Red Bull has assigned Sergio Perez’s former performance engineer Richard Wood as Liam Lawson’s race engineer for the 2025 Formula 1 season.
The Kiwi ousted the Mexican to take the second seat at the Milton Keynes outfit alongside reigning world champion Max Verstappen for 2025.
But Lawson will not be given the continuity in the form of Hugh Bird, who acted as Perez’s race engineer in his four-year stint with the team.
As reported by PlanetF1, Bird will move to a factory-based role within the team, with Wood making the step up.
Wood has prior experience in the position, having taken Bird’s place at the Dutch Grand Prix last year when the latter was on paternity leave.
Amid the loss of Adrian Newey to Aston Martin and Jonathan Wheatley to the nascent Audi project via Sauber amongst others, there are technical reshuffles afoot within the six-time Constructors’ Champions.
Liam Lawson ‘to be realistic’ in expectations against Verstappen
Speaking to PlanetF1 in December, Lawson set a realistic bar for his own performance up against Verstappen, who is fast-cementing his status as one of the modern greats of F1 after taking four successive world titles.
Lawson acknowledged that, before Perez, both Pierre Gasly and Alex Albon faced struggles to get to grips with the Red Bull car, as Verstappen stamped his authority as the outright number one driver in the team, with both men being eventually frozen out.
“I don’t know what they [Gasly and Albon] felt when they were there,” he said.
“You can always look at it as an outsider and think: ‘This is what it looks like they felt.’ But I don’t know what it was like for them.
“I believe, for anybody to go up against Max, you have to be realistic and know that he’s the fastest guy on the grid right now and that you’re not going to be outqualifying the guy by half a second.
“It’s not going to be something that’s really going to be happening. For me, it’s more the opportunity that’s there to learn from the best.
“For me as a driver, to be able to go in against the guy who’s won four world championships and is well seasoned… he’s been in that car for a long time.
“That car is almost… not developed around him, but he’s been a massive part of developing that car and understands it very well.
“In terms of how to drive it, it’s all right there on paper.
“When you see all the data that he brings in, for me as a driver to be alongside that, to be able to learn from him and have all that access, I think that’s what’s exciting for me about the opportunity.”
READ MORE – Why Red Bull had to axe Sergio Perez and chose Liam Lawson over Yuki Tsunoda for F1 2025
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