Red Bull Racing ended the Formula One 2024 season somewhat of a laughing stock in the paddock. The grim faced repeated backing of their driver Sergio Perez had seen the team relegated to just the third best constructor behind Ferrari and winners McLaren.
Perez scored a pitiful 21 points across the final ten race weekends of the year, leaving no doubt when the shareholders and team management sat down post season, the Mexican would be on his way out.
In a twist that a number of veteran F1 observers failed to predict, it was in fact Liam Lawson who was given the chance alongside Max for the start of this year, despite having been out qualified 6-0 by Tsunoda since his return replacing the struggling Daniel Ricciardo. The Japanese driver also scored double the points of his New Zealand team mate during that time, yet Dr. Helmut Marko explained he didn’t believe Yuki had the mental strength to race alongside Max.
The journey of Sainz from Ferrari to Williams
One of the mysteries of 2024 was the long running saga of which team wold Carlos Sainz finally settle upon after being ousted by Ferrari’s decision to recruit Lewis Hamilton. With the exception of Aston Martin and McLaren, the Spaniard spoke with the rest of the field before finally deciding against the works owned outfits of Audi and Alpine for the independent Williams F1 team.
Mercedes appeared a strong option for both Sainz and Toto Wolff, given the team’s original plan for rising academy star Kimi Antonelli was to place him with a smaller team. This had been the route George Russell had taken from the Mercedes’ academy, although he was forced to spend three seasons with Williams before getting his break alongside Lewis Hamilton.
Paddock insiders have suggested that Sainz was open to a move to the Brackley based team, but his demands for a two year contract meant the negotiations never really got off the ground.
Then of course there was Red Bull Racing in crisis, with their Sergio Perez predicament and no real solution to replacing the experienced buy out of form Mexican. Red Bull have struggled since the departure of Daniel Ricciardo in 2019 to fid a driver capable of racing alongside quadruple world champion Max Verstappen.
Perez solved lack of junior driver talent problem
Both Alex Albon and Pierre Gasly came and went with little success, though their tenure alongside Max was prior to him winning his first F1 drivers’ title. So having failed twice in their recruitment, the Red Bull management decided upon the solid and reliable Sergio Perez to sit on the opposite side of the garage to Max.
Yet even in their first season together in 2021, it was obvious there were better matched duo’s on the F1 grid. Max Verstappen beat Lewis Hamilton to the drivers’ championship, but Perez in his first season with the team failed to ensure they claimed the constructors’ title too.
Valtteri Bottas clearly delivered better performances as the number two driver at Mercedes, claiming 25 points in the final two Grand Prix weekends of the year, while Checo failed to score.
The case for Carlos Sainz was stronger for Red Bull than Mercedes, given there was no obvious replacement for Verstappen coming through the team’s junior programme ranks. Yet Dr. Marko has been grumbling for quite some time, that the junior drivers in the Red Bull young driver programme are not getting their chance in the big boy F1 team.
Sainz and Verstappen fathers dispute
Further, the F1 media trailed endless tales of how when Verstappen and Sainz raced together at Toro Rosso in 2015, their larger than life fathers were regularly at each others throats. With Red Bull having already experienced an internal power struggle at the start of the season, clearly harmony was significant critter to be ticked off, when out came to managing their star driver Max Verstappen.
Having plumbed for Liam Lawson as Checo’s replacement, the Red Bull owned teams have a season to sort out their driver priorities. Their next superstar driver has no international single seater experience as yet and is set to compete in F2 this year and as was Verstappen, Arvid Lindbled – if he delivers – may find himself fast tracked next year into Formula One.
Having announced the promotion of Liam Lawson to Red Bull and F2 runner up in 2024 Isack Hadjar to the Racing Bulls, Christian Horner was questioned over what ay happen were the expected results not to come. Could the Red Bull team revert to placing an experienced driver like Sainz alongside Verstappen, should things with the juniors not work out.
“Carlos is a great driver, and options still remain open with him in the future,” Horner told assembled media. “He was considered, and in many respects, you’d say there was a real logic [to signing] Carlos, but we made the choice to look internally and put belief in the junior programme.
Red Bull to try academy route once more
“That attracts more juniors because they see a pathway to Formula 1, and if we’d gone outside the programme, that is not sending the right message, because there is so much competition now for young drivers, even at the age of 13 or 14 between the teams.
“That is healthy because it is investing in young talent, but by joining the Red Bull programme, you see a clear pathway that if you deliver, pretty much guarantees you’ll get to Formula 1.
“We would always prefer to give the opportunity to the progression of the junior programme.”
Whether Lawson, Tsunoda or Hadjar can succeed where the likes of Kvyat, Gasly and Albon failed is to be seen, yet Red Bull require a long term solution to their number two driver difficulties and few junior drivers make it to F1 and then rise to the top. Should the gulf between Max and his team mates continue, then despite their protestations about their junior programme being a ladder to F1, the team will eventually bring in the best option available.
Verstappen debunks SHOCKING rumour
Horner outlines Lawson role with a warning
The Red Bull debacle over its driver lineup is for now put to bed. Having battled through there final ten race weekends of the year to claim just 21 points, Sergio Perez has been put out of his misery, yet the decision taken over whom should replace the Mexican driver have not received universal approval from F1 observers.
Liam Lawson has had an unusual start to his F1 career, standing in for the injured Daniel Ricciardo forgive Grand Prix back in 2023. Many paddock folk believed the New Zealander had in fact done enough for a full time seat in 2024, but Ricciardo just got the nod potentially because his run in the RB team had been disrupted by a broken hand.
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