Daniel Ricciardo set for Red Bull Racing shootout with rising star Liam Lawson
In the frame for a call-up to Red Bull Racing in place of the struggling Sergio Perez, Daniel Ricciardo will get the chance to show team bosses what he can do later this week.
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Daniel Ricciardo and Liam Lawson are poised to duke it out for a shot at Sergio Perez’s Red Bull Racing seat.
Ricciardo and Lawson will share driving duties behind the wheel of a 2022-spec AlphaTauri AT03 at Imola later this week.
Technically a filming day, as permitted under the regulations, it’s understood the outing will be used to benchmark the Antipodean duo against one another.
Both are in the frame for a call-up to Red Bull Racing in place of Sergio Perez.
Perez remains the team’s preferred option, though his performance this weekend will be compared directly against his three-time world champion teammate, Max Verstappen.
Should the Mexican fail to fire at this weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix, it is expected Red Bull management will make a change for the second half of the championship.
Pressure has been mounting on the 34-year-old for some time as his form slump coincides with McLaren’s increased competitiveness.
That has left Red Bull Racing under threat at the top of the constructors’ championship, its Woking rival just 51 points in arrears having at one point been 115 points back.
Should Perez’s performance this weekend not provide the improvement the team is looking for, it’s expected he will be replaced by either Ricciardo or Lawson when F1 resumes after the summer break.
The Imola test is set to offer a direct comparison between the pair, information that will feed into any driver decision at Red Bull Racing.
The experienced Ricciardo is a known quantity, but inconsistent results since leaving Red Bull in 2018, not to mention the hangover that remains from his stint at McLaren, are a sticking point.
His performances in recent races have improved, but results have not necessarily been forthcoming.
In his favour, however, is that he is an eight-time grand prix winner, well accustomed to the spotlight that comes with driving for a team at the front of the F1 grid.
Meanwhile, Lawson is highly rated and impressed during an outing with Red Bull Racing following the British Grand Prix.
However, conditions that day made it near impossible for any meaningful comparison against Perez, who’d raced at the venue in the days prior.
He also impressed during his five-race cameo in place of Ricciardo last season, when the Australian broke his hand during practice for the Dutch Grand Prix.
However, with that the totality of his F1 experience, there are concerns that parachuting him into a race-winning car in the middle of a championship fight may be a step too far.
It’s understood Lawson becomes a free agent should Red Bull be unable to offer him a race seat for 2025, with rumours linking him with a move to Sauber (Audi).
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