Lawson reveals Ricciardo’s classy attitude amid Racing Bulls axe

Recalling that very weekend — when the Australian was sidelined in his favour, paving the way for the true beginning of his full-time F1 career — Lawson said: “For us, it was obviously extremely uncomfortable.

The New Zealander also revealed that he received a message of support from Ricciardo in Baku, where Lawson qualified third and went on to finish fifth, holding off Yuki Tsunoda and Lando Norris.

Lawson continued: “He sent me a nice message after Baku, and he’s obviously off on his own journey at the moment. He’s just somebody who’s been very supportive, obviously.”

He finally added: "We're from the same part of the world as well so it's something that we probably both understand. It's quite difficult to get to this point and we're both very lucky."

Lawson isn’t the only one to have faced a difficult spell in his career this year. Although, unlike him, he hasn’t been demoted by any team, Kimi Antonelli has also endured a challenging mid-season period in his rookie Formula 1 campaign — a stretch that drew criticism towards him.

More recently, however, the Italian has begun to show flashes of his talent again, finishing fourth in Baku and fifth in Singapore.

Still, while Lawson understands what it means to handle the pressure of driving for a top team, he admits it’s hard to fully empathise with Antonelli’s situation, having had only two races with Red Bull to prove his worth.