小红牛续约领队佩尔曼，劳森未来仍不明朗
小红牛与车队领队艾伦·佩尔曼续约至2031年，但车手利亚姆·劳森的合同将在年底到期，其未来仍不明朗。
小红牛已与车队领队续约至2031年，但这份新合同属于车队领队艾伦·佩尔曼，而非利亚姆·劳森，后者的未来充其量仍“模糊不清”。
佩尔曼是小红牛的“联合首席执行官”，除领队职责外还负责竞技事务。他于2024年加入该队，此前在恩斯通车队（先后以贝纳通、雷诺及其众多身份参赛）度过了34年职业生涯，并日益成为其中的关键人物。
佩尔曼获得新合同是应得的。他主导的进步足以让这支红牛第二车队有望以车队积分榜第五名创下队史F1最佳成绩。但劳森在这一成绩中也发挥了关键作用，而他的合同将在年底到期。
尽管车队管理层的合同状况不必让位于车手未来，但在F1世界等待劳森情况明朗、并对此愈发困惑之际宣布领队新合同，时机颇为微妙。
“说实话，目前情况还相当模糊，”劳森本周四在巴西被问及车队何时会告知他未来去向时说道。
“目前没有太多迹象。”
小红牛——考虑到在车手事务上它代表红牛发号施令，这也意味着红牛——尚未确认劳森、新秀队友阿尔维德·林德布拉德以及F2冠军争夺者尼古拉·措洛夫中，谁将在明年参加F1。
很长一段时间以来，措洛夫一直被视为下一顺位人选。早在九月，佩尔曼就曾表示决定将在“未来几周内”做出，并希望“再多花一点时间，确保我们为明年找到正确的搭档”。
劳森以83分在车手积分榜上排名第九。减去他和林德布拉德在赛季中期劳森效力红牛的三场比赛期间所获得的积分，他在积分榜上以69比32领先这位令人印象深刻的新秀。林德布拉德今年的单圈速度尤其强劲，但劳森很好地运用了自己的经验，全面提升了表现，整体上成为了明确的团队领袖。
不幸的是，仅凭这一点还不够。正如珀曼所说：“首要的是速度和节奏以及与之相关的一切。但当然，背景中还有很多因素，因为我想我们处于一个略微独特的情况。”
“我们想培养年轻车手，我们想培养年轻人才，当然我们也关注他们未来的进步。”
“所以，这不仅仅是关于当下，也关乎他们未来能做什么。”
劳森的“当下”表现非常出色。但很明显，他在红牛体系内还没有展现出足够的东西，不足以再次成为红牛车队顶级的选择，而这似乎是最重要的。小红牛的首要竞技目的，归根结底仍然是作为主队的车手培养学校。
去年仅两场比赛后，红牛就无情地将劳森从高级车队中撤下，他们认为他在两支车队中都没有长期位置。因此，言下之意是他们在考虑是否值得继续留住劳森，而不是用林德布拉德和措洛夫重新构建。
这非常遗憾，因为劳森本赛季显然已经证明自己配得上一个发车格位置。可悲的现实是，如果小红牛是一个独立的竞技实体——它本应如此——他的未来肯定不会成为问题。但如果没有红牛，劳森根本不会在小红牛，林德布拉德也不会在他身边，措洛夫也不会成为选项。不幸的是，你无法将小红牛理想的竞技现实与其所处的复杂大现实分开。
与此相关的是——听起来劳森也可能在为墨西哥的一次愚蠢事件付出代价。他在墨西哥与马克斯·维斯塔潘一方不必要的冲突中没能让自己讨人喜欢，这促使维斯塔潘对劳森不确定的未来发表了评论。你认为谁更应该受到指责并不重要；在巴西令人好奇的是，劳森似乎在暗示这件事改变了什么。
劳森说：“我绝对没想到会有这么大的影响”，并承认，从维修区起步最终获得第七名的喜悦，被他更广泛的处境所冲淡。
“这很难，”他说。“每一天都很难，因为发生的一切。尽管比赛很棒，但我可能还没有完全从那个周末的……或者那个周末发生的事情中恢复过来。”
这一切可能最终对他有利，但这正变得比任何人现实预期的都更像一个故事。措洛夫可能有多好——而且他迟早绝对值得一个机会——但荒谬的是，劳森迄今为止最有力地证明自己应该留任大奖赛车手的这个赛季，却是他完全没有保障的那个赛季。
但是，随着维斯塔潘和伊萨克·哈贾尔锁定红牛车队席位，如果心态是小红牛必须长期为高级车队服务，你可以看到劳森被抛弃的大门是如何打开的——即使他并不该遭此对待。
英文原文
Racing Bulls has re-signed its Formula 1 team leader until 2031 - but that new deal is for team boss Alan Permane, not Liam Lawson, whose future remains “blurry” at best.
Permane, who is ‘co-CEO’ at Racing Bulls, focusing on sporting matters as well as team principal, has signed a long-term contract extension at the team he joined in 2024 after a 34-year career as an increasingly pivotal part of ‘Team Enstone’ through its time as Benetton, Renault and all its myriad identities.
A new Permane deal is deserved. He has overseen enough improvement that the second Red Bull team is on course to secure its best ever result in F1 by finishing fifth in the constructors’ championship. But that is a result to which Lawson, out of contract at the end of the year, has also been pivotal.
And though the contractual situation of a team’s hierarchy is not obliged to play second fiddle to the future of its drivers, it is quite the timing to announce a new deal for the team boss when the F1 world is waiting for a resolution to – and increasingly confused by – Lawson’s situation.
“It's pretty blurry at the moment, honestly,” Lawson said on Thursday in Brazil this week when asked when the team might tell him about his future.
“Not much indication at the moment.”
Racing Bulls – which also means Red Bull, given it pulls the strings where drivers are concerned – is yet to confirm which of Lawson, rookie team-mate Arvid Lindblad, and Formula 2 title contender Nikola Tsolov will race in F1 next year.
Tsolov has been considered next in line for a very long time. Back in September, Permane had indicated a decision would be made “in the coming weeks” and wanted “to take a little bit more time and make sure we get the right pairing for next year”.
Lawson is ninth in the drivers’ championship on 83 points. Subtract the points he and Lindblad scored while Lawson was in a Red Bull for three races mid-season and he is beating the impressive rookie 69-32 in the standings. Lindblad’s one-lap pace has been particularly strong this year, but Lawson has used his experience well, upped his game all-round and been a clear team leader overall.
Unfortunately that is not enough on its own. As Permane said: ”Top of the list is speed and pace and all that goes with that. But there's lots, of course, in the background because we're in a slightly unique situation, I guess.
“We want to bring on young drivers, we want to bring on young talent, and of course we have one eye on them progressing in the future.
“So, it's not just about the here and now, it's also about what they can do in the future.”
Lawson’s ‘here and now’ is very good. But he clearly hasn’t shown enough within the Red Bull family to be a top-level Red Bull Racing option again, which seems to be what matters most of all. Racing Bulls’ primary sporting purpose is still, ultimately, to be a driver finishing school for the main team.
Having dropped Lawson from the senior team ruthlessly after two races last year, Red Bull does not think he has a long-term place at either team. So the implication is they are wondering if it’s worth keeping Lawson around rather than building up anew with Lindblad and Tsolov.
It’s a big shame, as Lawson has evidently proved himself worthy of a place on the grid this season. The sad reality is that if Racing Bulls were its own sporting entity, which it should be, his future would surely be a non-issue – but Lawson wouldn’t be at Racing Bulls in the first place without Red Bull, nor would Lindblad be alongside him, and nor would Tsolov be an option. Unfortunately, you can’t separate the ideal sporting reality of Racing Bulls from the complex wider reality it exists in.
Linked to that – it also sounds like Lawson could be paying the price for a silly incident in Mexico. He did not endear himself to the Max Verstappen side of the Red Bull equation with their needless run-in in Mexico, which prompted Verstappen to make a remark about Lawson’s uncertain future. Whether you think either was more to blame than the other does not really matter; what was curious in Brazil is Lawson seemingly implying it changed something.
Lawson said “I definitely didn't think it'd have such an impact”, and admitted that the joy of finishing seventh after starting from the pitlane was diminished by his wider situation.
“It was hard,” he said. “Every day was just a hard day with everything that was happening. Even though the race was great, I probably hadn't quite got over the weekend’s…or the things that had happened over that weekend.”
It might all work out in his favour, but it’s becoming more of a story than anyone realistically expected it would. As good as Tsolov could be – and he definitely deserves a chance sooner or later – it’s absurd that the season in which Lawson is making by far his most compelling ever case to stay on as a grand prix driver is the one in which he has no security whatsoever.
But with Verstappen and Isack Hadjar locked in at Red Bull Racing, if the mentality is that Racing Bulls must serve the senior team for the longer term, you can see how the door opens to Lawson being jettisoned – even if he doesn’t deserve it.
The Race ·
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