The F1 star is about to suffer a major career blow as the Red Bull driver dilemma reaches a head.
With only two race seats available, Red Bull has three drivers on its roster who have compelling reasons to compete for AlphaTauri in 2024, leaving Daniel Ricciardo, Yuki Tsunoda, or Liam Lawson out in the cold.
Therefore, Red Bull will have to deliver a potentially fatal blow to one of the three drivers vying for an AlphaTauri race seat in the upcoming season.
In actuality, they have the option of choosing any of the three possible combinations at this time.
The status quo was the most likely result a few weeks ago.
Daniel Ricciardo was back on the starting grid, fired up, and prepared to make the most of his second chance after Yuki Tsunoda’s consistent start to the season and noticeable improvement in his racecraft appeared to have been enough to earn another year.
He then had an accident during practice at Zandvoort, breaking a bone in his hand.
The Australian has so far missed two races and will probably miss a few more.
Moreover, Liam Lawson will have the chance to demonstrate his readiness for Formula 1 during that time.
The New Zealander has made great progress in that direction.
Despite the fact that he hasn’t scored in either of his two races thus far, it is more likely that his results have been constrained by the performance of his car than by the way he has driven it.
In a hectic Dutch Grand Prix, Lawson made his Formula One debut.
He got off to a dry start despite an immediate downpour, then managed the tricky wet-to-dry crossover before more torrential rain again changed the rules.
At the end of his first complete Formula One weekend at Monza, he placed 11th after finishing 13th.
As Anthony Davidson of Sky noted, it is challenging to determine exactly how well Lawson performed in that second race because his Tsunoda did not start; a driver in Formula One is always judged by their teammate.
However, he beat the Japanese at Zandvoort and, by placing 11th at Monza, was just one spot behind Tsunoda’s best result in 2023.
Nobody at Red Bull has yet to criticize Lawson.
Given that Ricciardo is unlikely to be given the go-ahead to return in either Singapore or Japan, he has at least two more races to make an even bigger impression.
Ricciardo will return, that much is certain. Red Bull is dedicated to giving him the chance he was promised, and his current anticipated return date is for the Qatar Grand Prix next month.
In addition, Red Bull wants Lawson to compete in the final race weekend of the Japanese Super Formula series on October 28–29 in order to finish the season.
His fellow New Zealander Nick Cassidy is the only other non-Japanese champion from the previous ten years. He is still in title contention.
Lawson is now seriously in the running for a seat in 2024 thanks to the way he has driven this year in both Super Formula and his last-minute F1 appearances. Red Bull needs to know if his efforts have been successful enough to permanently unseat either Tsunoda or Ricciardo.
Keeping Tsunoda fits better with AlphaTauri’s philosophy of developing young drivers, but Ricciardo’s experience may be extremely helpful to a team that is going through a significant transition.
If they decide the answer is yes, then which of those two drivers do they axe?
If one of them ends up having their F1 career seriously jeopardized, they will all feel unfairly treated.