Marko reveals why Tsunoda was overlooked despite his strong year with VCARB
After Red Bull finalized their driver line-ups at both their teams, the company's motorsport advisor Dr Helmut Marko has revealed why the team elected to promote Liam Lawson to drive alongside four-time F1 champion Max Verstappen.
After the season-closing Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Red Bull announced that Sergio Perez would leave the team following the current season despite his existing contract. The Milton Keynes-based oufit then confirmed that Liam Lawson will partner four-time F1 world champion Max Verstappen in 2025 F1 season.
The New Zealand native joined the Red Bull Junior Programme in 2019 and after multiple junior formula successes made his Formula One debut with Scuderia AlphaTauri at the 2023 Dutch Grand Prix, in place of the injured Daniel Ricciardo.
He scored his first championship points in just his second outing at the Singapore GP and completed five races in all for the team. After taking up his Reserve Driver role with both teams at the start of 2024, Lawson returned to Grand Prix racing with Visa Cash App Racing Bulls with a points-scoring finish at this year’s United States Grand Prix.
While Tsunoda made his F1 debut with Red Bull's Faenza-based outfit four years ago, the company elected to promote Lawson into its senior team despite his short spell in F1.
Red Bull motorsport advisor Dr Helmut Marko outlined the key reasons behind choosing Lawson to partner with Max Verstappen at Red Bull, reckoning that the company believes the Kiwi has more potentioanl to unlock in the near future.
"The engineers presented comparative figures, which we used as the basis for the decision. In principle it was a luxury problem, both would have deserved the promotion.
“But Lawson may have more room for improvement in the future. It was his mental strength in particular that tipped the scales in the end.”
Marko has reveals that he informed Tsunoda about Red Bull's decision via a phone call, reasoning that the Racing Bulls driver travelled to Japan after the season-closing race.
“He’s in Japan at the moment and I spoke to him on the phone. He was relatively relaxed about the news. I told him that he should continue to step on the gas with the Racing Bulls and then we’ll see. He reacted positively," Marko is quoted as saying by F1-Insider.com.
