The Formula 1 grid for 2025 is beginning to take shape with half of the seats now filled for next season.
Nico Hulkenberg was the latest driver to put pen to paper next year and the second driver after Lewis Hamilton to switch teams, with a long-awaited return to Sauber on the horizon.
Speaking to Speedcafe, Visa Cash App RB CEO Peter Bayer has been talking about the driver market.
Bayer is in a unique position in the paddock given he runs the sister team in the Red Bull group.
It means that unlike say Bruno Famin at Alpine or Zak Brown at McLaren, he doesn’t have complete control over who races for him in Formula 1.
For example, Christian Horner had a big say in the return of Daniel Ricciardo last year after Nyck de Vries’s slow start to 2023.
However, Bayer does have a number one option to bring onto the grid sooner rather than later and that’s Liam Lawson.
The 22-year-old Kiwi starred during his five-race cameo for AlphaTauri last season.
It feels like an inevitability that he’ll be back on the grid in 2025 or maybe even sooner…
Peter Bayer says Liam Lawson is ‘number one’ candidate for the RB seat
The situation in the Red Bull camp is complicated, to say the least, and that’s before you consider Adrian Newey’s potential exit.
The only driver who should be guaranteed to be on the grid in Red Bull overalls next year is Max Verstappen.
His contract expires at the end of 2028, however, he’s subject to a huge contract offer from Mercedes who sense an opportunity to steal him away from the team.
Verstappen’s teammate Sergio Perez only has a contract until the end of the season and he’s under pressure from Carlos Sainz who becomes a free agent ahead of the 2025 season.
The Mexican has done very well so far this year but a new contract doesn’t appear to be on the table yet.
In the RB team, both Daniel Ricciardo and Yuki Tsunoda only have a one-year contract and are enjoying very different seasons so far.
If Bayer wants to replace either Ricciardo or Tsunoda, then Liam Lawson is the number one candidate.
Ricciardo has already had to survive claims he would be gone before this weekend’s Miami Grand Prix, with Lawson’s management forced to deny that a switch was about to take place.
Uncertainty reigns at Red Bull and RB this season
Talking about the chances of Lawson being on the grid, Bayer said: “It’s very early days [to consider a 2025 seat]. It depends a bit on how the global market is developing.
“If there is change in our team, there’s a big likely vote for Liam to be the one.
“You don’t know how things are going at Red Bull.
“And when was it, when Fernando changed to Aston Martin? [It was] Like a game of chess, which was like simultaneous chess.
“Potentially could happen this year, I guess. But he’s our reserve driver, we clearly said that he is our number one candidate for a seat, if there is a seat.”
Lawson will be glad that he’s the number one choice for Bayer should he or Red Bull want to make a change.
However, until he’s actually in the car, he’ll be patiently waiting on the pit wall looking over Ricciardo and Tsunoda’s shoulder every weekend.
If they decide to stick with their current lineup for 2025, then all of a sudden the rest of the grid will be on high alert with a top driver suddenly on the market.
The post ‘Could happen this year’: F1 CEO says 22-year-old is now ‘number one candidate’ to replace one of his drivers appeared first on F1 Oversteer.
