Lawson part of the Red Bull family
Liam Lawson has been part of the Red Bull family since 2019. As part of the Red Bull Junior Team, Lawson represented them throughout his F3 and F2 campaigns. His best finish in the F2 championship came in 2022 when he finished third after taking four victories and a further six podiums. The young New Zealander got his first experience in F1 machinery driving Red Bull's 2011 RB7 at the 2021 Goodwood Festival of Speed. He then took part in the 2021 Post-season Young Driver test in Abu Dhabi for Alpha Tauri (now Visa Cash App RB).
For 2022, Lawson was announced as the reserve driver for the Italian team before also becoming Red Bull's reserve driver. He made his free practice debut for the team in Belgium and also drove the car in Mexico. In Abu Dhabi in the same year, he drove for Red Bull in FP1. He completed the post-season young driver test again, this time with Red Bull. In 2023, he was again announced as a reserve and test driver for both Alpha Tauri and Red Bull Racing.
Super stand-in performances
After Nyck de Vries' sacking from AlphaTauri in 2023, Lawdon believed he had a chance of taking the seat alongside Yuki Tsunoda. However, the team opted for experience instead, choosing Daniel Ricciardo as De Vries' replacement. Lawson stated after that he "understood the decision" and admitted jumping in the car mid-season would be "extremely tough". However, it didn't take him long to get his chance to prove himself.
Lawson was called up to drive the Alpha Tauri at the 2023 Dutch Grand Prix after Ricciardo broke a bone during an FP2 crash. With limited practice time, Lawson qualified in P20. But he made up for it in the race, finishing P13 and ahead of his more experienced teammate Tsunoda. After the weekend, it was confirmed Lawson would stay in the seat until Ricciardo made a full recovery.
The 2023 Italian Grand Prix saw him qualify in P12, moving up one spot to P11 in the Grand Prix the next day. However, it was the Singapore Grand Prix that made everyone notice him. On the Saturday of that weekend, Lawson qualified P10 after knocking reigning world champion Max Verstappen out of qualifying. He scored his first points during the race, fighting with former Red Bull driver Alex Albon to finish ninth.
Lawson finished 11th again at the Japanese Grand Prix, but the New Zealander suffered a more difficult weekend in Qatar, where he spun out of the sprint race and finished last of the running cars. Ricciardo returned for the United States Grand Prix, but Lawson had done enough to get himself in contention for a seat. The 22-year-old continued as reserve driver for both teams for 2024, and on Thursday, June 11, 2024, completed a testing day for Red Bull Racing at Silverstone, further fuelling rumours he could replace Sergio Perez.
However, Red Bull decided to stick with experience once again, opting to extend the contract of Perez until 2026, meaning Lawson would not get his chance in the premier class of motorsport for another year.
Lawson replaces Ricciardo at VCARB
For the 2024 season, he took the position of Red Bull's reserve driver, doing tests and practice runs for the Austrian team in the process. However, talks of a contractual agreement between the New Zealander and Red Bull arose, suggesting that he would be required to race in F1 by mid-September, otherwise he would be able to leave.
That fuelled rumours in the paddock before the Austrian Grand Prix surrounding the future of Ricciardo, who had not received a contract extension from VCARB to continue in 2025, unlike Yuki Tsunoda. The Australian was, therefore, the most likely candidate to be replaced by Lawson as the rumours continued to grow throughout the weekend.
Ricciardo all but admitted that the Singapore Grand Prix would be his last race. On Thursday, the team confirmed Lawson will take his seat for the remaining six races of the 2024 season, starting with the United States Grand Prix. But will the New Zealander be offered a seat for 2025? Only time will tell.
