Liam Lawson’s F1 replacement confirmed as Red Bull talent profits from Sergio Perez exit

Liam Lawson was promoted to Red Bull’s 2025 driver line-up on Thursday following Sergio Perez’s departure, leaving a free seat at their sister team, Racing Bulls

Red Bull have confirmed that rising star Isack Hadjar will replace Liam Lawson and drive for their sister team in 2025.

Hadjar, 20, has moved up the Red Bull ladder following their decision to promote Lawson in the wake of Sergio Perez’s departure. The vastly experienced Perez agreed to part ways with the main team earlier this week, having endured a difficult fourth season as Max Verstappen’s team-mate.

Kiwi driver Lawson will partner Verstappen instead, leaving a vacancy at his former team, Visa Cash App RB, soon to be rebranded as ‘Racing Bulls’. Hadjar, who drove for Red Bull in Formula 2 last season, losing the championship after dramatically stalling at the start of the final race, has now been given the gig and will be team-mates with Yuki Tsunoda for the 2025 campaign.

The French-Algerian driver becomes the 19th man to be promoted to Formula 1 from the Red Bull Junior Program, following in the footsteps of Max Verstappen, Sebastian Vettel and Daniel Ricciardo. “I’m very excited to step into my new role at VCARB, this is huge for myself, my family and all the people who have believed in me from the beginning,” Hadjar said.

“The journey from karting through the ranks in single-seaters, to now being in Formula One is the moment I’ve been working towards my whole life, it is the dream. I feel like I’m stepping into a whole new universe, driving a much faster car and racing with the best drivers in the world.

“It’ll be a huge learning curve, but I’m ready to work hard and do the best I can for the team. I look forward to working with and learning from Yuki, I’ve always looked up to him, he went through the Red Bull Junior Program, like myself, and we’ve shared a similar path to F1. He’s very experienced and will be good to learn from.”

Japanese driver Tsunoda was in contention for the main Red Bull seat before Christian Horner and Co. decided to promote Lawson, who’s only driven in 11 grands prix compared to Tsunoda’s 90 across four seasons. Explaining the team’s decision to ESPN, Horner said: “It was very, very tight between the two of them.

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“I mean, Yuki is a very fast driver. He’s got three or four seasons of experience now. He did a very good job in the tyre test for us in Abu Dhabi where the engineers were impressed with how he performed. With Liam, when you look and go into the analytics of his race, pace was slightly better in the races that he did.

“His qualifying pace was very tight with Yuki, and you’ve got to assume that the potential with Liam having only done 11 grand prix, is he’s only going to get better and stronger. He’s shown real mental resilience and toughness.

“A couple of things have stood out with me with Liam – how versatile he is. You put him into a situation, he gets on with it. If you remember his debut in Zandvoort after Daniel broke his fingers, he was racing against Max on his out lap.

“He’s got that kind of gritty racer mentality. He did a year in the DTM where he adjusted to driving a Ferrari GT car incredibly quickly alongside Alex Albon and generally had the upper hand. And again, his racecraft has been really one of his key strengths. So he’s not afraid to go wheel-to-wheel and even rub wheels where necessary. So I think he’s going to do a great job for us.”