Red Bull could fire Liam Lawson before the end of the 2025 F1 season, claims pundit

Red Bull could potentially fire Liam Lawson twice in one season and replace him with Arvid Lindblad. That's the view of former McLaren driver Juan Pablo Montoya as the Kiwi struggles to recover from the blow of being dropped from the senior team.

Liam Lawson's career trajectory has nosedived this season, and compared to where he was at the start of the year, teammate to Max Verstappen at Red Bull, he looks at an uncertain future. The Kiwi started the year with the senior team but after a woeful start to life with the team in the first two races, he was promptly replaced by Yuki Tsunoda.

Admittedly suffering from the blow of being dropped after just two weekends, Liam Lawson was then moved to Racing Bulls where he has been teamed up with Isack Hadjar. The Kiwi has been decent and has shown glimpses of pace, but it does appear that the French rookie has the edge over him in general.

With both Racing Bulls drivers on a 1-year contract and Red Bull junior Arvid Lindblad showing impressive form early in Formula 2, there are suggestions that the Austrian team would want to fast-track the young driver to F1 to see how good he can be. If that happens, one of the two drivers in the sister team would face the boot.

Talking to AS, Juan Pablo Montoya felt that it wouldn't surprise him if Arvid Lindblad got the shot in 2025 as Red Bull dropped Liam Lawson. He said,

“I’ll tell you the truth. If Liam doesn’t improve any further, I wouldn’t be surprised if they put Lindblad in at some point. Not at all. I wouldn’t be a little surprised. Honestly, Liam has been given the green light last year and has proven that he has what it takes to do a good job. They gave him the Red Bull seat, and he won it."

He added,

“The Red Bull situation was complicated and I think it took a very strong blow to his liver, and he needs a lot of psychological treatment after that. And if he doesn’t recover soon, I’m sure Red Bull will start looking elsewhere because that’s how they work. It’s Red Bull, it’s a bit like what’s happening with Alpine right now. Whenever Franco [Colapinto] doesn’t do well, the same thing will happen.”

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Red Bull's next big prospect

The Austrian team's next big prospect appears to be Arvid Lindblad, and the youngster is someone that the senior personnel have spoken very highly of. The young driver is currently competing in F2 and is only 17 years of age. The driver has already picked up a win in the series, becoming the youngest driver to do so.

Lindblad was spoken of highly by Helmut Marko as well early in the year in an interview with the Inside Line Podcast, where the Austrian said,

"We are not looking for a new Max, we are looking for a new champion and I think the next one which looks really promising is Arvid Lindblad. I think in the past, if I compare with [Jack] Doohan, or with [Oscar] Piastri, or also with [Oliver] Bearman, they had a lot of tests in the two-year-old version Formula 1 car."

He added,

“For example, Liam Lawson didn’t have this opportunity, and also [Isack] Hadjar, to a certain amount, didn’t have this opportunity. And this we will change for Arvid that he, if he makes a very good season in Formula 2, that he can go with good experience into Formula 1 in 2026. Maybe.”

Liam Lawson, on his part, would be hoping to reclaim the kind of form that helped him secure a seat alongside Max Verstappen, even though it does appear that the driver is yet to hit his groove alongside Isack Hadjar at Racing Bulls.