Anthony Davidson says it will not surprise him at all if Red Bull replace Sergio Perez with Kiwi whizz-kid Liam Lawson for 2025, especially if they lose the Constructors’ title.
Perez heads into his home grand prix this weekend trailing team mate Max Verstappen by 204 points and without a podium finish since the Chinese GP in April – 14 races ago.
Sergio Perez out, Liam Lawson in at Red Bull?
The Mexican’s slump in form very well could cost Red Bull the Constructors’ Championship and, despite signing a new two-year contract as recently as June, his future is in serious doubt.
In Austin last weekend Lawson, 22, stunned even his own engineer by starting 19th on the grid and finishing ninth – five places ahead of RB team mate Yuki Tsunoda, who qualified 11th.
Davidson told PlanetF1.com: “When you look at the job Liam Lawson is doing and the void between Verstappen and Perez at the moment, seeing Lawson in the second seat in Red Bull [next year] would not surprise me in the slightest right now.
“From what we’ve seen so far from Lawson, I think he’s done a really solid job. In Austin he got better the whole weekend.
“I was listening to the entire race on team radio and his engineer, you could tell, was becoming more and more impressed with the job he was doing.
“It started off with advice as to how to save the tyres, all the usual stuff. And then talking about pit stop windows. They were clearly on a one-stop strategy, whereas Yuki Tsunoda, his team mate, went onto a two-stop, I would say the more traditional strategy for this race and particularly for that team.
“There was then a moment in the race where his engineer.. you could almost hear the disbelief and excitement, the fact he was lapping four-tenths a lap faster than Yuki despite being on older tyres, Yuki having already stopped.
“A flabbergasted Tsunoda afterwards, when he saw the pitstops unfolding, asked, ’how come he’s ahead of me’? You could tell the team wanted to say ‘Because Lawson is just quicker’. They didn’t, of course, but that shows the job that he did.”
Verstappen and Perez head-to-head in F1 2024
???? F1 2024: Head-to-head race statistics between team-mates
???? F1 2024: Head-to-head qualifying record between team-mates
Davidson, a Formula One star turned Sky Sports F1 expert, admits he is surprised Red Bull have not been more ruthless in grasping the nettle regarding Perez’s loss of form.
“I think if they lose the Constructors’ Championship it will more than raise a few alarm bells in Red Bull,” he said. “Max is streets ahead of his team mate. It’s like they are driving for two different teams.”
Verstappen holds a 57-point lead over Lando Norris with five races to go and, despite being without a win since Barcelona, Davidson expects him to hold on for a fourth consecutive Drivers’ Championship.
“It’s going to be very difficult for Max to be caught now,” he said. “I think the wind was taken out of Lando’s sails a little bit in Austin. It was a very difficult task anyway and Lando and McLaren needed to be perfect.
“That was quite a damaging race I think for Lando in terms of points. I expected McLaren to be quicker, to be the car to beat.
“I still think they will win the Constructors’ Championship, because [Oscar] Piastri is really helping the team to haul in the points every race. I think that’s more certain for McLaren than Lando bridging the gap to Max.”
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