Pit TalkAfter a week of speculation, Red Bull has confirmed Daniel Ricciardo has raced in his last grand prix, with Liam Lawson set to take the wheel from the next race in Austin. Where did it go wrong for the Aussie's comeback, and was he dealt with too harshly in the end?
Hello, and welcome to Pit Talk, a Fox Sports and Speed Cafe Formula one podcast. On today's special episode, Daniel Ricardo retires from Formula One, with Liam Lawson set to replace him from the next race in the United States. Why Dames, Michael Lomonato, motorsport writer for Fox Sports Australia. It's great to have your company and the company of my co host from Speed Cafe. I'd tell you what I really think of him, but you'll have to wait around a week for me to publish it. In a graphic on my social media pages. At one forty five am, it's Matt Cosh.
But that equates to four forty five pm in Europe, so it's you know, it's peak time for Formula One on Thursday.
It's for four forty five pm in UK on Thursday, after five o'clock in Europe. A lot of people are knocked off by then.
What are you trying to suggest here, Michael, that it was trying to bury the story.
On the eve of Grand Final Friday in Victoria. You're telling me that wasn't a deliver deliver I.
Am. I'm not an AFL follower, so makes no difference to me to tell you what. I'm a massive cycling fan. I'm only up to stage fourteen of the Tour de France.
I got to work harder. It got a second mid season break for you.
Now for you to do that, I know. I bumped into Mark Cavendish and as Singapore paddock and I congratulated him on his stage. Windn't thinking it only happened a week or so before. It was like three months ago, the greatest cyclist in the Tour de France's history. And I've got well done on your recent win, mate, Yeah it was months ago, dude, Get over.
He probably thinks that that to you was just such a meaningful victory that had stuck with you for months, that he was really happy to know that he's left such an impression on you.
Tell you what. I've interviewed countless Formula one World champions and greats of mad sport. But I went wobbly need when I got a selfie with Mike Cami's the only selfie I've ever got in the Formula one paddock.
Just thinking about your knees if you were going up like a hill climb stage, my niece would be wobbly too.
My niece has given out thinking about going up here downhill.
I'm great, yes, yes, bike or no bike.
I do it better on a bike. I've tried, I have tried in my life without a bike, and it's it's painful riding a bike at the best of times. It's more painful when you're riding a bike without the bike.
It's difficult to look. We should probably move on, Matt. This is a good conversation for a mid season break, but not for the week we've just had, because it has been a momentous stay in Australian motorsport. Because a week long rumor has been confirmed. After two hundred and fifty seven race starts, eight Grand Prix wins, thirty two podiums, Daniel Ricardo has retired from FOURMULA one following Red Bulls decision to drop him from the team for the rest of the season in favor of reserve driver Liam Lawson. Matt. The announcement was made remarkably, as I've alluded to by a Red Bulls RB's social media accounts, at one forty five am Eastern time in Australia, that's called at midnight in perse. Liam Lawson was annowned separately in a short press release at two am or four am in New Zealand primetime. We'll talk about Liam a little bit later on Matt because I think he does deserve his own conversation. We should be excited to welcome a kind of new face, I guess to the grid, considering he's already had a little bit of a debut last year. But let's start with Daniel. I've got some opinions about how this is unfolded, but I'm happy for you to start off. It's been a pretty wild week. We've alluded to some of this already in the podcast, which did obviously following Singapore Grand Prix. Just tell me about your thoughts about how this career has ended so suddenly and quite quietly, I think, considering how loudly he lit up fourma one.
I think you've been very generous in your introduction to this saying that Daniel Riccardo has retired. Daniel hasn't retired. Daniel was retired. You know. They put him out to pasture with all the great race horses. He didn't have a choice in the matter, really, and that's a little bit sad, but I guess it's also a product of being in the situation. He put himself in here, He willingly walked into this. Midway through last year, he picked up the baton from Nick Deries, who suffered exactly the same fate. Countless other Red Bull drivers have had this happened to them as well, so it's not unprecedented. It's sort of perfectly normal if you're going to lose your drive mid season that this is the way it's handled. So yeah, not a great The difference here being that most drivers who lose their drive midyear haven't got two hundred and fifty seven grand priests starts their name, eight wins and thirty two podiums off the top of my head, so Daniel does deserve a little bit of respect for that. He's also just a likable guy. So there's just that that there's that human element that feels missing. I think that's what it is. We all see the emotion in Singapore. We can all relate to that because okay, none of us, very few of us if you are well done for being a Formula one driver, but none of us are Formula one drivers. So we can't put ourselves and empathize directly with what he's experiencing. We can all relate to something that we've worked hard for or dreamt of being taken away and taken away against our will, war or through circumstances that beyond our control. So there's a very human element to it. And then to not have that human closure to read it on social media or speak fa dot com if you're five minutes earlier.
That is prime time.
I'll tell you why it was interesting. It was an interesting little twenty five minutes or so with Liam Liam Lawson stuff coming through. But to not have that human closure. Even at McLaren there was that little there's that video of Daniel, that heartreaching video of Daniel there that gave us that closure. In this instance, there's a short statement. We assume it's Daniel that's written it. We don't know. There was a statements from Laura Meckiers. There's been some social media posts from Christian Horner. It's just there's not this human touche. Social media is all arms length, you know, we can hide behind the keyboard there and that sort. I think it's missing. And that's why I think we feel a little bit short changed because what we saw was so human, so laid bare for us. Did I think we all feel a little bit sorry and a little bit hard done by, so we're sort of empathizing and projecting on behalf of Daniel.
I'd find this whole thing almost unbelievable. Now we've sort of already talked a little bit about this in the previous podcast. I don't object to him being let go early because there are reasons. We'll get to some of those, expanded some of those a little bit later, but there are reasons to justify that. It's not pure performance, but it's performance against the bar he was said at the start of the year, which was to be so compelling that he was a shoe in to replace Surge of Perez, which he hasn't been. Totally fine. Liam Lawson clearly deserves a seat as well. We know that after last year. Totally fine. It's clear now that red Bull has made this decision before Singapore, even if it hasn't communicated it formerly to Daniel. We know that because by the time he got to Sunday night, he knew that he was not going to be in the car anymore. He knew in a way he didn't before the weekend. We're talking about naytime Grand Prim We've talked about the stats a case when the plenty lots of times seven of those wins came with Red Bull racing during I think. I think what we sometimes forget is a pretty fallow intertitle era for Red Bull, at a time where there was genuine thoughts that okay, maybe not that they would never win a championship again, but that it wasn't as close as it ended up being in twenty twenty one after they tied up with Honda. In that time, he comfortably made himself one of the biggest stars in the sport. As before Drive to Survive, mind you, he was one of the first Formula one drivers to really crack the United States, which is remarkable considering the sports history there before Drive to Survive. That show on Netflix then cemented him as for one of a better phrase and f one main character. He is one of the guys, and that he is separate from his later performances. But that's also fine because that's the way Formula one exists. Now. There is the on track and there is the off track, and they can be separate and they can both be relevant to how Formula one is consumed and White it's popular and White works. I just don't get how a social media post between races while Daniel sitting on his farm in Perth justifies that career. And while Red Bull's given a lot to Daniel, undoubtedly it gave him his Formula One chance. It brought him up through a couple of years of junior racing as well, and gave him his second chance in fact, and I think a lot of people didn't think he'd get one. He also gave a lot back to this brand, including those wins, his dedication to the reserve driver role at the start of last year. Okay, he just do a lot of press conferences and curse sponsor commitments and things like that, but always professional like, committed to it hard and likewise his second stint in the cockpit committed to that immensely. And okay him not personally, but his brand played a massive role in bringing to enormous sponsors to both teams in visa and cash app. I know there's no room for sentiment in Formula One like its performance at the end of the day, as I said already, but this is just such a massive own goal for the Red Bull organation the way this has been handled, And if I were Formula one. I'd be pretty disappointed by this side, because it's not any f one's hands at the end of the day. But you've seen again, and I use the phrase, a main character ushered off stage quietly, and fans are going to tune in in Austin and it's gonna be a different driver there. It's kind of like if you're watching your favorite soap and suddenly favorite characters played by a different actor and it's not acknowledged. I just think the whole thing has come across and I know there will be reasons for it, and there'll be justifications for it, but it's come across as so shambolic.
Yeah, I take your point. It is probably not the way that in an ideal world anyone would handle. I don't know how much choice Red Bull really had in the matter. I wonder how many other factors there were just tying them to this course of action. I believe Daniel knew going into Singapore that he was done. There was an opportunity for him maybe to not be done that weekend. But Liam Lawson was on New Zeland Radio and the conversation that he had there heavily suggested that Daniel knew going into the weekend, what the outcome of the weekend was.
He wasn't told. This is a difference, I think, because I think there is a difference because I think you're right, Like there's this idea of the writing being on the wall, but that's different to the writing being on the former piece of paper that lets you put into motion essentially what would have been a retirement plan.
Yeah. Yeah, not being able to acknowledge it is tough, you know, at least going into abud W twenty two with McLaren, you know, they acknowledged it. They celebrated, They had those the kooky cowboy hats, which is actually sitting up on my bookshelf here. There was just there was this ability for the team to acknowledge and celebrate, even though it wasn't necessarily happy relationship or marriage for those two seasons. Daniel deserved something because of the role he's played in the sport. I accept that. But at the same time, Daniels had that he threw himself into the fire midway through last year. He didn't have to come back. This was always a possibility he was you know, he went into this knowing that he may not go out on his terms and he accepted that risk. So to me, while I see your point and I agree that red Bull probably ideally would have handled this differently, Daniel had a second opportunity that most drivers will never get. He had a first opportunity most rubles, and let's be honest, but to have a second bite at that, you know, he can't be too upset because he experienced something that very few people who make it have, very few people r on full stop. But his one races, he's stood on podiums, he's taken faster laps Singapore, He's done so much more than could realistically ever be hoped for that he didn't get this one thing. Yeah, he can be upset and sad at it, but I don't think can be overwhelmed by it because he's already had it ended at McLaren. So, yeah, I don't like the way it was handled either, but I don't think it bothers me as much as it bothers you.
Yeah, Look, it's the broad picture is You're right, you know, will zoom out of this in a year or two and it's fine, Like no one's going to remember the same way that most people won't remember. How Sebastian Vidal was farewelled because you'll remember his sports.
Champions Michael Schumacher. Yeah, exactly about Michael Schumer. He was sacked by Ferrari, benched in favor of Kimmy Reichenan. So this isn't There are no sacred cows in Formula one. It doesn't matter who you are.
I look and I take that point, and I agree with it, but I just think that it's almost less even about him, and it is about the sport more generally about the fans of the sport the end of the day. That's the reason we're here, that we're able to continue to write about the sport, to do this podcast. The reason that Formula one is such a big deal, the reason we talk about these sponsors and these teams, how they're also valuable, is that because the sport is popular at the moment, it's popular because the drivers are characters. It's sort of It's something I've been sort of thinking about in the last few days, comparing it to Moto GP, and it is not the Moto GP version of Pit Talk, but they are sharing an owner now or they probably will anyway in Liberty Media, and I was sort of thinking about that. I know it's pending European that's a different story, different story, different podcasts, different podcast but they've done two things. Comparing the two sports. Formula one has always been quite good at telling stories, but it's also always been quite bad at giving drivers their individuality, and Moto gp' has always been really opposite. It's really loved having these individual drivers with these really identifiable brands. You know, just as one relatively low level example, Moto GP got onto the rider numbers thing way before Formula One let drivers have their own numbers, and those became the brands or the rights of that kind of thing. Motor GP is the opposite. Like I say, it's not never been that good at telling the story, but it's always really good at the rider thing. And I think this is a really big example of Formula One still having that in its heart, is that it's great at telling the narrative. Like there's this great narrative about this guy from Australia one of those races, really exciting, but then he just becomes part of the machine at the end of the day. And you know, we say it all the time, and we say it for good reason. You know, when we talk about team orders and things that these drivers they're just employees of the teams, And of course that's correct, but that's not the mystique of sport, like forming on is built on your average fan doesn't want to know that old maid is a salary guy who's got a three year contract and maybe it'll be up. Like that's just not that doesn't sell the sport in an exciting way. And so while it's perfect, you know, obviously it was perfectly by the book, Ricardo was dismissed because I'm sure there were contractual implications in light had to unfold this way. They can always be negotiated around if you know you're going to sack your driver, But nonetheless, that's just not what builds the sport. And I'm really surprised with Red Bull in particular because this was the brand to give it its full credit before Liberty Media arrived. Essentially was the F one marketing department, like Red Bull was what made F one grow in let's say, the decade before Liberty Media rocked up, because they were so good at this stuff, like this is what they did, and it's part of the reason why Riccardo was such a big start because he was one of the few stars out of team behind him, backing him, and that was such a big deal. And that's what I find almost most surprising about this, that it's Red Bull that has managed to badly handle this. You know, I'd expect this from half a dozen other teams, but from Red Bull. It's surprising. Like even I was talking to colleague of mine and he raised this, I hadn't really thought about it. Why wouldn't you give him Austin, Like Austin is the Ricardo race, so he's actually got quite a poor record in Austin, But it's you know, you would let him ride in and the horse in the paddock, you'd sell a couple of grand of those cowboy hats. Daniel Ricardo farewell probably finished, maybe finish, who knows, maybe finished into points. Probably wouldn't considering the state of that car. But nonetheless, and then he calls it a day, and then Lawson comes in. You have a great handover. You let him sort of retire again in inverted commas on his own terms, on his own terms, and also in inverted commas, that just seems like another a massive own goal. I think that's maybe what I find most surprising about all of this is that there were opportunities here to make this a kind of like a obviously not a win for everyone, because Daniel doesn't win out of this in any situation, but almost like a win win And this just doesn't cut it on any level.
It does if you take the sporting hat off and put the business hat on, because if you keep Daniel on, you keep paying Daniel, and if you accept that you are making the decision, then you just make the bloody decision. You don't prolong it, you don't protract it. I'm surprised he's lasted this long, if I'm perfect. As soon as the decision was made to retain so Joe Perez, Daniel was dead in the water. He didn't have a future with Red Bull Racing. Therefore, what was his purpose at RB. Therefore, you know he's the past. You need to now start looking at the future. And that's ultimately what this is all about. The reason Liam Lawson is coming in is to get that sixth race run towards the back end of the year. I will talk about Liam in a little bit, and I want to draw down on some of the nuance and the language of his announcement but if you make that decision, you just make it. So the Austin thing, I know, there was some suggestion that he might go on there and the assistance in the insistence of visa. There was some desire because Daniel is such a big brand in the United States and he does term the American Girl or the US Groan Prix is second home race, even though he's Australian and Italian. You know, I mean, we're going to start getting into Oscar Piastri home race territory here. But there was some desire to do that and that was a contributing factor in terms of not making the announcement in Singapore or ahead of Singapore and giving Daniel that send off. But I yeah, I guess I'm less a motive when it comes to this the you I'm more pragmatic in that if it doesn't stuck up. From a business perspective, Formula one is a business. It's a sport, yes, but it's a business. We're talking about teams are worth hundreds of million dollars. There's cost caps that need to be managed. You cut your losses. You know, there's an economic theory where your first loss is your least so you cut and run. It doesn't make sense to prolong that. What benefit do you get other than making a bloke feel good.
Yes again, I just sort of take that point. But it is a business in a sport. Like sport businesses are unique because they are not run they are run ultimately by the bottom line. We're contributing to the bottom line. There is a vibe, there is an appeal. If people don't like your sport you want to watch, they feel put off by it. That does affect the bottom line in a way that if people don't like your supermarket, they don't know. Certainly in Austraia they don't have much choice but to shop at your supermarket. So there's a bit of it. I think there's still a difference there. And yeah, I mean for red Bull, I'm just surprised of all the brands to do it. In another sense, tho, I'm not surprised. Maybe we should finish with this before we move to Liam that it's Red Bull because clearly influencing this decison. Okay, they're contractualize on all that kind of stuff, but there is also this specter of the team not really knowing it's still trying to handle or trying to work its way through what's been a difficult period for its driver lineups, right, and this has been part of it is that it's almost like they've realized it's been dawning on them over the last year or so as well, that they have this problem with the full driver lineup, the four car driver lineup. Ricardo was hopefully going to be the solution to it. Turned out he wasn't going to be, and that's put them in a little bit of trouble again. The background of that is, of course, this power dynamic, this power struggle between Christian Horner Helmut Marco, each wanting to put their own marks on the team and how it works. And we've talked about it a couple of times this year, Matt, haven't we how ARB was meant to be its own team, but actually Helmet Marker thinks it should go back to being a junior team and that seems to be where it is right now that Daniel Riccardo's been dismissed. That's sort of the context, isn't it, of the difficulty of all these decisions and puts a lot of I mean, it makes this decision in particular, I suppose quite a big one, because this sets the tone for the next a year or so of how this lineup's going to look. Without talking about Lemos and just yet, but I think that there's a lot that's behind the scenes that I guess is not immediately obvious, that's influenced this decision happening in the way it has.
This has got a tiny bit and only a tony bit to do with Daniel's performance. If Daniel got out there and blowing the doors off off Yukisnoda, he'd being the Red Bull and we wouldn't be having this conversation. The future will be set for at least a couple of years, or at least through to twenty six, in which case leaves in the RB and he's got experience and all that sort of stuff. But he didn't do that. So there is a portion of performance in there as well. There's politics, and in there you mentioned the power struggle between Marco and Horner, and it's even bigger than that. It goes up to the tie the Austrian side of Red Bull. There's another element here. I was speaking to someone who knows a little bit about this situation and I'm just going to quickly Google a name here to make sure I don't butcher it. But there are three people in the sort of power trumvirent of Red bull Driver decisions, and they're colloquially known as the Austrian Mafia. One of them is Helmet Marco. One of them is Thomas Uberung, who actually used to run Red Bulls motorsport program before Marco got involved in the early two thousands. He was actually responsible for running Christian Klean back in Formula whatever it was back in the late nineties. He was Dietricht Madership's right hand man. He's on the Horner side of the fence. Mark obviously is on the Marco side of these. And then the third player in that little posse is gerhard Berger. Now, without diving into too much, which side of the fence do you think gerhard Berger might fall on?
Well, that's interesting because I didn't like to bring personal relationships into this, but certainly I would let me flip it around. Is well, okay, hang on, I was thinking of Daniel Ocado's perspective here. If Daniel's on Christian side, Daniel is on Gearhard side, is Gearheard on Daniels side and therefore on Christian side.
That's the implication. Yeah, yeah, So it seems as of those sort of three, you've got two on one. I guess it's invariable that you're gonna end up with two on one side one on the other. But what's curious is that is that Marco and all of this has won out when when you wind the clock back to and I think this will lead us nicely into Liam Lawson when you wind the clock back to post the British Grand Prix last year, when Daniel was dropped into that seat, Daniel usurped Liam into that seat. Liam had the deal and Daniel basically took it off him. Well Daniel didn't take it off him. It was taken off of Liam and given to Daniel, and that was done by Christian Horner.
See that's sort of interesting in that context as well. And I guess we're getting into the weeds now something it happened to you ago. But of course Nick Davrees was a Marco pick, famously a Marco. I can probably call it an impulse pick with no disrespect to him, but it was after one race. I think that that classifies as impulsive. And then it was sort of his I guess almost reluctant acknowledgment that it had been wrong. It was the first time I've ever heard him admit to being wrong about a driver decision, or, more to the point, admitting that someone else had been right, that being Christian Horner, who wasn't a fan of Nick Devrees or not a fan of him jumping in at Alpha Tower as it was anyway, and then Horner's pick of Daniel Ricardo got in. We know it was time with that tie test all that kind of stuff. It's almost like they have to take this little wins turn by turn, isn't it. It's sort of a lot of interesting.
Was Daniel's return link to that tire test, cause we all hear about it.
Certainly the deal was signed, there wasn't it.
That's what the deal was signed. But the outcome was a decision was made over a single lap. No, I doubt that, because that's absolutely what it was. Yeah, right, So I think that's a little bit of a red herring. That's the story that's been spun to us. It's a nice little tale and a good example of why, but it's not the full story that It's interesting. That's a theme that runs all the way through this tale of ups and down. So Red Bull and Daniel Ricardo and Liam Lawson and everything else, we're getting little snippets. There's a whole lot more that we're not getting to sort of paint that full picture.
Well, let's talk about Liam Lawson now. There will be plenty of time to unpack more Daniel Ricardo as we go. I'm sure we can talk about him plenty lots of times. Had a long career, very successful career. But Liam Lawson is the coming man, isn't he. We should give him his due, and I want to start here. Actually the nip this in the bar, and we did talk about a little bit last week. But Matt, I've been a little bit disappointed to see online some people come out against Liam because of the way he's ended up replacing Ricardo. I think you said it pretty well last week actually, that he is totally removed from the decision making and the handling of this situation, just a driver who wants his chance. We shouldn't begrudge him that, and we should be able to celebrate his arrival quite separate from his from Ricardo's retirement. Rather, I guess the other half of that is that, and this surprised me a little bit as well, Matt. I know I keep talking about the human element of the sport, but you have to forgive me for that. I think it is important is that the side effect of this sort of funny way Red Bull's gone about this whole situation is that I was surprised that it didn't celebrate him more in its announcement. It was a pretty brief press release, contained only quotes from team rerins Laura Mecke's. In fact, Lauren's quotes were about Liam were shorter than it was about Daniel, and they weren't even that long to begin with. It's almost like the whole situations made the team a little bit too afraid to go too big on what should be quite an exciting announcement about a driver who could be its long term future.
It's just a very good point, and Liam is going to be painted as a pantomine villain by a lot of people here. That's massively unfair. To reiterate what I've said on the regular Pot earlier in the week. Liam is not to blame here. Daniel had his career in his own hands, and the reasons we've just discussed it didn't work. Part of those performance, part of that is politics, but none of that is Lim's doing. Liam is just you know, it could be Liam. It could be I mean, hell, it could be Franco colo Pinto in that position. It could be any one of those young guys desperate for a chance, just as Daniel once was. Let's not forget Daniel came in midway through the twenty eleven season at HRT. He replaced was Cartin or wasn't carth Kaine that he replaced.
Was because then didn't cart Kin come back for the Indian Grand Prix, but he then replaced Was it Lutsi in the other car at the time?
Quite possibly? I think you're right.
I think there are quite a few.
Anyway, they were squeezing every penny because they didn't have too many of them. But that's my point. In that instance, Daniel is blameless for whatever driver it was losing their drive, just as in this case, Lim is is blameless for Daniel losing his drive. And to Lim's credit, he's come out and addressed that elephant again on the in the interview in New Zealand's Radio, he said, you know, he's got a huge amount of respect for how he being Daniel Ricardo dealt with everything, because I really can't imagine what that was like. You know, he's a lot more public, a lot more famous than what Liam is, even though Liam had a little taste of that last year with you know, with the cameo. Daniel's just he's got so much respect for Daniel, and that's what I liked to hear. Conversely, Daniel's got a lot of respect for Lim. Daniel's been hiding nothing, He's been helping Liam all the way through. Daniel has said, there's always been in his hands and he holds no ill feeling or grudges or whatever against Lim. So let's give me Liam is fair Jew's he's a young kid who's worked bloody hard to get there. Yes, he's had some lucky breaks along the way. He's had some fortune courtesy of misfortune for others, but that's life. I'm sure there are people, you know, if not yourself, who have benefited from the misfortune of others. So let's not dress it up as anything other than that. Really. But also, Lim's unlucky to be where he is because, as I said just before, he had a deal to be in that car a year ago and he had that deal pulled out from under him by Christian Horne giving it to Daniels. So he sat quietly on the sidelines, doing the right thing by the team, doing all the things that we've praised Daniel for doing, you know, saying the right things, doing the right things. Lim's done all of that, having basically had the contract pulled from him, and the same I understand happened again this year. So for Liam to agree to join I again not that he really had a choice but to agree to join RB because there was an option that Red Bull did exercise on the Sunday of the Azerbaijaga on Preyer, and by exercise, they basically needed to not do anything. The only way out of the contract for Red Bull at that point was to notify that they didn't intend to continue. They didn't do that. So the implication was Liam had a guaranteed race seat and it's a guaranteed race seat for twenty twenty four at RB if you read the press release.
Yeah, the twenty twenty four part is not I think the most interesting part to pick up on here because we can talk a little bit now about our expectations, not just of Liam's performance because I think we don't really even talk about that because we've seen what he's capable of already. That five race run okay, it was relatively short, but was a decent window into what we can expect from him, and he really hit the ground running last time, and this year he's got I guess, a little bit of a bigger run up because the expectation was building. He's been very much the dedicated reserve. He hasn't had a parallel racing series to compete in as well, so he's had well I don't know if we should continue to refer to it, but it's almost like the Oscar piastre build up of just focusing on being the reserve drive and then you get your shot sort of thing. So there's that element of it.
Maybe we should let's update that to the jack doing.
Yeah, yeah, yes, Well he's taken the reins. Now, maybe we can refer it from now on as the Leam Lawson method, because at least coming in the mid season it's a little bit more applicable than just coming in the following year. But it's pecifically according to the press release, the short press release twenty twenty four, which is the last six races of this year. Help Mark has already said expect an engine penalty for the first race in the United States, So good luck to you, Leam. But twenty twenty five is the big game here, isn't it. I mean, obviously he's not here to just race of six races. He doesn't want that. He wants to continue racing, and Andy Climactic wouldn't and certainly no one expects him to do such a bad job. He's not going to be around next year. I think that's just inconceivable. And Red Bull also really doesn't need another driver conundrum at the end of the year if it were to drop him suddenly. So I think that we can take it as read he's going to be around next year. But it certainly seems to me that this leaves doors open for him to, if he does a good enough job, be the guy who replaces Sergio Peritz. Because we've talked about this all year man or certainly for the last few months. He is losing the team to construct this championship. In fact, as of Azerbaijan, he has lost the team the lead in the Constructor's Championship. It seems pretty difficult from the winner back unless he has a really remarkable turn around the second half or last six races rather, and if it's only more competitive next year and he hasn't shown that he can turn that form sump around, what would be the point of keeping him, To go back to the whole reason we've dropped that the team's dropped Daniel. If you know he's not going to be the long term, what's the point in keeping him. There's a lot on the line. I get the sentence for Liam in this last six races, beyond just the prospect of maybe sticking at RB next year.
Liam's got a contract for twenty twenty five. I'll tell you that right now. I'm not speculating. I'm not hypothesizing. Liam has a contract for twenty twenty five. The announcement only mentioned twenty twenty four because that way the opportunity is there to place him either at RB for next year or Red Bull. You're not constrained either way. But there is a contract in place that Liam will be in a race seat for twenty twenty five. Otherwise, why would you agree he knocked back another contract to take this one. I mean not that again, not that he had a choice because Red Bull exercised that option. As soon as they did. That option was a guarantee strive for twenty twenty five. So Lim's on the grid next year. It's just a question of easy wearing blue or white overalls. That's the bigger question here. If Liam does well, the understanding is that Sergo Perris is already in breach of contract for next year. He hadn't scored enough points by the summer break. Red Bull, if they so chose, could part ways with him at the end of the season, and that's all within their rights to do that. Obviously, Lim's going to show something something, certainly something more than what Daniel did, clearly and more than what Yuki has done. But if he does that, we then start to see this grand plan taking shape, because getting rid of Daniel now a forged Red Bull an opportunity in two years time that it wouldn't have if it waits to the end of the year. If it waits at the end of the year, it has to put Limb at ourb next year. It can't put him at Red Bull. That's too great a risk, and we've seen that they're comparatively risk averse strangely by not putting Daniel there, so by having Leam in for the last six races. And this goes back to the point you know, why not give Daniel last, and well, you want to maximize your chance of assessing Liam. Give him the six races, see how he stacks up. You then have a really good opportunity to make an informed decision either of RB or Red Bull. If he goes to Red Bull, you've then got Isaac Hadja, who can goes straight into that. A partner Yuki Sonoda for a year. Yuki then goes off to probably Aston Martin with Honda. I mean, Yuki's only there because of Honda. Yuki is not there because of Yuki. Yuki's there because Red Bull need him there for Honda. And then in twenty twenty six you have an opportunity to promote probably are with Limbland the way things are going, but who knows. There's a couple of other drivers in the mix there and he seems to be the most likely winner. He go He's off a bar DC Driver of the Year and all sort of young Driver of the Year, all sorts of stuff. But again, if you wait until next year, you then go to twenty six and you're having Haja or limb Bland Limb Blab, both being rookies in that car. Conversely, had Jo is an insurance policy for Liam Lawson because let's say Liam goes up to Red Bull next year, Hadja comes into the RB, Hadya shines and Liam doesn't. Well, you pull the old Alex Albn Daniel Kveat trick and slop him around. That's what happened.
Was it was, But I just read more just the way Daniel Caveat was dell with is just you never want, you never want to be in the same sentence, I think with his handling at Red Bull, I just feel like that's cruel. It's yeah, you're you're absolutely right. I think that there. I mean, I'm not even convinced that Liam Lawson needs to have an absolutely outstanding last six races to get that trigger pulled, because he's dealing with the handicap of having only just started this season. Plus he'll be in his handicap of having an indie penalty first race of that kind of thing. Plus there are three sprints in the second half in his six races, which means there's way less practice time than usual, I think he only has to show decently to be convincing that he's capable of taking that stef But and that means probably even though you'd ideally like to see him beating UQ, but even if he just matches with him, I think that's still fairly impressive, considering the way he'll have come into the sport and the relatively little non competitive seat time he'll have available to him in these last six rounds, I think that would be compelling. Combined, of course, with all the other simulated stuff. They know, all the other elements are going to these decisions. It's never just the on track time. So you know, we already know that red Bull is fairly impressed with that sort of steeriness that he has when he's in the car, so I wouldn't be that surprised if his results look good and that's enough, particularly if Sergio Peis can't turn it around. If Paris suddenly pulls out six great last races, that might change things somewhat. But that's sort of interesting. But then it does, and maybe there's a question for later in the year, because we've already talked a little bit about all this driving sort of stuff. But it does. I think you sort of raised it there in one in one sense brings Red Bull back to the way it used to run these two teams, which I think is better than the conservative way it's been running it recently, which is you bring these young guys in, you give them a chance. You never know, you know. The strategy for them has always been like you just throw as many drivers at the wall, whichever one stick you put them in, and suddenly you might find your next great driver. Like that's the way they've done it, as opposed to the I guess more modern way that likes of Mercedes and Ferrari. They pick a couple of drivers, they groomed them to the top. They end up with one that's your George Russell or your Antonelli or whatever, and they get their debut like that.
That's been a lot of grooming done with Antonelli. Though in fairness, it's just.
Like no.
Swim.
Yes, his hair was already perfect when they arrived him. No groomy with five but you know, you raise Albonn, you raise Ghastly, even Kiviat to some extent, A though that was a bit of a weird situation. It was like almost the opposite. These are drivers that were badly burnt, quality drivers that were badly burnt by being rushed into Red Bull Racing, specifically alongside Max with Stafford, Liam Lawson will have had only by the end of the year eleven Grand Prix for av over two seasons in two separate, significantly separate stints, you know. And I say this specifically, and I've mentioned Gasling now one specifically because it should take nothing away from I think Lawson's potential and ability to say that that's a risk, because not only up agains Max with staff and he also, as has been made really clear this year, in a car that's can be a bit dodgy, sometimes can be a bit tough, even on Max, You've got to be confident. And I'm I'm just really interested to see how this plays out. I mean, I'd love to see laws and get his chance fired at the front. I'd love to see him succeed because it would be such a tremendous story. But that does raise the questions that were never really answered, ironically, questions that began being posed after Riccardo ever since Ricardo left Red Bull Racing about how they deal with that second seat it's great to give more drivers a chance. Have they fixed the problems that prevent them from shining?
But that's exactly the point of this, you know, it's it's clearing the log jam right now. You've got to get lim in there so you can get Eyazac in there so you can get the next lot in below them or behind them. You know, we don't know at this point is Liam the next Max? Is Liam a suitable replacement? I don't know, but unless you try, you're never going to find out. Similarly, if you don't give Isaac a chance Isaac Hadja, you're never going to know similarly with the guy behind him. So you have to get this ball rolling. You know, yes, Red Bull has burnt all those drivers, and you go back, you know, down the line and from Christian Clean onwards. There is there is a long, long list of drivers who've raced the Red Bull and for whatever reason haven't made it where perhaps the circumstances were different. Would even drivers that didn't get to Formula one that perhaps might have been a different environment or a different program or at a different time. So I totally get why they're doing it. They have to take this risk. It's calculated, but the odds are in their favor that if they keep churning through drivers, you know they've they found a Sebastian Vettel, they found Daniel Ricardo, they found makes us. They found two generational, arguably talents, a one guy who in different scenario probably could have been a world champion himself. I think the great travesty of Daniel Riccardo is that his best years were in an era that was dominated by Mercedes and then happened to overlap with the rise of a generational talent, a guy that will go down as one of the greats and Formula one. Change one, if not two of those variables and you have a very very different career. But it goes to show that red Bull, for all its speculation, it does get it right. So let's hope that Liam is one of those that it gets right more than it gets wrong, because it is a hell of a story. He doesn't have family money, He's had support from Red Bull since comparatively early on. He took a massive gamble to go over to Europe and race German Formula four. He had backing from New Zealand to get him there. You know, this is a kid who's put in a hell of a lot to get where he is, sacrificed a hell of a lot, has had to play an impatient waiting game. He deserves to be there again, forget the scenario. You know it took Daniel being sacked for him to get there. That's not Liams's fault or problem. This kid's done it hard to get there. He's not bought his way in like others have, because there are still plenty of pay drivers in Formula one, even very very talented ones. But you know, Lim's done it on pure grit, determination, bloody mindedness and talent. And let's hope for all of those reasons that he succeeds and then we'll adopt him as Australian.
Absolutely right, hopefully sooner rather than later. That's all the time we have for pit Talk today. On this momentus somewhat sad, but look, let's celebrate the career of Daniel Ricardo a day for Australian motorsport. You can subscribe to pit Talk wherever you get your favorite podcast, and you can leave us a rating and review as well, and you can keep up to date with all the later steff on News throughout the next couple of weeks, in fact, at foxsports dot com dot Au and Speedcafe dot Com from Matt Cosh and me Michael Lomonado, thanks very much for your company and we'll catch you in a couple of weeks ahead of the next race in the United States.
