Red Bull’s Marko Backtracks as Lawson Eyes Sauber Seat
Aug.26 - Liam Lawson has suddenly become a major player at the tail end of the intense 2025 Formula 1 driver 'silly season'.
Red Bull's Dr Helmut Marko declared before the Dutch F1 GP weekend that the New Zealander rookie will "definitely" race a Red Bull-branded F1 car in 2025.
He later backtracked, because in fact the 22-year-old Red Bull reserve is clearly a candidate to complete next year's grid in an Audi-owned Sauber.
"Helmut Marko was misquoted when he reported in Austria that Liam Lawson would drive for the Red Bull family in 2025," Red Bull team boss Christian Horner is quoted by Blick newspaper.
"That may be the case, but perhaps we will exercise the option on Liam in September and then loan him out."
Another major candidate to join Nico Hulkenberg at Audi-Sauber next year is the team incumbent Valtteri Bottas, whose chances have clearly risen since the arrival as overall boss of Mattia Binotto.
"Discussions will continue next week," the Finn told Viaplay on Sunday. "I don't think there is any strict deadline for that. I have understood that it's for the next weeks.
"The team also wants that as we head towards September," Bottas added. "Preferably sooner rather than later."
The very bad news for Sauber is that the team currently looks a long way from ending its alarming points drought, with Bottas and teammate Guanyu Zhou dead last on Sunday and the only cars that were lapped twice.
"The race started very well but I soon noticed that I couldn't keep up with the others," said Bottas. "I was hoping the next tyre compound would be better - well, nothing worked."
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Bottas will most likely stay put in the end & Lawson would only become a Sauber driver if Red Bull doesn't hand him a full-time drive in either of their teams by next month's deadline, in which case he'd become a free agent anyway.
Loaning is simply a non-option as Sauber is an independent team that not only doesn't share a PU supplier with Red Bull-owned teams but is also fully manufacturer-owned, so Audi most certainly wouldn't take anyone for interim purposes to serve rivals, which would have zero benefits for them, just like any current manufacturer teams or Red Bull Racing wouldn't take anyone in contractual situation or otherwise formal association with a rival.
All in all, replacing Ricciardo with him is the simple solution & something that should've been done for this season already without hesitations, given Ricciardo's overall career situation.
Thats the problem with what little is reported in the media , September deadline my arse, we as the public know nothiong of the contract details, the media have a field day and before you know it ..... its D day, As for Saubers bad performances , Audi couldnt care less about them untill its branded as an Audi, so there continued bad performances doesnt suprize me at all, you dont win as much as Audi have in M sport without knowing your stuff