Red Bull gives green light: Lawson on his way to Williams

On Saturday, GPblog already reported that James Vowles had been in talks with Red Bull management. One of the topics was the possible switch of Liam Lawson to Williams. After Logan Sargeant's crash in qualifying, Vowles had seen enough. There must be a replacement for the American, and soon.

Williams would like to have a new driver in Sargeant's car as early as Monza. Although it is short notice, after Sargeant's accumulation of mistakes, Williams have now had enough. Sargeant once again damaged an entire package of updates, not only causing his team the necessary repair work but also causing sporting problems. The damage Sargeant caused is at the expense of much-needed updates.

Who are the candidates to replace Logan Sargeant?

There were two serious options to replacing Sargeant. Andrea Kimi Antonelli was Williams' dream candidate, but Mercedes does not want their junior to enter Formula 1 early. Antonelli will, however, drive a first free practice for Mercedes at Monza and is also likely to be announced as a Mercedes driver for 2025 that weekend.

Mercedes has put forward Mick Schumacher as an alternative to Williams. Schumacher is Mercedes' reserve driver, but his chances of getting the seat are slimmer than Lawson's. Schumacher lost the shootout for the Alpine seat to Jack Doohan and has also been overtaken by Antonelli at Mercedes. Not exactly good results for a letter of recommendation.

Lawson is in a better position in that respect. Lawson did very well when filling in for Daniel Ricciardo and showed he can handle pressure well. Red Bull is open to letting Lawson go: "It would depend on which terms and if we needed him back, that we could have him back quite quickly. But we'd certainly, if they needed to drive the next weekend, be open to that," Christian Horner revealed in response to a question from GPblog at Zandvoort.

Now do Williams have Liam Lawson over Logan Sargeant?

For Red Bull, that also seems to be the ideal situation for determining the driver situation for 2025. That battle is still between Daniel Ricciardo and Liam Lawson. With Lawson in an F1 seat, that comparison could again be made easier.

It was clear from everything at Zandvoort that Logan Sargeant did know what time it was. So the American made no attempt to disguise the oncoming storm. When asked about the stories about his future, Sargeant stated: "I hear those every week, so that's nothing new." Asked if he was frustrated by it, an even harsher answer came: "No, I couldn't care less."

Sargeant knows his successor well. The two were teammates in Formula 2 at Carlin in 2022. Lawson finished third, Sargeant was fourth, both behind Felipe Drugovich and Theo Pourchaire. Sargeant was the only one of those four to get a seat in Formula 1 in 2023, now his then teammate will get the chance to do better before Carlos Sainz steps in in 2025.

This article has been written in collaboration with Matt Gretton