Lawson has great start in Japan: 'I certainly didn't expect this'

After finishing third in the 2022 Formula 2 championship and completing several F1 tests, Helmut Marko felt Liam Lawson needed to make one more move. The New Zealander will compete in Super Formula in Japan this year, where Pierre Gasly once did in the past. Lawson hopes to get a place at AlphaTauri after all. With a win in his first race, he has started well. GPblog spoke to the Red Bull junior in Azerbaijan.

The talent of the Red Bull Junior Team

Lawson has been considered one of the greatest talents from the Red Bull Junior Team for years. He has already made a big impression in various step-up classes. At a young age, he moved from New Zealand to Europe to race in the highest categories. Although Red Bull eventually spotted him in his home country during the Toyota Racing Series, his performances in Europe have been impressive from day one.

The only thing missing from Lawson's CV so far is a major title, although luck has rarely been on his side. For instance, his championship aspirations in Formula 3 were dashed several times by reliability problems with his car, and he was taken out of the race in the DTM championship final from the leading position.

Marko still believes in Lawson but felt it was time for another challenge after F2. Franz Tost was impressed by Lawson's performance in several tests for AlphaTauri, but Marko preferred to see Lawson at work in Super Formula. There, the cars are faster, physically more demanding and, above all, an English-speaking driver has to overcome a language barrier. Lawson seized that challenge with both hands.

Racing in Japan

"It is something very different, but so far, I'm enjoying it a lot. The car is a lot quicker than what I'm used to. I had very limited F1 experience, but after doing a couple of sessions, I expected it to be quite a big step down. It's similar to F2, but it's a lot faster than F2. It's nice to drive, the teams are bigger as well, so a bigger operation to learn as well is really, really good. But it's very different, obviously, being in Japan, the culture's very different, circuits are a lot different, and the drivers are very experienced. Some of them have done 10 seasons and more, they've been racing a long time, so it's been a very new experience.

"I think the main step is the speed. So in Formula 2, the speed difference to Formula 1 is so large. The way you drive the car is very, very different. In Formula 2 the car is quite heavy and it doesn't respond the same way. And then Super Formula, I feel like it bridges that gap to Formula 1 a lot. In high speed, honestly, like in sector 1 in Suzuka, for example, the Super Formula car feels very similar to a Formula 1 car. Basically, how the aero works, it's very high downforce. So it feels more like a Formula 1 spec car with Formula 2 power, let's say. It's got a lot less power than Formula 1.

Lawson says the language barrier is the biggest hurdle to overcome, but at Team Mugen, they adapt quickly. "The whole team is Japanese, but my engineer and a lot of the guys around me are learning more and more English, which is great because it would take me a lot longer to try and learn Japanese, so I appreciate them doing that. But it makes it a lot easier." 

But how does this differ from Formula 2? In recent years, F1 has been aiming precisely at a motorsport ladder to prepare talents for the top class of motorsport. So why is it that the driver who finished third in the Formula 2 championship actually notices that there is a class where he can be even more prepared for F1?

Super Formula is faster than F2

"The level of professionalism is a higher level because it's bigger for a start, so already you have more people. I have more performance engineers around me to work with. The detail that they go into with car setup and things like that also feels more advanced. I’m spending a lot more time on fine details and car setup and things. And then you have obviously the engine supplies, you have Honda versus Toyota, you have both manufacturers pushing the limits with the engine, and that's quite cool."

Whereas the Formula 2 championship is run with similar chassis and engines, Super Formula is more of a championship between different teams and engine suppliers. Similar, then, to F1. The opposition is also much stronger. Whereas Lawson only faced drivers his age in F3 and F2, at Mugen, he drives alongside Tomoki Nojiro. A 33-year-old Japanese driver who won the Super Formula championship in the last two seasons.

"He's very fast, very experienced, won the last two championships. So it's really nice to have someone like that because I get access to all of his data, and I get to learn off that. But he's a really nice person, and all the team as well; they’re all really nice people, really welcoming and really supportive to someone like me coming from Europe."

Lawson paid off the team's trust immediately, as in his first race weekend in the class he won at the circuit in Fuji. This was not the first time Lawson has started the season so strongly. Similarly, he won the first race in Formula 2, but to do so in a class where you don't know the circuits is obviously special.

"It was a good start to the season. We didn't expect it, I certainly didn't expect it to be like that, but we had a really strong car in Fuji. And I think in the circumstances, I had a good quali, and we were just in a good position in the race, had a good strategy and then managed to win. Honestly, I couldn't really believe it and even after the race it took a couple of hours to realise what had happened. But it was also a nice feeling to know that as long as I do my job, I have a team that's really, really strong, and we're in a position to be fighting for the championship this year."

Chasing a seat in F1

His fifth and fourth-place finishes in the next two races showed that Lawson will not have a simple pathway to becoming champion, but his strength did come out clearly. Lawson himself starts laughing after being asked what his strength is. "I have absolutely no idea." Only to then come up with an answer anyway: "Maybe I can adapt easily to new things. In most things that I've driven, we've had pretty strong starts in the season. So maybe adapting to different cars."

The fact that he has adapted quickly helps, but the objective for this season, as always at Red Bull, is clear: we need to win. Not just the first race but the championship. Only then does the New Zealander seem to have a chance of earning a spot in F1 at AlphaTauri. He himself knows what he needs to work on to make that happen.

''This season qualifying is very difficult. Because all the tracks I go to, 90% of them, other than Suzuka, all the tracks we go to I've never driven at before. And I have one practice session to try and adapt, learn as quickly as possible. And then put the car on the limit in qualifying and try and be at the front. So the hardest part about this season is qualifying. And that's what we work the most on to try and prepare for driving as fast as I can. Trying to prepare for that as best as possible. And then the races. So far, we've had really strong race pace.

The Super Formula season resumes on the weekend of 19-21 May. Super Formula will then race at the Autopolis circuit in Hita. In addition to his commitments in Japan, Lawson will also be found at the F1 circuit more often as he did in Baku. He is the reserve driver for Red Bull Racing and AlphaTauri and will likely be in action during various tests. He could not yet reveal in Azerbaijan when that will be.