How Colapinto U-turn opens door for Red Bull’s Lawson F1 promotion

Liam Lawson appears to be on pole for Red Bull Racing promotion in the 2025 Formula 1 season after the team’s interest in Franco Colapinto cooled.

Despite signing a two-year contract extension earlier this year, Red Bull appears to have finally given up on Sergio Perez being able to turn his woeful form around, with the team hinting it will drop the Mexican following the season finale in Abu Dhabi.

On the Monday after the race, the team’s shareholders are meeting to decide on what to do with Red Bull’s seemingly cursed second seat next to Max Verstappen, which has yet to be filled adequately since Daniel Ricciardo’s exit to Renault for 2019.

A left-field option emerged earlier this season in the shape of Williams stand-in Colapinto, who wowed the paddock with his speed and attitude as Logan Sargeant’s mid-season replacement. Colapinto’s immediate pace, seemingly without needing an adaptation period or appearing too bothered by the pressure of becoming a high-profile sports star in his native Argentina, certainly ticked several boxes Red Bull has been looking for to fill the difficult seat alongside Verstappen.

With Williams’ two seats already filled by Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz for 2025 and beyond, Red Bull entered talks with the squad to secure Colapinto for its main team, a deal which would have included a hefty eight-figure fee for Williams to release its in-demand reserve driver.

But a spate of crashes in Brazil and Las Vegas, which have highlighted Colapinto’s inevitable inexperience, have since made Red Bull rethink the wisdom of forking out an eye-watering fee for someone else’s junior driver. It has not been averse to looking outside its own talent pool, but only if that option is a clear upgrade over the available drivers, which it has now questioned. 

Motorsport.com understands Colapinto’s Red Bull chances all but vanished the moment he suffered a 50G impact with the wall in an unnecessary qualifying crash in Vegas, and speaking to Motorsport.com in Qatar, Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko has since admitted that the 21-year-old is now “not very high on the list”.

One additional reason for hiring Colapinto would have been the commercial backing he brings from Argentina, which would offset the loss of Perez’s sponsorship from Mexico. But along with the drop in prize money Perez’s struggles have…