Red Bull told to sack Sergio Perez and promote junior driver by former boss

The former boss of Liam Lawson, Van Amersfoort, recently urged Red Bull to remove Sergio Perez from the team and promote Lawson as quickly as possible. Back in 2018, Lawson raced for the Van Amersfoort Racing team in the ADAC Formula 4 championship and impressed the team boss quite a lot.

While speaking on Formule1.nl’s Paddock Chat podcast, Amersfoort was asked whether Perez should be replaced by his former driver, to which the Dutchman agreed.

He further stated that although he does not have the power and resources of Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko, he would have immediately picked Lawson if he were in Marko's position.

“He [Liam Lawson] starts in the car in the same way as Max. I would dare to do that but my name is not Helmut [Marko], nor do I have the resources Helmut has at his disposal. But I would rather do that than someone who brings only history. Liam can only do well, in my opinion,” Amersfoort stated.

Amersfoort went on to reminisce about when he first saw Liam Lawson and his attire when he arrived in Europe from New Zealand.

Furthermore, he emphasized the weather change and how Lawson left New Zealand to pursue his career, similar to how Ayrton Senna left the warm and welcoming weather of Brazil to race in harsh weather in England.

“Liam stole my heart, I think that’s such a nice chap,” Van Amersfoort said. “I can still picture him when he came in from New Zealand in 2018 – shorts on in winter, white sports socks pulled up high. He totally lives for the sport. I believe New Zealanders fit the motorsport picture perfectly, they’re like the people in motorsport in the 1970s and ’80s.

“To achieve success in motorsport, they always have to go tremendously far away. [Ayrton] Senna also had to leave beautiful, warm Brazil for rainy, dark England. They have to cross that barrier and make a lot of sacrifices,” he added.

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Liam Lawson accepts his fate as a Red Bull reserve driver and focuses on the future

A few weeks back, when Liam Lawson was still an interim driver for AlphaTauri, he was rumored to be a permanent driver in Formula 1. However, the rumors died down, and it was clear that he would return to being a Red Bull reserve driver.

In a recent interview with Motorsport-Total.com, Lawson accepted that he would be under the team's umbrella and focus on the rest of the races before Daniel Ricciardo returned to AlphaTauri.

"I am a Red Bull driver, all Red Bull places are occupied, and this unfortunately means that I will be a reserve driver for the time being. Honestly, at the moment I'm just trying to cut as well as possible in these races. I think when my bet is over, I can start looking at how I've made myself and what options there are, but at the moment I'm focusing on these races,” he said.

Ricciardo has now returned to take back his seat from Lawson at the 2023 F1 US GP.