Nico Rosberg pinpoints Red Bull’s secondary motive with Liam Lawson’s shock RB move
Red Bull decided to sack Daniel Ricciardo from its B-team in favour of Liam Lawson, which could spice up the driver pool for the 2025 season.
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Daniel Ricciardo with Liam Lawson and Nico Rosberg, images via Driven and IMAGO
Since the start of the 2024 season, the drivers market has proven to be extremely chaotic. Moreover, with only six rounds remaining, Red Bull sacked Daniel Ricciardo mid-season to bring in Liam Lawson at RB. Though experts admitted this move was down to the Aussie’s inability to perform, former world champion Nico Rosberg threw in a new conspiracy that might spell disaster for Sergio Perez.
Last year, Liam Lawson acted as a super-sub when Daniel Ricciardo got injured at the Dutch GP weekend. The Kiwi got in the groove with the AlphaTauri (RB) and scored points in his third race at Singapore. Ironically, the 34-year-old was dropped after his last race in Singapore this year and is thus, due to be replaced by the 22-year-old at Austin.
On the other hand, Nico Rosberg raised eyebrows at the axing of Ricciardo. With only six rounds to go, firing a driver like Ricciardo seemed unusual unless there was a second motive behind it.
With Perez, because we all know he’s a good driver, and he at times was actually challenging Max for the World Championship in small segments, even last year. And now he’s just somehow dropped so far back. It’s very, very strange. So anyways, yeah, they’re giving him a chance now until the end of the year, obviously, and I think they still need to review it again then for next year. That’s another reason that they want to try Lawson out. Because Lawson if he does amazingly well for these last six races, then certainly he would be considered for the main Red Bull seat for next year.
Nico Rosberg said on the Sky F1 podcast
The German then explained that with Sergio Perez‘s dwindling performances, Red Bull could get an opportunity to evaluate Lawson as a replacement for the Mexican. Thus, the upcoming six rounds could help the Austrian giant get a glimpse of the Kiwi’s caliber and get a proper driver lineup for the 2025 F1 season.
Red Bull wants to reduce the delta between Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez
If the 22-year-old has been brought in to replace Perez in the near future, then the six-time race winner would have to up his game at a rapid pace. Also, Red Bull has put his faith in the 34-year-old and are willing to help him with all the available resources that they have.
Subsequently, Christian Horner elaborated that the engineers in Milton Keynes are looking to bring upgrades to make the RB20 less woeful for its drivers.
What we’re looking to do is to build on the understanding that we’ve started to really get a clear picture since Monza and take the car there that’s well-balanced between both of its axles. It inspires the confidence of the drivers. It’s a very different challenge there, very high speed first sector, then the resurfaced part of the circuit, so there’s another variable thrown in.
Christian Horner said on the F1 Nation podcast
With the Brit revealing that the RB20 would get an upgrade that could increase its stability, Perez’s troubles might finally find an end. The Mexican’s complaints about the handling of the car could end and make him get closer to Max Verstappen in races.
Despite Red Bull’s efforts, they currently trail McLaren by 41 points. Moreover, Ferrari is also not far behind and could make the Austrian giant fall from the heights of leading the standings with hundreds of points to finishing third this year after an underwhelming second half of the season.
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Geetansh Pasricha
(772 Articles Published)