Lawson gets new race engineer for 2025 F1 season

Pink Bull has named Sergio Perez’s former efficiency engineer Richard Wooden as the brand new race engineer for incoming Formulation 1 driver Liam Lawson in 2025.

Wooden garnered expertise on the Pink Bull pit wall a number of occasions throughout 2024 when Perez’s common race engineer Hugh Hen was on paternity go away.

A protracted-term Pink Bull worker, Wooden joined the crew as a strategist earlier than shifting into race assist and simulator engineering forward of switching to the trackside crew, and now turns into Lawson’s race engineer because the Kiwi steps as much as the lead Pink Bull-owned crew.

This follows a restructuring of Red Bull’s trackside operations following the departure of Jonathan Wheatley. Gianpiero Lambiase – Max Verstappen’s race engineer – has taken up a bigger position, as reported by Autosport months ago.

Wheatley will begin his new problem at Sauber on 1 April – sooner than initially deliberate – and is not working for Pink Bull. He’s serving the necessary interval of gardening go away these months. 

Pink Bull is just not changing Wheatley one-on-one, however has divided his duties amongst a number of crew members; in a single such instance, Lambiase is taking up a bigger position as head of racing. 

Lambiase stays Verstappen’s race engineer, however has been given extra obligations that contain the whole crew. Lambiase heads the each day ‘race operation’ in addition to some technique operations. 

When it comes to technique, Will Courtenay stays at the Red Bull pit wall this year regardless of being signed by McLaren final yr. The chief strategist will go away for McLaren mid-2026, however Pink Bull won’t launch him earlier.

One other a part of Wheatley’s obligations will fall beneath Steve Knowles. He’s the pinnacle of sporting within the new construction, which amongst different issues entails communication with race management.

Regardless of Lambiase’s promotion, the engineering crew round Verstappen stays intact. This additionally applies to senior management methods engineer Michael Manning, who has indicated internally that he aspires to a distinct place. 

Manning and his methods crew play an vital position in Verstappen’s begins, which have grow to be more and more complicated in modern-day F1. 

Nevertheless, Pink Bull confirmed that Manning will end the 2025 season in his present position and that he won’t transfer to a different crew, regardless of experiences that the Irishman was to depart.