The silly season for the 2025 F1 season is not over yet. Multiple teams still have to announce their second driver. One of these teams is VCARB. However, with their connection with Red Bull, multiple changes might happen. Especially after the news that Yuki Tsunoda and Liam Lawson are now officially candidates for Sergio Perez’ seat! Keep on reading to discover more about the battle between Yuki and Liam!
Sergio Perez Is Underperforming
Earlier this year, Sergio Perez signed another contract that would keep him in the Red Bull seat for the 2025 and 2026 seasons. However, these contracts are always set up with performance clauses where the team can swap the driver if they’re underperforming.
Since the 6th Grand Prix of this season, Sergio Perez has only scored 37 points until the 18th Grand Prix. This might seem not that bad since the McLaren cars have been so dominant. However, during the same Grand Prix Max Verstappen won 195 points.
So if after the Austin Grand Prix, where Red Bull is planning to bring Upgrades to the cars, the performance of Sergio Perez doesn’t improve, then he might be swapped out for a different driver for 2025.
Yuki Tsunoda And Liam Lawson Have 6 Races To Prove Themselves
Even though VCARB hasn’t officially confirmed their driver’s line-up for the 2025 season, there are rumours about who will take the seats. It is predicted that Yuki Tsunoda and Liam Lawson will be the 2025 drivers, depending on the performance of Liam Lawson. If he doesn’t perform well enough, he might be replaced by a driver such as Franco Colapinto.
However, in recent news Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko announced that these two drivers are competing for a whole other seat as well. With Sergio Perez not being able to perform properly, both VCARB drivers have the chance to be placed in the Red Bull seat.
These next 6 races will determine if Yuki or Liam will be promoted to the official Red Bull F1 team. Whoever performs best will get a chance to drive as a teammate of Max Verstappen. However, to get this promotion, either Yuki or Liam has to outperform their teammate by a significant amount. This is during the final races of the season. They’re showcasing if they are capable of driving for the big team.
Yuki Tsunoda hasn’t been considered for the Red Bull seat during his time with VCARB. However, he was the “benchmark” to beat when it came to potential promotions. For example, Daniel Ricciardo was brought back with a promise of the Red Bull seat. To get this seat he had to outperform Yuki consistently. Unfortunately, this was not the case, which is why Liam took over from Daniel. This time it’s different because Yuki Tsunoda is being considered as one of the valid options.
