Last Updated on December 27 2024, 12:14 pm

Despite remaining two constructors’ championships behind arch rivals Mercedes, Red Bull Racing appeared to throw away their chance of another Formula One team title this season as they dallied over what to do with Sergio Perez. The Mexican was widely expected in the paddock to be dismissed during the summer break given the reported clause in his contract which required him to remain within 100 points of his team mate.

Red Bull at the time led rivals McLaren by 42 points and Verstappen’s lead in the drivers’ title race stood at 78 points. With a significantly altered autumn schedule the teams returned from their August sojourn with just four Grand Prix weekends ahead of them before a newly instigated four week autumn break to allow the racing personnel some respite before the season ending double triple headers in the run to the final in Abu Dhabi.

Perez was retained according to Christian Horner because,  “We know that there’s tracks that he’s won at coming up. We’ve got Azerbaijan where he’s won both a Sprint and grand prix on the same weekend. He’s won a fantastic race in Singapore against Charles Leclerc in mixed conditions,” the Red Bull boss told Sky following FP2 in Zandvoort.

 

 

 

Perez dithering cost Red Bull

“He’s been very quick at Monza. Zandvoort hasn’t bene his best circuit, so of the four races coming up before the next mini-break, I would say this is his most challenging one.”

In fact Checo would score just 13 points across the four weekends in the Netherlands, Italy, Azerbaijan and Singapore. His potential to deliver was hampered by a penultimate lap crash with Carlos Sainz while the pair were fighting for third place. Neither driver finished classified in the points as Oscar Piastri claimed his second win of the season and his career in the shadow of eastern Europes Ural mountains.

In fact the very driver expected to replace Perez in Daniel Ricciardo was entering his last four races in F1 as he was released following the Singapore Grand Prix. As expected Liam Lawson was promoted alongside Yuki Tsunoda yet he failed to find similar form to his five Grand Prix from 2023 where he was a substitute for the injured Australian.

Yuki hammed Lawson 6-0 in Grand Prix qualifying and finished ahead of the New Zealander in four of the five races where they both took the chequered flag. For the first time in his four year history with the Red Bull junior team it appeared as though Tsunoda was finally about to get his big break alongside Max Verstappen.

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Lawson’s pace, ‘not enough’

However, the enclave in Milton Keynes sat for a number of days following the end of season test which saw Tsunoda drive a Red Bull F1 car for the first time in his F1 career. The result shocked many paddock observers as the white smoke drifted into the Northamptonshire night and Liam Lawson was announced as the latest partner for Max Verstappen.

The response in the European was at best mixed, given Yuki appeared to have proven himself in 2024 to be able to control his emotions more than in previous seasons. The Japanese driver was clearly recruited by the Red Bull organisation as part of their deal with Honda to supply power units, but it is now clear there was never any intention of him racing in the Big Bulls team.

Dr. Helmut Marko, never one to resist the opportunity to steal the limelight, now admits it wasn’t Liam Lawson’s outright pace which earned him Perez’s drive for 2025. And given Tsunoda has started 87 Grand Prix to Lawson’s 11, this would suggest also that experience was neither a factor in the decision.

Yuki demonstrated significant improvements this season in terms of his radio outbursts and the Japanese driver even credited his experienced team mate in Ricciardo for showing him the way. Yet despite this Marko states it was Tsunoda’s temperament and lack of reliability which saw the bishops of Milton Keynes hand the keys to Liam Lawson.

Horner surprised by Perez comments

 

 

 

Tsunoda “is faster”

“Yuki is certainly the faster of the two in terms of speed at the moment,” claimed the 81 year old Austrian. “But he doesn’t have the necessary consistency and keeps making mistakes. Then there are his outbursts of anger, which have improved significantly, but they remain a factor. Then he loses control.”

Tsunoda racked up his best season to date in F1, finishing a career high P12 in the drivers’ championship and scoring 30 of VCARB’s tally of 46. Yet crucially the Japanese driver failed to score enough for his team to finish ahead of Haas and Alpine in a fiercely fought contest to claim sixth in the team standings.

As rumours swirled in ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix that a Red Bull driver switch was coming during the Sumer break, Yuki made his feelings clear on the matter. “If they choose Liam, that would be weird,” Tsunoda said.  “Liam did a really good job when he drove in the sim, but I think I did more than that. So, we’ll see how it goes. They know how to manage the drivers.”

Clearly Yuki’s faith in the men in grey suits was misplaced as for the first time, as revealed by Dr. Marko, the 2025 driver decisions were taken in collaboration with the shareholders of the Red Bull parent company. The votes went to Liam Lawson who will play the role of the next sacrificial lamb to appear alongside quadruple world champion, Max Verstappen.

Marko: Lawson “no chance” against Verstappen

 

 

 

Lawson must stay within 0.3s of Max

From Marko’s comments this week, it appears the Red Bull grandees did not believe Tsunoda was mentally strong enough to face the challenge of racing Max. “We believe that it would lead to great difficulties emotionally if Tsunoda realised, next to Max, that he couldn’t beat him,” added Marko. “He possibly couldn’t even get close and what if things weren’t going as he had imagined?”

Tsunoda is entering his final season with the Red Bull racing family and will be partnered by hopeful rookie Isack Hadjar who leapt ahead of Auyu Iwasa in the pecking order after the Red Bull junior had a failed season in Japanese Super Formula.

Now revealed, according to The Express, is the fact that Red Bull appear to not want a repeat wish of the season long speculation over one of their drivers and so have insisted that Lawson remain on average in qualifying within 0.3 seconds of Max Verstappen. This proved to be Checo’s achilles heel this season where he qualified on average in P9.33 whereas Max in a difficult year managed an average starting grid slot of 3.94.

Should Lawson fail in this regard, it is not clear yet how Red Bull would handle the matter, but given the utter lack of experience that Isack Hadjar brings to the table, there may be one final chance for Tsunoda to realise his F1 dream alongside Max Verstappen.

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F1 boss criticises FIA “downside” in thrilling F1 season

With 2025 around the corner, the thrills of the 2024 Formula one campaign are beginning to fade as anticipation builds for the new style project 75 car launch in seven weeks time. To celebrate 75 years of Formula One, this year the teams will abandon their individual car style car launches as they come together for one huge extravaganza at the O2 arena in London on Feb 18th.

Yet before the glitz and glitter of another year in formula One land begins, there is time for reflection on the year that was. On the whole Formula One in 2024 was as exciting as back in 2021, when the drivers’ title was decided on the last lap of the last race of the year.

Seven different drivers won multiple Grand Prix this year, something never before seen in the annuls of F1 history. The title race almost exploded into a titanic battle, but mistakes from McLaren meant Lando Norris was never really close enough to Verstappen to have him worried…. READ MORE