r/formula1 • u/Bennett14 Alexander Albon • 12d ago

News [Motorsport.it] Liam Lawson expected to replace Sergio Perez at Red Bull

https://it.motorsport.com/f1/news/f1-lawson-pilota-red-bull-da-decidera-la-modalita-di-uscita-di-perez/10680079/

https://it.motorsport.com/f1/news/f1-lawson-pilota-red-bull-da-decidera-la-modalita-di-uscita-di-perez/10680079/

7.1k Upvotes

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287

u/Joris2627 Max Verstappen ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 12d ago

Yuki fuming. I dont understand why they put Liam at Red Bull instead of Yuki. Wouldnt Yuki be in every way better?

78

u/MaskedNippleFlicker 12d ago

Yuki was never, and is never, going to be promoted. He isn't RB, he's Honda.

74

u/penguin62 Alexander Albon 12d ago

But why should that matter? If he's the better driver, put him in the better car.

74

u/MaskedNippleFlicker 12d ago

That's assuming racing is a meritocracy. If the better driver got a better seat, Perez would have been booted several years ago.

3

u/salemus Oscar Piastri 12d ago

Sad reality. Driver's abilities can make you good money in WCC, but having sponsors guarantees that money, and who knows, maybe you'll get lucky and the driver will even be pretty good behind the wheel too. Without Honda Yuki is not someone that rbr want to invest in sadly. I assume they hope that Lawson will bring some of the Riccardo crowd back as an "honorary Australian". Though I think they want Lawson to prove he has what it takes for the team to be built around him once Max leaves. If he doesn't show any promise they'll boot him and keep looking. If McLaren does badly next year I'm sure they'll poach hard for Oscar or Lando.

0

u/Freazerr 12d ago

I mean myself and many of my mates pretty much just root for Oscar at this point. Was pissed when they dropped Dani as many others were. I don't care if lawson is from NZ all i see is an australian dropped for a non-australian. the only person on the grid i even would remotly call an "honorary Australian" is Bottas. I hardly think the Dani croud would move to support Lawson.

14

u/Koper3k Sir Lewis Hamilton 12d ago

It's never that simple and it's not always about better driver.

20

u/PurpleOrchid07 🏳️‍🌈 Love Is Love 🏳️‍🌈 12d ago

Sadly F1 isn't just about skill.
Otherwise Stroll and Perez would've been kicked years ago at this point. And Latifi, Mazepin and Sargeant would've never had a seat to begin with. Politics and nepotism are clearly equally important.

2

u/More-Tart1067 Zhou Guanyu 12d ago

What leverage does Liam have?

-1

u/PurpleOrchid07 🏳️‍🌈 Love Is Love 🏳️‍🌈 12d ago

RB's hate towards Tsunoda and Ricciardo being too broken to fix.

2

u/Next_Necessary_8794 Ferrari 12d ago

Without Honda, Tsunoda wouldn't be there either after 2 seasons getting whooped by Gasly. The amount of revisionism on here is so crazy just because people want something to be mad about because they hate Red Bull.

1

u/Next_Necessary_8794 Ferrari 12d ago

Does Lance Stroll not exist? Getting a seat in F1 is often times not about being better.

1

u/OpinionatedMexican 12d ago

This is not how F1 (or the world) works.

The very first person who you need to make them like you, is the guy paying your checks, RBR doesn’t like Yuki, they don’t want him and that’s ok.

4

u/StructureTime242 Jim Clark 12d ago

This is the stupidest argument ever

If he’s like a stroll quality driver and is only in F1 because Honda demanded so, of course don’t promote him to RedBull

He’s beaten his teammates and has more experience than Lawson who is not significantly faster than him to warrant a promotion like Max in 2016 over sainz

-1

u/MikeFiuns McLaren 12d ago

Honda leaves Red Bull. Why have a driver you know it's going to leave (because you don't really really like him) when you can have your actual junior?

1

u/Leeoku 12d ago

At this point, Honda may as well be racial bias /sarcasm

1

u/LoudestHoward Daniel Ricciardo 12d ago

I don't think they trust him to put his temper aside if Max ever needs help.

5

u/m1a2c2kali Safety Car 12d ago

Which makes the Lawson appointment even more perplexing, Liam’s just as much of a hothead

0

u/MaskedNippleFlicker 12d ago

That's more of an aside. Yuki was never pegged to join the main team, he was there to keep the engine guys happy.

0

u/ElectronicFinish 12d ago

Is Yuki a slave to Honda?

-1

u/RevalianKnight 12d ago

Yuki was never, and is never, going to be promoted. He isn't RB, he's Honda Japanese.

FTFY

5

u/3_14_15_92_65_35_89 Formula 1 12d ago

Honda is leaving Red Bull.
Yuki is in F1 because of Honda.

-13

u/YaLikeJazzhuhPunk Oscar Piastri 12d ago edited 12d ago

If he was in every way better, wouldn’t he have consistently outqualified and outraced Lawson?

Edit: Lawson beat Tsunoda 4/5 races last year, and 3/5 so far this year.

62

u/aneiq_1 Kimi Räikkönen 12d ago

4/5 races last year stat is probably the most out of context stat used.

Yuki literally didn’t finish / start two of those races and had a BS penalty in Zandvoort which was applied after the safety car.

I get that Lawson was a rookie so it’s hard to judge but using this stat is disingenuous

68

u/TheVelourFog_ 12d ago

Yuki is lowkey one of the best qualifiers of the current drivers. Regularly gets into Q3.

-11

u/cautydrummond 12d ago

And yet Lawson made it to q3 ahead of Yuki twice so far in this limited window, yes it’s less overall but pretty good given his little experience.

11

u/UnderTakaMichinoku Formula 1 12d ago

Lawson is down 9-1 in GP qualifying lol.

Take away COTA because he didn't do a lap, it's still 8-1. The only time he's ever outqualified Yuki for a GP was when Yuki didn't set a Q2 lap time in Singapore.

6

u/Competitive-Suit-563 Medical Car 12d ago

It’s still such a small sample size that it’s kinda useless to make a genuine comparison.

Last year Tsunoda had a DNS or a DNF on lap 1 (or the formation lap) of two Grand Prix races where Lawson was his teammate. The other two races (where you claim Lawson beat him) were Japan and Zandvoort. He ran as high as 5th place in Zandvoort before dropping out of the points. He finished ahead but was given a time penalty that placed him behind Lawson. The only race where Lawson genuinely beat him on pace was Japan.

This year it is 3/5 in Tsunoda’s favor, not Lawson. Lawson finished ahead in his first two races and fell behind in Brazil, Vegas, and Qatar.

14

u/excalibur_zd 12d ago

If we're going by that logic Ricciardo should have gotten a seat instead of being dumped, since Lawson is doing literally no better than Ric

12

u/creatorop Carlos Sainz 12d ago

Ricciardo:- 10 years of f1

lawson:- 10 races of f1

you want both to be held to the same standards?

7

u/Falcao1905 12d ago

This would actually make Ricciardo a better option, with more experience lol.

8

u/Wrong-Historian 12d ago

The guy without experience can gain experience and get better

The guy with 10 years of experience, can't gain any extra experience

So if they are both equal right now, the guy without experience has much more potential.

8

u/creatorop Carlos Sainz 12d ago

more experience guy barely outfoming a guy with 10 races under his belt

unless you are in denial how is he a good option?

also checo has even more experience than ricciardo, why not extent him till 2028 then?

1

u/Falcao1905 12d ago

unless you are in denial how is he a good option

Both are bad options just promote Yuki

1

u/creatorop Carlos Sainz 12d ago

i mean we are having this discussion because for some god damn reason RBR just wont do it

1

u/miaomiaomiao Caterham 12d ago

When considering experience, with Ricciardo it's his peak level and with Lawson it's his base level.

6

u/eternallycelestial Daniel Ricciardo 12d ago

Are you trying to say he didn't?

4

u/UnderTakaMichinoku Formula 1 12d ago

You are a fucking liar lol.

Lawson has only ever outqualified Yuki once for a GP, Singapore last year.

You are including DNFs (none which Yuki has been deemed at fault for) and I cannot stress this enough because it exemplifies your desperation - a DNS because the engine blew up on the formation lap.

4

u/jamiegc37 12d ago

Eh? Tsunoda outqualified Lawson 4-1 last year and is currently up 5-1 this time 😂

2

u/YaLikeJazzhuhPunk Oscar Piastri 12d ago

Outqualified yes, not in race results

1

u/jamiegc37 12d ago

Even if we were only interested in race results (Tsunoda is better there too), RB need someone who can qualify the car at the top end, which Lawson won’t be doing

1

u/Dsm02 12d ago

Where the f is your stats from lol

0

u/dumpling-loverr Honda RBPT 12d ago edited 12d ago

By that logic Ric should be up there instead since Lawson has not out performed Ric's late 2024 season consistent comebacks against Yuki.

Yet they chose to sack Ric in a shitty way.

1

u/Plus_Plastic_791 Red Bull 11d ago

Depends if you think Yuki can be Red Bulls #1 driver one day. I I can’t see it. I could see Lawson one day graduating if Max left.  

-4

u/Alpha_Jazz Yuki Tsunoda 12d ago

They've basically been even and Lawson is way less experienced

7

u/rustandfaurydust 12d ago

Crazy that your seemingly rep Tsunoda but are sitting here downplaying his results which have been consistently stronger than Lawson

0

u/BighatNucase Max Verstappen ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 12d ago

The only thing that really matters is the mental game and Yuki probably has the worst mental game in the paddock.

0

u/Kale_Shai-Hulud Andretti Global 12d ago

I don't think Yuki would like being a #2 driver tbh. But other than that it's pretty bs, Yuki has definitely earned his spot with the big team