Has Lawson done enough to deserve Red Bull promotion?

hasta la vista to Sergio Perez, according to reliable GRANDPRIX247 sources, Liam Lawson will be Max Verstappen's Formula 1 teammate in 2025, but ex-Formula 1 mechanic Marc Priestley questions if the New Zealander has done enough to deserve the break.

That Perez had to go after a dismal season in which he was trounced by Verstappen and cost Red Bull the constructors' championship as their Dutch ace scooped the 2024 F1 Drivers' title with 437 points to his credit. The Mexican veteran in the sister car only scored 152 points, the majority in the first six races.

Like much of the F1 paddock, former McLaren chief mechanic Marc Priestley believes Perez's fate was inevitable: "It's not a major surprise; the only surprise with the Sergio Perez situation is that it's taken this long for a decision to be made.

"It's clearly a lot more complicated behind the scenes instead of the decision being made on the driver's performance. Otherwise, with Red Bull's history, Perez would have been gone a long time ago.

"Red Bull never had a natural successor for Sergio Perez's seat. If you look at the Red Bull junior program, the whole point is to find the next Max Verstappen or Sebastian Vettel, and they don't have one of those right now," explained Priestley.

One could argue that they did have a successor in Daniel Ricciardo. But that project bombed despite the fact that McLaren paid the out-of-sorts Australian to leave the team early. That Red Bull banked on him being the likely replacement of Perez was ill-conceived.

After crashing three races into his comeback, during the 2023 Dutch Grand Prix weekend, Christian Horner and Helmut Marko should've halted the failed experiment. More so after substitute Liam Lawson was immediately on the pace and rustling Yuki Tsunoda's feathers in the process.

That Red Bull continued with 'The Ricciardo Project' in 2024 was inexplicable. Finally, after the Singapore GP, they finally pulled the plug on the lovable Aussie who forgot how to drive fast. Much like Perez has this season. Coincidentally and with a certain irony, in place of both veteran drivers step up Lawson to truncate their downward spiralling F1 careers.

Regarding Perez's replacement, Priestley reckoned: "Bringing in Liam Lawson as a number two driver might turn out to be quite short-sighted, as Verstappen could be elsewhere in 2026. I don't think Lawson has done enough to grab that seat, but Perez's poor results have opened the door for him to take this opportunity."

"It will always seem unfair on the driver who missed out on the seat. But I don't think Yuki Tsunoda or Liam Lawson deserved that Red Bull seat. When Max Verstappen came into F1, he grabbed people's attention and made them sit on the edge of their seats. I don't think you can say that either Tsunoda or Lawson has done that," ventured Priestley.

Red Bull's modus operandi is hard to fathom. With some underperforming drivers, they have been notoriously intolerant (Pierre Gasly and Nyck de Vries spring to mind), yet with the likes of Ricciardo, Perez, and even Tsunoda, their patience has been saintly.

How they categorise Lawson in terms of patience will be crucial as the 22-year-old squares up to the man he has to beat first in order to win races, namely Verstappen.

Which is the double-edged sword of being the number two driver at one of the most successful F1 teams of the 21st century while partnered with the best driver of this generation, who has a cupboard packed with teammate scalps? Perez is the latest. (Quotes supplied by Casino Uden Rofus)