Latest news with #RacingBulls
RNZ News
11 hours ago
- Automotive
- RNZ News
F1: Liam Lawson gets backing from former team-mate
New Zealand driver Nick Cassidy celebrates at a Formula E race. Photo: Joao Filipe / PHOTOSPORT New Zealand F1 driver Liam Lawson has the backing of a former team-mate. Lawson is currently enjoying a mid championship break following a challenging first half of the season. After being dumped by Red Bull after just two races of the 2025 season, the 23-year-old Kiwi is starting to show some consistency with junior team Racing Bulls. Lawson's former team-mate in the German Touring Car Championship, fellow New Zealander Nick Cassidy, is backing him and believes he is making progress. "People in motorsport have short memories," Cassidy told RacingNews365. Lawson had his best result of the season, a sixth place finish at the Austrian Grand Prix last month, but failed to finish last week's British Grand Prix when he was hit on the first lap. Cassidy, who competes in Formula E for Jaguar, said he is pleased to see improvement in Lawson. "I think it took probably some adjustment for him going to the Red Bull car and then back to Racing Bulls as well. New Zealand Racing Bulls F1 driver Liam Lawson, 2025. Photo: ANTONIN VINCENT / AFP "I caught up with him recently, and I think he's quite happy with some of the changes they've been making on setup and development to suit him, and it's been a little bit obvious in the last two weekends, the lift in form. "And so I really hope he can keep that going. And you know, the Formula 1 calendar, it is long and people in motorsport have short memories. "I'm sure he has the opportunity to really turn it around, and the talent to turn it around. So all the best to him for that," Cassidy told RacingNews365. Cassidy and Lawson both drove for Ferrari during the 2021 DTM (German Touring Car Championship). Cassidy won a Formula E race in Berlin at the weekend and is fifth in the standings with one round remaining. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
NZ Herald
13 hours ago
- Automotive
- NZ Herald
Liam Lawson's Red Bull future about more than just results
While it would have been hoped that 2025 would be Lawson's year – having held off both Yuki Tsunoda and Sergio Perez to be named a Red Bull driver – it's been anything but. Struggles in Melbourne and Shanghai instead convinced Red Bull that they'd been too hasty in promoting the 23-year-old, moving him back to Racing Bulls, their junior side. Liam Lawson has been tipped to be in line for a contract extension. Photo / Red Bull Since then, he's had to rebuild – and at the halfway point of the season, he's doing just that. From 12 races, 10 of them with Racing Bulls, Lawson sits 16th in the drivers championship after points finishes in Monaco and Austria. In comparison, teammate Isack Hadjar is 11th in his rookie season, nine points clear of Lawson. It's for that reason, though, that Hadjar appears the front-runner for promotion to Red Bull ahead of the Kiwi, at a time when the team are seeking certainty from soon-to-be-former world champion Max Verstappen. On the surface, Lawson has been outperformed by Hadjar at every turn. While Lawson has two points finishes, the 20-year-old rookie has five, even if he's not scored since crossing the line seventh in Spain. But what Lawson adds away from the track is where his value truly lies. Since signing with Red Bull as a 17-year-old, Lawson has consistently proven to be a world-class hand in aiding in car development. As both a test and reserve driver, Red Bull are understood to have been impressed with how Lawson is able to understand a car's strengths and weaknesses, and where improvements can be made. Yuki Tsunoda (left) and Liam Lawson were teammates in 2024. Photo / Red Bull It's part of the reason why he was promoted to Red Bull – perhaps prematurely – ahead of Tsunoda at the end of 2024, after the call was made to drop Perez. However, it's what Lawson has added to Racing Bulls this year that's seen his true value come to the fore. Since moving back, Lawson has acted as a mentor for Hadjar, as the team's senior figure, and taken on a leadership role within the environment. That leadership has increased Lawson's value within both Red Bull and Racing Bulls, and will come to the fore in the future, as teenage sensation Arvid Lindblad is lined up to step up from Formula Two in 2026. It does, though, lead to questions about Lawson's long-term future with Red Bull. Pierre Gasly was used in a similar role after his demotion from Red Bull to then-Toro Rosso in 2019. There, he mentored Tsunoda from 2021, until he departed for Alpine at the end of 2023. Pierre Gasly's (left) fate could hold lessons for Liam Lawson. Photo / Don Kennedy Having Gasly as a senior figure helped Tsunoda adjust to the rigours of Formula One, before his eventual promotion to Red Bull at Lawson's expense earlier this year. But if Lawson's role is now to simply be a pillar of support to Red Bull's up-and-coming talent – a tag he himself used to hold – how long will he give himself before looking elsewhere? Lawson has always been adamant he wants to be a world champion – and that he wants to do it with Red Bull. However, if – like Gasly – he's deemed more of an asset in the junior team, only Lawson himself can decide if the juice is worth the squeeze. Alex Powell is a sports journalist for the NZ Herald. He has been a sports journalist since 2016.
Telegraph
a day ago
- Automotive
- Telegraph
Christian Horner locked in £50m Red Bull settlement talks
Christian Horner could be in line for a pay-off worth in excess of £50 million from Red Bull following his shock dismissal on Wednesday. The 51-year-old was ' released from his operational duties ' after 20 years at the helm of the Milton Keynes-based team, although he remains an employee for the time being while lawyers thrash out the terms of his settlement. Horner's contract is believed to run for another five-and-a-half years, until the end of 2030. The latest accounts for Red Bull Technology Ltd show the remuneration for its highest-paid director, understood to be Horner, rose from £8.04 million in 2022 to £8.92 million in 2023. That was an 11 per cent rise and cemented his status as the highest-paid team principal on the grid. But it is a salary that is almost certain to have risen again since then, with the team having won the drivers' title in 2024. During Horner's time in charge, Red Bull have won eight drivers' world championships, six constructors' titles and 124 races, and in 2023 the team came within one race of winning every grand prix in a single season. If his lawyers push for his contract to be paid up in full, they could be looking at anywhere up to £60 million. And there may be other income streams or bonuses which would have been paid had Horner remained in position. Horner was responsible for bringing in many of the team's partnerships across both Red Bull and sister team Racing Bulls. Red Bull's lawyers will push back, arguing he is likely to find work in the interim. Horner will almost certainly be in demand from teams given his track record. Although he was damaged by the 'sexting' scandal that erupted last year, he has been cleared by two investigations after he was accused by a female employee of coercive behaviour, which he has always denied. Where could Horner return? You could make a case for any number of teams to approach him. From Alpine, who are run by Flavio Briatore, with whom Horner enjoys a good relationship, to Aston Martin, whose owner Lawrence Stroll is fiercely ambitious and desperate to put his team at the front of the grid, to Ferrari, who have been linked with Horner in the past and whose current team principal Fred Vasseur is the subject of fierce scrutiny in Italy. He is unlikely to be able to speak to any of them for a long while, pending the terms of his settlement, the value of which is yet to be determined. No reason was given by Red Bull for his sacking on Wednesday, but it appears Horner lost out in a power struggle with Red Bull's parent company in Austria, who want more control of the team, as well as with Jos Verstappen, the father of his star driver, the four-time world champion Max. Faced with the prospect of losing Verstappen to a rival, and with the team currently enduring a leaner spell on track and a poisonous atmosphere off it, Red Bull's overlords acted. Despite last year's two investigations, there is no suggestion that Horner lost his job on misconduct grounds, which could affect any settlement figure. The team have been fulsome in their praise of Horner on social media, while Oliver Mintzlaff, a CEO at Red Bull GmbH, also released a glowing statement in the wake of Wednesday's bombshell. 'We would like to thank Christian Horner for his exceptional work over the last 20 years,' Mintzlaff said. 'With his tireless commitment, experience, expertise and innovative thinking, he has been instrumental in establishing Red Bull Racing as one of the most successful and attractive teams in Formula One. Thank you for everything, Christian, and you will forever remain an important part of our team history.' On Thursday, Dr Helmut Marko, Red Bull's motorsport advisor, and another man with whom Horner has had a strained relationship over the last 18 months, released his own statement. 'Christian and I have worked together very successfully for over 20 years – both in Formula One and in Formula 3000,' Marko said. 'I would like to sincerely thank Christian for that. During this time, we were able to celebrate an incredible number of outstanding achievements. We helped develop two world drivers' champions and several grand prix winners. That has always been – and still is – the Red Bull way. 'As for the current sporting situation: there are still 12 races to go, and we will continue to fight for the drivers' championship as long as it's mathematically possible.' Horner's replacement, Laurent Mekies, met with Red Bull mechanics on Thursday during a filming day at Silverstone that the team had already scheduled before the sudden exit of their former team principal. Mekies, who has assumed the role of CEO and team principal of Red Bull Racing, hailed the success of the team and stressed that they would all have a role to play in getting back to the front of the grid. It followed an address from Mintzlaff who was also at Silverstone. 'I look at this team as most outside look at them, we see the very best people in the world at what they do,' Mekies said. 'That's what this team is, even from being a competitor previously you look at Red Bull Racing as being the sharpest team, having managed to accumulate the best talent to work together. 'It is a privilege to join the team and the focus will be on making sure all the talented people here have what they need to perform at their best, because they are already the very best. We will be focusing on that and making sure the Red Bull energy is flowing through the team. We are not underestimating the challenge ahead, we will need everybody and we will go about it together and I am sure with everyone's contributions we will tackle this challenge.'
Sydney Morning Herald
a day ago
- Sport
- Sydney Morning Herald
Cracks have appeared in Piastri's composure. How he responds could decide the world title
While we'll need to wait until the upcoming back-to-back rounds in Belgium (July 27) and Hungary (August 3) to better assess the latter, what's more explainable are the reasons for Piastri's reaction and the context behind them, not the reaction itself. Loading 'I deserved a lot more than what I got' Piastri had played his cards perfectly at Silverstone as the capricious weather accentuated every stereotype about an English summer. From second on the grid on a track still soaked from pre-race rain, Piastri harried pole-sitter and four-time reigning world champion Max Verstappen through the spray in the early laps before overtaking the Red Bull star on lap eight and bolting to a seven-second lead by lap 11, by which time Norris had passed Verstappen for second place. Worsening rain saw the safety car deployed to neutralise the race, with Norris – who endured a slow pit stop – falling behind Verstappen before the race resumed three laps later, Piastri backing the pack up behind him as the safety car intervention ended before scampering away. Half a lap later, when an unsighted Isack Hadjar (Racing Bulls) ploughed into the back of Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes), the safety car was called back into action, which proved crucial. Loading When racing resumed on lap 21, Piastri – caught by surprise by the safety car's lights switching off late in the lap to indicate the race was set to re-start – braked hard to warm up his brakes for the resumption; behind him, Verstappen moved to his right to take evasive action, and the cars behind Verstappen scattered to avoid running into one another in the spray. Race stewards immediately investigated the incident and Piastri – who was found to have braked from 218km/h to 52km/h – was deemed guilty of 'clearly' breaching Article 55.15 of F1's sporting regulations, which states: 'From the point at which the lights on the [safety] car are turned out, drivers must proceed at a pace which involves no erratic acceleration or braking, nor any manoeuvre which is likely to endanger other drivers or impede the restarts.' After Verstappen spun at the restart and dropped back to 10th, Norris sat behind his teammate in second place with both drivers needing one pit stop to complete the 52-lap distance; Piastri led until lap 40 when his final stop – where his car sat motionless for 10 seconds before his team could change tyres – handed Norris a lead he wouldn't relinquish. In a championship fight of such small margins – and for the fact Norris engineered a 14-point swing through nothing more than being the beneficiary of Piastri's momentary misjudgment and poor fortune – Piastri's mood was, in the moment, explainable. 'I hit the brakes [and] at the same time I did that, the lights on the safety car went out, which was also extremely late,' he explained of the lap-21 restart. 'And then, obviously, I didn't accelerate because I can control the pace from there. And, yeah, you saw the result. I didn't do anything differently to my first restart – I didn't go any slower.' After a race in which he'd mastered the tricky conditions and muscled his way past Verstappen with authority, Piastri was in no mood to celebrate a 10th podium in 12 races this season. 'It obviously hurts at the moment,' he said afterwards. 'I know I deserved a lot more than what I got, I felt like I drove a really strong race. Ultimately, when you don't get the result you think you deserve, it hurts – especially when it's not in your control.' A two-horse race for the title Piastri's post-race rancour is unlikely to linger; the Australian is far too practical for that, and the two-week break between Silverstone and Spa-Francorchamps comes at an opportune time for a driver who, this time last year, was yet to win a Formula 1 race. Fast-forward 12 months and Piastri has led the championship standings since round five in Saudi Arabia, his third victory of the season, coming on a weekend in which Norris crashed in qualifying and relinquished the advantage he'd held since winning the season-opener in Melbourne. Loading For the past seven rounds, Piastri's margin over the rest has been as slim as three points (after Monaco, which Norris won), and peaked at 22 points after Norris ran into the back of Piastri and retired in Montreal – the only race this season where there hasn't been at least one McLaren driver on the podium. With Verstappen a championship contender in name only – the Dutchman recovered to fifth at Silverstone, but is now 69 points off the championship lead, nearly the equivalent of three race wins – the 2025 season is now a Piastri v Norris intra-team fight for the title, given the pace advantage McLaren's MCL39 machine has over the rest, and the sweeping regulation changes set for 2026 that will act as a hard reset for the championship and see rival squads soon prioritise next season over this one. It's a set of circumstances that means small slip-ups – Piastri running wide and getting stuck in the wet grass in Australia, Norris' Jeddah qualifying smash and his Canada collision with his teammate – carry big consequences for a team that hasn't had a drivers' world champion since Lewis Hamilton in 2008. Piastri's Silverstone penalty wasn't his first error of the season, and – given the stakes – isn't likely to be his last, with both of McLaren's drivers entering uncharted territory. Momentum will ebb and flow. Norris bounced back after his Montreal gaffe to win the next two races – even if one of those victories was gift-wrapped by his teammate – and 2025 shapes as a season that will be determined by each driver's worst days, not their best ones.
The Age
a day ago
- Sport
- The Age
Cracks have appeared in Piastri's composure. How he responds could decide the world title
While we'll need to wait until the upcoming back-to-back rounds in Belgium (July 27) and Hungary (August 3) to better assess the latter, what's more explainable are the reasons for Piastri's reaction and the context behind them, not the reaction itself. Loading 'I deserved a lot more than what I got' Piastri had played his cards perfectly at Silverstone as the capricious weather accentuated every stereotype about an English summer. From second on the grid on a track still soaked from pre-race rain, Piastri harried pole-sitter and four-time reigning world champion Max Verstappen through the spray in the early laps before overtaking the Red Bull star on lap eight and bolting to a seven-second lead by lap 11, by which time Norris had passed Verstappen for second place. Worsening rain saw the safety car deployed to neutralise the race, with Norris – who endured a slow pit stop – falling behind Verstappen before the race resumed three laps later, Piastri backing the pack up behind him as the safety car intervention ended before scampering away. Half a lap later, when an unsighted Isack Hadjar (Racing Bulls) ploughed into the back of Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes), the safety car was called back into action, which proved crucial. Loading When racing resumed on lap 21, Piastri – caught by surprise by the safety car's lights switching off late in the lap to indicate the race was set to re-start – braked hard to warm up his brakes for the resumption; behind him, Verstappen moved to his right to take evasive action, and the cars behind Verstappen scattered to avoid running into one another in the spray. Race stewards immediately investigated the incident and Piastri – who was found to have braked from 218km/h to 52km/h – was deemed guilty of 'clearly' breaching Article 55.15 of F1's sporting regulations, which states: 'From the point at which the lights on the [safety] car are turned out, drivers must proceed at a pace which involves no erratic acceleration or braking, nor any manoeuvre which is likely to endanger other drivers or impede the restarts.' After Verstappen spun at the restart and dropped back to 10th, Norris sat behind his teammate in second place with both drivers needing one pit stop to complete the 52-lap distance; Piastri led until lap 40 when his final stop – where his car sat motionless for 10 seconds before his team could change tyres – handed Norris a lead he wouldn't relinquish. In a championship fight of such small margins – and for the fact Norris engineered a 14-point swing through nothing more than being the beneficiary of Piastri's momentary misjudgment and poor fortune – Piastri's mood was, in the moment, explainable. 'I hit the brakes [and] at the same time I did that, the lights on the safety car went out, which was also extremely late,' he explained of the lap-21 restart. 'And then, obviously, I didn't accelerate because I can control the pace from there. And, yeah, you saw the result. I didn't do anything differently to my first restart – I didn't go any slower.' After a race in which he'd mastered the tricky conditions and muscled his way past Verstappen with authority, Piastri was in no mood to celebrate a 10th podium in 12 races this season. 'It obviously hurts at the moment,' he said afterwards. 'I know I deserved a lot more than what I got, I felt like I drove a really strong race. Ultimately, when you don't get the result you think you deserve, it hurts – especially when it's not in your control.' A two-horse race for the title Piastri's post-race rancour is unlikely to linger; the Australian is far too practical for that, and the two-week break between Silverstone and Spa-Francorchamps comes at an opportune time for a driver who, this time last year, was yet to win a Formula 1 race. Fast-forward 12 months and Piastri has led the championship standings since round five in Saudi Arabia, his third victory of the season, coming on a weekend in which Norris crashed in qualifying and relinquished the advantage he'd held since winning the season-opener in Melbourne. Loading For the past seven rounds, Piastri's margin over the rest has been as slim as three points (after Monaco, which Norris won), and peaked at 22 points after Norris ran into the back of Piastri and retired in Montreal – the only race this season where there hasn't been at least one McLaren driver on the podium. With Verstappen a championship contender in name only – the Dutchman recovered to fifth at Silverstone, but is now 69 points off the championship lead, nearly the equivalent of three race wins – the 2025 season is now a Piastri v Norris intra-team fight for the title, given the pace advantage McLaren's MCL39 machine has over the rest, and the sweeping regulation changes set for 2026 that will act as a hard reset for the championship and see rival squads soon prioritise next season over this one. It's a set of circumstances that means small slip-ups – Piastri running wide and getting stuck in the wet grass in Australia, Norris' Jeddah qualifying smash and his Canada collision with his teammate – carry big consequences for a team that hasn't had a drivers' world champion since Lewis Hamilton in 2008. Piastri's Silverstone penalty wasn't his first error of the season, and – given the stakes – isn't likely to be his last, with both of McLaren's drivers entering uncharted territory. Momentum will ebb and flow. Norris bounced back after his Montreal gaffe to win the next two races – even if one of those victories was gift-wrapped by his teammate – and 2025 shapes as a season that will be determined by each driver's worst days, not their best ones.
