Danny Herbert

Following his unexpected cameo in place of an injured Daniel Ricciardo last season, Liam Lawson is back in a (sort of) full-time seat at RB.

This time, he has a definitive six Grands Prix to prove himself ready to take over from Sergio Perez in Red Bull’s main team for next season – this is what is widely expected to be Helmut Marko’s big masterplan!

It seems that Ricciardo was kept onboard at Red Bull Racing a little too long but with F1’s calendar now made up of a whopping 24 race weekends, there’s still six of those weekends to go and we’re already in mid-October.

Lawson, therefore, has time to prove himself as long as he hits the ground running right from the get-go. The New Zealander will of course be looking ahead of him at Perez’s performances just as much as his own in the next few rounds, as the public spotlight will be well-and-truly focused on this ‘battle’ to be Max Verstappen’s next teammate.

Yuki Tsunoda doesn’t appear to be in the mix for that seat at all, with Christian Horner reportedly not too keen on the Japanese driver stepping up, who also is thought to be in talks with other midfield teams.

Perez does have a chance if he performs well up against Verstappen between now and the end of the season – after all, Red Bull have been happy to keep him this long and his performances haven’t recently taken a noticeable sharp decline.

However, there are growing frustrations that Perez’s frequent lack of outright pace over a weekend will not be tenable for much longer with growing threats from much younger drivers in the Red Bull system. The likes of Isack Hadjar and Arvid Lindblad soon to be waiting in the wings.

The rumours of the Mexican’s imminent retirement announcement to come around his home Grand Prix weekend seem to be unfounded and have been quashed by Perez himself on his own Twitter profile. But stranger things have happened in the world of Formula 1.

Nevertheless, his seat for 2025 is certainly not a guarantee, and if anything, even less guaranteed than the incumbent Lawson’s seat in the Red Bull family.

For Lawson, we can be pretty sure he has a guaranteed seat alongside Tsunoda at RB next season, but it’s whether he can jump his way up into the Red Bull garage next season that’s the most intriguing question.

There’s little doubt in the paddock leading up to the United States Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas that there’s a fair amount of pressure lying on the shoulders of the 22-year-old Lawson. Easily the most important six race weekends of his career are coming up between now and Christmas.

Yet, right now he seems to be taking it all in his stride. Big decisions ahead then for the management down at Red Bull heading into the conclusion of the 2024 season.