Lawson sympathises with Ricciardo: 'Told me a couple of weeks ago'

Despite achieving his "dream" as a result of the ousting, Liam Lawson is sympathetic towards Daniel Ricciardo. The Australian has been forced out of Visa Cash App RB and will not complete the 2024 Formula 1 season. Lawson, who has replaced Ricciardo, reveals he knew a few weeks ago and didn't enjoy the Singapore Grand Prix because of the impending news.

Lawson spoke about this in a conversation with Newstalk ZB in New Zealand. During the Singapore weekend, strong rumours were indicated Ricciardo would be competing in his final F1 weekend. Yet there was no official news from the team. Ricciardo was forced to answer questions on his future without giving indications of the outcome. Though the 35-year-old was very emotional after Sunday's race.

Lawson says he didn't enjoy watching that: "We all knew what was sort of coming. And, you know, at the same time, Daniel has always been very good to me, in a lot of ways. When I drove last year and then even this season, he’s always been somebody that there’s never been… I’ve never felt sort of in competition with him or anything like that. He never made it feel like that. So it wasn’t a nice feeling," he said.

So Ricciardo knew it was his last race in Formula One, although he did not state that in the paddock. Lawson has a lot of respect for the way the Australian handled the situation there. "I can’t really imagine what that.. it’s a similar position I was in last year but obviously the guy is a lot more famous than I am, so he’s getting a lot of questions and trying to sidestep those."

Lawson had a contract with Red Bull, which stated that he had to be sure of a seat in Formula One by Sunday in Azerbaijan. If that was not there at that time, Lawson was free to go wherever he wanted. "And then a couple of weeks ago, basically they told me, ‘This is what was going to happen,’ and then basically, not long after that, it was basically set in stone," Lawson reflected.