Daniel Ricciardo’s dismissal explained: Who is his replacement, Liam Lawson?
257 races, 8 wins, 17 fastest laps, 3 poles, 1329 points, and endlessly many smiles - that's Daniel Ricciardo's F1 career explained just in numbers. What are his biggest achievements, why did VCARB cancel his professional contract and who is Liam Lawson, who'll be racing for VCARB till the end of a 2024 season?
Ricciardo's first complete season were in 2012, racing for the Scuderia Toro Rosso F1 Team, which was considered as a Red Bull academy. He transfered to Red Bull in 2014 and after an enormous effort, he destroyed his teammate - 4 time World Champion Sebastian Vettel - and despite Mercedes dominance won 3 Grand Prix. At the beginning of 2016 season, he accomplished of his second teammate - Russian Daniel Kvyat - nonetheless, he hasn't won a Grand Prix since 2014. His new co-worker, 18-year-old Max Verstappen, became a real menace for him. To sumarize rest of his career till his retirement - he won another 5 races. 4 of them he was driving for Red Bull, including his hilarous conquest of Monaco in 2018 when he finished the race with a mechanical issue, and 1 for McLaren in Italy, 2022, where he has gone from Renault in which he appeared in 2019 after losing a motivation in Red Bull F1 Team.
Nevertheless, McLaren dropped him by the end of a 2022 season. He became a propagation driver for Red Bull and returned on grid in the middle of a 2023 season, when VCARB excluded Nyck De Vries for his weak performances. If we count it overall, we will get a conslusion that Ricciardo lasted in Formula 1 just 1 year. The reason might be unfortunately quite sensible and simple. Since his comeback, Riccardo hadn't achieved either consistency or any superb result. He finished just 4 times on points, scoring in total 13 points into the leaderbord. His teammate, Yuki Tsunoda, scored 31 points, which is a significant difference, particulary in the mid-field fights among average teams. Last but not least, Red Bull is notoriously known for dropping their racers anytime they don't meet their performance expectations. Danny basically joined the club of drivers like Brendon Hartley, Daniil Kvyat or already mentioned Nyck De Vries.
Ricciardo's replacement was discovered quite quickly due to circumstances - it's New Zealander Liam Lawson. He might be a little bit unknown for the F1 audience, however, his way to the F1 seat was pretty interesting. During the free practice of the 2023 Dutch Grand Prix, Daniel Ricciardo hadn't avoided the crash of Oscar Piastri. He went into the barrers straightaway and broke his wrist. He was immidiately replaced by a Liam Lawson, a former F2 driver and a Red Bull reserve driver. Liam showed few solid results in all five races, including outqualifying Max Verstappen in Singapore and finishing on points there. He scored more points than Ricciardo and De Vries till that part of a season. An important note is that Daniel Riccardo race in a two race that season so far. That was finally a worthy threat for his teammate Yuki Tsunoda. After a succesfull recovery, Ricciardo came back and despite his previous hand handicap, he outscored Lawson who switched back into the shadow of a reserve driver by a few points.
In conclusion, Lawson might have scored less points than Ricciardo in that season, nonetheless Red Bull will rather keep a young perspective driver than a former greatest late-braker on the grid, who unfortunately ran out of talent. Moreover, they might get Lawson into the car from the 2025 season, nevertheless Christian Horner might would like to replace Sergio Peréz in Red Bull and Lawson seem as a perfect candidate for him. It doesn't really make sense according to me but who am I to judge them? Hopefully will Liam Lawson do well; likewise, Verstappen did in Toro Rosso.
Jakub Ondruš
Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Ricciardo</p>
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/sports/daniel-ricciardo-loses-seat-formula-1-red-bull-executes-season-shakeup-rcna172876<br>
https://www.planetf1.com/news/liam-lawson-big-red-bull-dilemma-reignite-his-f1-dream<br>