Daniel Ricciardo being replaced by Liam Lawson is a positive move from Red Bull

As the news of Daniel Ricciardo replacing Liam Lawson gets announced, it does leave fans with mixed feelings. On one hand, you have the idea of the Australian being treated harshly, and on the other, there is the side where Lawson finally gets the opportunity that he truly deserves.

It does leave one conflicted, but for a team like Red Bull that has been on the back foot for the entirety of the season, this move is a breath of fresh air and a positive step into the future.

With that being said, did Ricciardo deserve a better farewell? Yes, he did. Did he deserve better race treatment from Red Bull in terms of having transparency about his future? Of course, he did.

But this is F1. One of the key characteristics of winners in the sport has been the ruthlessness. With that being said, for a Red Bull brand that has been somewhat stagnated in 2024 and far too defensive most of the time, this is possibly a first step of intent from the team, and the move of Liam Lawson replacing Daniel Ricciardo will go a long way in setting up what should be a positive step overall for the team.

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Daniel Ricciardo has not done enough for a Red Bull seat

This thing needs to be said because at some point everyone needs to face facts as well. Daniel Ricciardo's performances do not merit a promotion to Red Bull. The Australian has been decent at RB and compared to Yuki Tsunoda, he's been more or less level after the early season chassis problems.

With that being said, Ricciardo is not a driver who has made heads turn with his performances. They have been good but not great. That is precisely what stands out even now because, on the day the Australian possibly had his last race, he was finishing too far down the order compared to his teammate.

For Ricciardo, Red Bull was just counting down the weekends with nothing productive coming its way.

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Liam Lawson deserves a crack at F1 as the logjam increases

Red Bull faces a problem that it had not envisioned earlier. That problem is the talent logjam that it faces right now. Isak Hadjar has been very impressive in F2 and is second in the championship. If he wins the title, he makes a strong claim for a seat in F1.

Then the name quite a few have been talking a lot about is Arvid Lindblad. The Red Bull junior is debuting in F2 next season and if he does well, he's on the shortlist too.

At the same time, Liam Lawson has been sitting on the sidelines all season. In such a situation, it makes utmost sense to bring one of the juniors in F1 and start testing him to see how good he can be.

For 2026, in all likelihood, Yuki Tsunoda might not be a part of the stable, and Red Bull would want to prepare itself for that contingency.

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Sergio Perez's seat is still not secure

Finally, something that gets missed in all of this is the fact that Sergio Perez had another stinker in Singapore, where it did appear that the situation was back to square one for the Mexican. Whether that is the case or not, we have six more races to reach a definitive conclusion, but if Liam Lawson can use these six races to show that he can achieve a strong enough result in a Red Bull, then we might see him getting a promotion.

On the contrary, Daniel Ricciardo might just be lined up to replace Perez after the F1 Mexican GP this season. Either way, it's a process that has been kicked off at Red Bull and there are quite a few things here that seem positive compared to the status quo that had been established for a while.