'They can't sack him now': Commentator confronts Lawson's boss over F1 future

Racing Bulls team principal Alan Permane faced an awkward encounter with Sky UK’s Ted Kravitz, as questions over Liam Lawson’s future intensify.

On Sunday (NZT), Lawson put in arguably the best qualifying session of his career, given the context of the cloud hanging over his future, and earned himself a third-place start for Monday’s Brazilian Grand Prix at Interlagos.

The 24-year-old Kiwi is still in the dark – publicly at least – over his future, with Racing Bulls now the only team on the grid yet to confirm at least one driver for their 2027 pairing.

While teammate Arvid Lindblad is expected to be retained, Lawson finds himself in a fight with Red Bull junior driver Nikola Tsolov to retain his seat.

That comes despite the strongest season of the Kiwi’s career, so far. With 83 points from 19 grands prix and six sprints, Lawson is comfortably clear in ninth in the drivers’ championship, 41 ahead of Alpine’s Pierre Gasly in the fight to be the “best of the rest” – the highest-placed outside the sport’s top four teams.

On top of that, Lawson has scored the bulk of Racing Bulls’ 106 points as they fight to finish fifth in the constructors’ championship and bank an estimated $180 million for doing so – which would be the best result in the team’s history.

And with no signs of an announcement, speculation is rife that Lawson will make way for Tsolov at the end of the season.

Liam Lawson (right) and Alan Permane. Photo / Red Bull

However, after stumbling on Permane by chance after qualifying at Interlagos, Sky Sport’s Ted Kravitz made his feelings known.

“They can’t sack him now, can they?” Kravitz asked Permane as he walked away.

“I even asked Liam Lawson on Thursday, ‘you’ve scored 24 points in the last four races’. Liam Lawson’s qualified third on the grid, in a Racing Bulls. They can’t sack him now.

“Even if Nikola Tsolov is Max Verstappen, Ayrton Senna, Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso rolled into one, where’s the harm in giving Tsolov another year to cement himself as a Formula One driver, as a reserve?

“Give him all the FP1s you want, come up with an interesting racing series for him to do. It’s all good experience, you don’t need to rush him in so quickly.”

Speaking to media on Saturday (NZT), after his own contract extension was announced, Permane outlined Racing Bulls’ thinking behind delaying any confirmation of the team’s 2027 line-up.

“I’m not going to give you a date,” he said. “Red Bull has a very successful young driver programme.

“I don’t want to be critical of it, but I think if [media] are critical of it, maybe sometimes drivers haven’t been able to have enough time to settle.

“Some snap decisions have been made. We’re trying to apply a little bit of science, and that takes some time. We’re looking at everything and studying, analysing.

“Time is on our side. We’re not in a rush to do anything. I’m very confident the right decision will be made.

“I realise it’s frustrating for our drivers, I realise it’s frustrating for everyone else. But we want to get it right – we will get it right.

“I’m sure when we announce it in the coming weeks, everyone will be happy.”

Permane’s input is key in deciding which driver will get the nod. After last week’s Mexico City Grand Prix, where Lawson went from pit lane to cross the line ninth before being upgraded to seventh, Racing Bulls chief executive Peter Bayer name-checked Permane as being the man to make the call.