Liam Lawson has broken an all-time Red Bull F1 record with his promotion from RB for the 2025 season.
The Kiwi was announced on Thursday (19th December) as being Max Verstappen's new team-mate, after Sergio Perez was jettisoned following a terrible 2024 campaign, scoring just 48 points in the 18 races since the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.
Lawson made his F1 debut as injury-replacement for Daniel Ricciardo for five 2023 races, starting at the Dutch Grand Prix, before replacing the Australian from the '24 United States Grand Prix onwards.
He was being evaluated for the seat alongside Verstappen, with team-mate Yuki Tsunoda once again over-looked for promotion from the junior to senior team.
Prior to Lawson, six drivers had made that move, including world champions Sebastian Vettel and Verstappen.
But the newest Red Bull driver has earned promotion in the fewest number of races, with just 11 grands prix under his belt.
Advisor Helmut Marko is known to favour the 'sink or swim' approach, but Lawson has been thrown in at the deep end...
Number of races before Red Bull promotion
| Rank | Driver | Number of races |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Liam Lawson | 11 |
| 2. | Alex Albon | 12 |
| 3. | Danill Kvyat | 19 |
| 4. | Max Verstappen | 23 |
| 5. | Sebastian Vettel | 25 |
| 6. | Pierre Gasly | 26 |
| 7. | Daniel Ricciardo | 39 |
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