Official Red Bull Lawson, via Perez

December 18, 2024 (change at 6.30pm) – MILANO

The change in Red Bull F1 that has been talked about since the summer has become reality: as the team announced, Liam Lawson will be the new official driver in place of Sergio Perez, who leaves the Austrian-British team after four seasons and five victories ( 1 in 2021, 2 in 2022, 2 in 2023). From 2025 therefore, the pair driving the RB will be formed by the four-time world champion Max Verstappen and the New Zealander, who has already collected 11 GPs in Formula 1. Fatal for Perez, the decline in performance which has now lasted since the second half of 2023 , and his relations with Verstappen gradually deteriorated: the two had been openly distolerant of each other for about a year and a half.

who is liam lawson

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Born in Hastings in February 2002, Lawson joined the Red Bull Academy in 2019, the year in which he won the Toyota Racing Series having already won the title of national Formula Ford champion at the age of 15. Dtm 2021 vice-champion, the following year he deserves his first experiences in F1 in the Red Bull galaxy. In 2022 he was third in the F2 championship, in 2023 he became vice-champion in the Japanese Super Formula and made his debut in the F1 GPs (13th in the Dutch GP with AlphaTauri). In total, he has collected 11 races in the F1 World Championship (5 with AlphaTauri and 6 in 2024 with Racing Bulls) with two ninth places as his best result (Singapore 2023 and Austin 2024).

Perez’s farewell

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Formally, Perez and Red Bull have “parted ways by mutual consent after four successful years and the longest season ever in F1”. In the official press release we read Checo’s words of thanks, “incredibly grateful for having had the opportunity to race in an impressively successful team”. Team principal Christian Horner echoed this: “I thank Checo, a team man from the first moment he set foot in the team.”