Marko declares Lawson an F1 lock for 2025

Kiwi ace Liam Lawson has been declared as a definite lock for a Formula 1 seat in 2025 by Red Bull’s Helmut Marko, heaping yet more pressure on Daniel Ricciardo and Sergio Perez ahead of this weekend’s Dutch GP.

Whilst it is yet uncertain whether that will be at the British or the Italian based RB team (more likely the latter) his current contract means that if he’s not assigned to an F1 seat with the energy drinks empire by this September, the 22-year old Kiwi is free for the poaching.

The comments were made by the Red Bull Motorsport advisor to Austrian paper Kleine Zeitung ahead of this weekend’s Dutch Grand Prix, saying that the talented youngster will “definitely” be in one of the four Red Bull cars next season.

“In September there will be a decision, next year he will definitely be driving one of our cars,” Marko declared.

Lawson scored his maiden F1 points at Singapore driving the AlphaTauri AT04 in 2023. Image: LAT

With RB’s Yuki Tsunoda signed up for 2025 already, that leaves a curious shuffling of seats between the Milton Keynes and the Faenza squads, with both Ricciardo and Perez (despite a recent contract extension) to continue in a state of uncertainty about where they’ll be next season.

It also means that if Ricciardo does keep his F1 seat, and Jack Doohan gets the expected nod for Alpine, that there will be four Antipodean drivers in F1 next season.

Lawson’s five F1 races to date – when he replaced an injured Ricciardo at RB (AlphaTauri) in 2023 – were impressive to say the least, with a point-scoring ninth at Singapore, whilst he also placed 11th at both Monza and Suzuka.

This year the Hastings born Kiwi has been in a testing role, and whilst he was reportedly a bit off the pace in a vital session at Silverstone some months back, his on-track record at short notice and his prior performances in the Japanese Super Formula have made him a wanted commodity.

It leaves both Ricciardo and Perez in a precarious performance based position ahead of the Dutch outing, with the Mexicans 2024 campaign having been described by team principal Christian Horner as “unsustainable”, whilst Marko has said that Ricciardo’s performances at RB weren’t up to scratch to be Perez’s replacement.

Ricciardo faced yet more questions on his uncertain future in F1 at Zandvoort following Marko’s Lawson statement. Image: LAT

When pressed on Marko’s Lawson statement at the Zandvoort press conference, Ricciardo (who has constantly had to defend his future in the media) praised the young Kiwi, and reiterated that his own future is in his hands when he hits the track.

“I still know that performance is my best friend,” he said.

“If I do what I know I can do and I’m capable of, then I think it puts me in a very good position to obviously stay somewhere in the (Red Bull) family for next year. 

“I just have to focus on that. I think, speaking of Liam, getting to see him drive the car last year, I think he did a great job. 

“I do think he is worthy of a seat on the grid…in a way, I’m happy for him. If he is guaranteed a seat next year, then I think that’s good, because he is a deserving driver. 

“So then what does that mean for me? As I said, probably a little bit of an unknown, but if I perform, then I’m sure they’ll find a spot for me somewhere.”

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