so far, even though, as I said, it was close. We'll see how that develops.

With Red Bull seats locked out until the end of the 2026 F1 season, when Ricciardo will be 36 and Lawson only 24 in a couple of years, the younger driver is the logical choice for the team built to 'build' drivers for their A-Team.

Marko reiterated: "We have a strong driver in the team in Liam Lawson as reserve driver, who is contractually entitled to drive for another team if he doesn't get a cockpit with us in 2025.

"In this respect, it would of course be exciting for us if we could see him in Formula 1 this year so that we can get an even clearer picture. But that's a complex topic, so we'll have to wait and see how it develops," cautioned Marko at the time.

Now it seems the Ricciardo-out, Lawson-in may happen sooner than we think, as Austrian media are not the only ones reporting the news. Watch this space.