Red Bull supremo Helmut Marko unveils five race plan for Liam Lawson

A Red Bull boss has lifted the lid on a key detail surrounding the future of rookie Liam Lawson and his future in the team’s car.

Formula One rookie Liam Lawson is said to be facing a five-race plan before any judgement on his seat alongside Max Verstappen will be passed.

Lawson endured a nightmare weekend during the Australian Grand Prix in his first official season after taking over Daniel Ricciardo’s seat in the second half of the 2024 season.

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The 23-year-old was knocked out in Q1 and started the race from 18th on the grid. His race ultimately came to an end in the latter stages of the race after he spun off the track and failed to finish.

Red Bull elected to leave Lawson out on slick tyres as the Melbourne heavens opened and the rain came tumbling down.

“We took a chance, hoping that at least half of the track would stay dry,” Lawson said.

“We knew that sector three was bad, but we thought that sector one would stay a bit drier, so we carried on. Unfortunately, it was bucketing down with rain.

“At that point, to be honest, I’d backed out of pushing because it was so wet. I was just trying to stay on the track. But obviously, it’s not ideal.”

It wasn’t the weekend Lawson wanted. (Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images)

Marko however is giving the rookie time to shine. (Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images)

Despite his horror outing on the track, Red Bull motorsport adviser Helmut Marko kept things in perspective and said the youngster has plenty of time to show he has what it takes.

Marko, known for shooting from the hip and delivering some cold-hearted takes, backed in Lawson and the move from the main team to sign the youngster to be Verstappen’s partner.

“He wanted to show what he can do,” Marko said,

“And unfortunately that went wrong. We have to let him cool down a bit now and observe his development over the first three to five races.”

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said it was impossible to blame Lawson for failing to finish the race, stating it was the team’s call to leave him out on slick tyres.

“It was a difficult weekend for him,” Horner said. “We changed the car to put a bit more downforce on the car. It’s a very hard track to overtake at.

“We took a risk of leaving him out because he was outside of the points, and we thought, ‘You know what, roll the dice, maybe it’ll come right,’ but it was exactly the point that it started to rain more. So it’s difficult to blame him for that last spin.

Horner took blame for Lawson’s early end to the race. (Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images)

“I think the one flash of light that he can take out of it is that, on the dry tyres, he actually posted the second fastest lap time of the Grand Prix, a 1:22.9. Max did a 1:23.0, Lando a 1:22.1.

“So, if there was one positive we can take, it’s that his pace in the dry was not too bad.

“The problem is, having missed FP3, you’re on the back foot, and then the pressure builds. He grabbed a brake on the second set of tyres and then, on the third set of tyres, he was half a second up and then another mistake there.

“So I think next weekend will be tough because it’s a Sprint race at a track that he’s not been to before. But, yeah, he’s pretty resilient to this. This weekend, it wasn’t representative of what he’s capable of.”

The Formula 1 grid will head to Shanghai for the Chinese Grand Prix which features the first sprint race of the 2025 season.

The Chinese Grand Prix will take place on Sunday, March 23 from 6pm (AEDT).

Originally published as Red Bull supremo Helmut Marko unveils five race plan for Liam Lawson