{"id":847383,"date":"2026-08-05T20:36:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T20:36:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/847383\/"},"modified":"2026-08-05T20:36:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T20:36:10","slug":"liam-lawson-future-under-microscope-in-max-verstappen-replacement-claim","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/847383\/","title":{"rendered":"Liam Lawson future under microscope in Max Verstappen replacement claim"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alan Permane would not be drawn on whether Liam Lawson<\/a> is leading the queue to replace Max Verstappen should the world champion opt to leave Red Bull<\/a> at the end of this season.<\/p>\n

Multiple sources told PlanetF1.com that Verstappen was in talks with McLaren, although it seems he is now expected to remain with his \u201csecond family\u201d at Red Bull. Verstappen, though, has yet to officially confirm his F1 2027 plans.<\/p>\n

Alan Permane addresses Max Verstappen replacement speculation<\/p>\n

Want more PlanetF1.com coverage? Add us as a preferred source on Google<\/a> to your favourites list for news you can trust.<\/p>\n

Racing Bulls drivers Lawson and Arvid Lindblad are waiting in the wings should Verstappen decide to leave.<\/p>\n

Although Oscar Piastri has been linked to the Dutchman\u2019s race seat in what would be a direct swap, Red Bull is a team that more often than not promotes from within.<\/p>\n

In all of Red Bull Racing\u2019s years on the grid owning two teams, Red Bull has only twice put a driver who didn\u2019t start at its junior team into the senior outfit \u2013 Mark Webber in 2007 and Sergio Perez in 2021.<\/p>\n

Permane says he does not know what Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies\u2019 plans are if Verstappen leaves.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, on my team it\u2019ll have no impact because he doesn\u2019t drive for me, so I think that\u2019s a question for Laurent, really,\u201d he said of the reports that Verstappen could switch to McLaren.<\/p>\n

\u201cMax doesn\u2019t drive for me, and it\u2019ll be up to Laurent to decide his drivers for next season.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf he really believes Liam or Arvid is ready to take that challenge, then of course we\u2019ll be right there and ready to support that.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I don\u2019t want to speculate on which one it could be, or if Max moves to another team, would he swap with a driver from another team.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there are too many unknowns.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although Verstappen has a contract that runs through to the end of F1 2028, the 28-year-old is understood to have a clause that he could activate on the Sunday evening after the Hungarian Grand Prix as he wasn\u2019t in the top two positions in the championship.<\/p>\n

Permane accepts both Lawson and Lindblad will be vying for Verstappen\u2019s seat if it does become available.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, I think that\u2019s the goal of both our guys, for sure, and the goal of mine and our team is to develop drivers for that team,\u201d said the Racing Bulls team boss.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think going into specifics is far more a question for Laurent, but I think we need to put them both in a position where they\u2019re ready to do that.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf and when Laurent needs another driver, he\u2019s got one or two to choose from.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lawson was briefly a Red Bull driver last season, but his time with the team was cut short after two Grand Prix weekends as then Red Bull team principal Christian Horner claimed it was the team\u2019s \u201cduty of care to protect\u201d Lawson, who was \u201cstruggling\u201d.<\/p>\n

Go deeper: F1 contracts<\/p>\n

F1 driver contracts: What is the contract status of every driver on the F1 2026 grid?<\/a><\/p>\n

F1 2026 driver salaries: Who are the highest-paid drivers on the grid?<\/a><\/p>\n

Lawson, though, says that could not have been further from the truth<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe whole thing was played out to be me being mentally struggling and all this stuff, and like they were doing it to protect me,\u201d he told the High Performance podcast in June.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat honestly just could not be further from what it was actually like.\u201d<\/p>\n

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher<\/p>\n

Want to be the first to know exclusive information from the F1 paddock? Join our broadcast channel on WhatsApp<\/a> to get the scoop on the latest developments from our team of accredited journalists.<\/p>\n

You can also subscribe to the PlanetF1 YouTube channel<\/a> for exclusive features, hear from our paddock journalists with stories from the heart of Formula 1 and much more!<\/p>\n

Read Next \u2013 H\u00e4kkinen questions Max Verstappen to McLaren reports: \u2018Why rock the boat?\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alan Permane would not be drawn on whether Liam Lawson is leading the queue to replace Max Verstappen…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":847384,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[37185,49,48,578,576,577,1613,3027,44,3015,1882,82],"class_list":["post-847383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-arvid-lindblad","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-home-page","tag-liam-lawson","tag-news","tag-racing-bulls","tag-red-bull","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847383","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=847383"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847383\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/847384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=847383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=847383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=847383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}