Lawson in driving seat

Liaw Lawson could be in a full-time Formula One seat as soon as May after Red Bull issued a warning to Daniel Ricciardo, who drives for its subsidiary team.

The NZ Herald understands Ricciardo has been given an ultimatum by Red Bull’s head of driver development, Helmut Marko, who is known to admire the Kiwi contender. 

Should Ricciardo fail to improve over the next two grand prix in Japan and China, Red Bull may perform a swap that sees Lawson installed in the Racing Bulls seat for Miami and remain with the team for the rest of the season.

In addition, Lawson is increasingly being seen – externally and internally with the team – as Red Bull’s best option to partner Max Verstappen when team-mate Sergio Perez’s contract expires at season’s end.

Lawson impressed in F1 last year when Ricciardo was out injured but was overlooked by Red Bull’s bosses for one of two seats at Racing Bulls, formerly AlphaTauri, as the junior team opted to retain the Australian and Japan’s Yuki Tsunoda.

Instead, Lawson has continued as Red Bull’s reserve driver, a role he has held for two years for both F1 teams.

However, after an indifferent start to the season, pressure is mounting on Ricciardo to keep his seat. Tsunoda’s position is understood to be safe, given his links to Honda, Red Bull’s engine supplier until the end of 2025.

Perez is also well-positioned to stay with Red Bull and is second in the driver’s championship behind Verstappen.

After this season’s first three races, Ricciardo was yet to score a single point. He was out-qualified by Tsunoda in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Australia.

After Ricciardo suffered a broken hand at the 2023 Dutch Grand Prix, Lawson went from strength to strength in five races with what was AlphaTauri at the time.

In Singapore, the Kiwi knocked Verstappen out of qualifying before finishing ninth, which was the team’s best result of the season at the time.