In 2025, Liam Lawson will be promoted to the Red Bull team. After inheriting the Visa RB seat from Daniel Ricciardo last year, the young New Zealander will soon be joining Max Verstappen. This week, Red Bull announced that Lawson will have a new race engineer for the upcoming season. Richard Wood, formerly the performance engineer for Sergio Pérez, will be supporting him during the upcoming Grands Prix.
Richard Wood had already been active along the pit wall several times in 2024; Pérez’s regular race engineer, Hugh Bird, was on paternity leave for a few races. Wood apparently made an impression with his stand-in performances. In the upcoming season, the British technician will have a permanent role as race engineer for the 22-year-old Liam Lawson. Wood has earned his stripes as a strategist before he became involved in race support and simulator technology.
Internal Reshuffling
Meanwhile, former race engineer Hugh Bird is taking on a leading role in the factory in Milton Keynes. He will oversee the development of the suspension and car suspension. Pierre Hamelin, who was Liam Lawson’s engineer at Visa RB, will remain with the Italian subsidiary team and is expected to be paired with Isack Hadjar. The French-Algerian driver will be moving up from Formula 2 next year.
This new role distribution follows a restructuring within Red Bull after the departure of Jonathan Wheatley. The sporting director will be taking on the role of team boss at Sauber later this year. Red Bull has not appointed a direct replacement for Wheatley, but has distributed his tasks among various prominent employees. For instance, Gianpiero Lambiase, Max Verstappen’s race engineer, will oversee all race matters and will also play a leading role within the strategy operations.
