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Liam Lawson will replace Daniel Ricciardo at Red Bull's second team RB for the remainder of the 2024 Formula 1 season.
Ricciardo leaving RB with six grands prix of the season to go was confirmed via a social media post 20 minutes before the official announcement came that Lawson would replace him in Red Bull's second team.
Ricciardo's exit has long been speculated about through a tricky 2024 season, but the talk reached a critical mass over the Singapore Grand Prix weekend with rumours that Red Bull was going to drop him immediately for Lawson.
Red Bull insisted it would be taking a decision after the weekend but by the end of the event, Ricciardo was treating it like his F1 farewell.
Four days after the Singapore GP official confirmation has landed that Ricciardo won't see out the rest of the season and will instead be replaced by Lawson.
“Everyone here at VCARB would like to thank Daniel for his hard work across the last two seasons with us. He has brought a lot of experience and talent to the team with a fantastic attitude, which has helped everyone to develop and foster a tight team spirit," RB team principal Laurent Mekies said.
"Daniel has been a true gentleman both on and off the track and never without that smile. He will be missed, but will always hold a special place within the Red Bull family.”
Lawson already made his F1 debut via a surprise five-race stand-in spell for RB (then known as AlphaTauri) last year, ironically in place of Ricciardo who injured his wrist in a Zandvoort practice shunt.
"He already knows the team well," Mekies added. "He drove for us last season, and coped well under difficult circumstances, so it’ll be a natural transition.
"It’s great to see young talent from within the Red Bull family make the next step.
"We’re looking forward to getting our heads down and focusing on the rest of the season together.”
How Lawson performs will be critical to RB holding onto sixth place in the constructors' championship. A strong start to 2024 helped it position itself firmly at the front of the midfield group and even briefly gave it a sniff at making Aston Martin sweat.
But RB lost its way with a Barcelona upgrade it didn't understand and has now slipped into the clutches of Haas and Williams.
It hasn't scored points since the summer break and has a slender three-point advantage over Haas, and 18 over Williams who has scored 12 in the last three races.
Who is Lawson?
Lawson has been a Red Bull junior since early 2019 when he beat then-Ferrari junior Marcus Armstrong to a surprise Toyota Racing Series title.
He spent a couple of years in Formula 3, winning three races in his second year but without the machinery to join the likes of Oscar Piastri and Logan Sargeant in fighting for the title.
Lawson did an unorthodox dual Formula 2/DTM campaign in 2021. He won his maiden race in both series and while he finished ninth in F2, he would have been DTM champion if he wasn't taken out in a controversial clash in the Norisring finale.
He focused on F2 in 2022, finishing third in the championship behind Felipe Drugovich and Theo Pourchaire. During that year he made his F1 practice debut with AlphaTauri at Spa and had further outings with the junior and senior Red Bull teams in Mexico and Abu Dhabi.
Lawson was set to spend the majority of 2023 on the sidelines as Red Bull gave the AlphaTauri nod to Nyck de Vries first, then Ricciardo when De Vries didn't deliver.
But Ricciardo injuring his wrist at Zandvoort meant Lawson had an unexpected five-race cameo.
He impressed and while there have been many more practice and private test outings, Lawson has had to wait for a further year before getting his next race opportunity in F1.
