Lawson on his ‘rollercoaster’ 2024 and his Red Bull goal

Liam Lawson has become a master at biding his time. The New Zealander has been itching to earn promotion to Formula 1 ever since he became a Red Bull reserve driver in 2022.

He got a sniff of the big time when he subbed in for the injured Daniel Ricciardo for a five-race stint, which included a superb points finish in Singapore with ninth, but then had to head back to the bench for the rest of the year when Ricciardo returned.

The 22-year-old missed out on a seat this year, much to his frustration, but when Red Bull decided Ricciardo was, in their eyes, no longer strong enough to continue racing for them, they moved the eight-time winner on and installed Lawson for the final six races of the season – starting with this weekend’s United States Grand Prix.

“The biggest part about it was relief,” said Lawson, when we caught up in Formula 1’s HQ in Biggin Hill, just after he completed his green screen photoshoot to provide footage of him for the opening titles on the international broadcast.

ZANDVOORT, NETHERLANDS - AUGUST 25: Liam Lawson of New Zealand and Visa Cash App RB looks on in the — Lawson will race for RB, in place of Daniel Ricciardo, for the final six races of the 2024 season

“It’s funny – when I called my Dad and my family and everyone who supports me, from their side as well, it was just pure relief before any other emotion. And that’s what it was like for me as well.

“It’s been a massive journey since when I was very, very young, so for all of us, it was relief before any excitement.”

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'It’s just been a rollercoaster'

Lawson has found it tough on the sidelines, particularly this year as he didn’t have a racing programme to dovetail alongside his reserve role. At many races, he felt like a bit of a spare part. Given his ambition and performances behind the wheel for AlphaTauri last year, that’s understandable. It’s no surprise he grew frustrated.

“It’s been a tricky year most of the time,” he adds. “It’s just been a rollercoaster because obviously me getting a seat means somebody doesn’t get a seat and that is changing every weekend. One weekend, someone has a good result, the next weekend, someone doesn’t.

“You can get really caught up with it. I was trying not to focus on it too much. It goes back and forth, it looks good for a bit, and then it looks not so good. So, it’s been a bit more difficult than usual.”

Liam Lawson Exclusive: Return to the F1 grid was 'pure relief'

It was particularly difficult because there was a carrot being dangled in front of him. Red Bull were evaluating whether to keep Sergio Perez in the Red Bull seat alongside Max Verstappen and whether or not to keep Ricciardo at RB alongside Yuki Tsunoda. Ricciardo had a shot of moving up to replace Perez if they moved the Mexican on, providing he delivered.

Lawson, meanwhile, was considered for both the Red Bull and RB seat. There were so many possibilities.

It’s no wonder the New Zealander found the situation so challenging to deal with, especially as he was not in a situation to lay his stall out with performances on track.

“I think it [the support from Red Bull] definitely helps, but it’s a long time so as much as the reassurance is nice, it was a really long time,” says Lawson of the wait.

“I haven’t driven much this year so every test I’ve had, although they said it’s not a performance evaluation, it’s just a test – you still know they are judging you.

“When you have only a few opportunities to drive, it makes those tests more important. The team have been good about it the whole year, but after a certain amount of time, it gets frustrating.”

ZANDVOORT, NETHERLANDS - AUGUST 23: Liam Lawson of New Zealand and Visa Cash App RB and Yuki — Lawson will race alongside Yuki Tsunoda at RB

'I know they wanted to give me a shot at some point'

Lawson did a good enough job in those tests, which included runs in both old-spec Red Bull and RB machinery to convince Red Bull he had the potential to deliver not only in the RB but also the Red Bull should they decide to move on from Sergio Perez.

With that in mind, they needed to get him the car sooner rather than later, so during the Azerbaijan weekend, they told Lawson the news he had been hoping – and needing – to hear.

“Baku was the point I was told,” he says. “Things change very quickly during the year. There were points when things were looking good and points when it wasn’t looking so good. I always knew the incentive was to give me a shot, and I’ve known that since last year, Christian [Horner, Red Bull boss] told me that personally.

“I know they wanted to give me a shot at some point – and I trusted that as well. But it’s hard, after that amount of time, to be patient. As much as I believed it, it was getting quite difficult.

“It was leaning towards this direction – not exactly where I was going to go, but that I was going to get a seat somewhere – that was the direction it was heading in for the last few weeks leading into Singapore and it was Baku when they gave me the decision.”

Red Bull are hard taskmasters. They’ve never been afraid to drop or demote drivers mid-season – such as Nyck de Vries, Daniel Kyvat, Pierre Gasly, Alex Albon and Ricciardo to name a few – or entirely from the programme. Even if you perform to their desired level, there still needs to be a seat available to move into.

When Lawson was overlooked for a full-time seat this year, despite a strong showing as a super sub, and then watched as each race ticked by this year without him getting the nod to replace one of Red Bull’s stable of four race drivers, did he start to think it was never going to happen for him?

MONTREAL, CANADA - JUNE 7: Liam Lawson of New Zealand and Visa Cash App RB Formula One Team and — Lawson says that he was told by Christian Horner the incentive was always to give him a shot

Lawson pauses and considers his answer before replying: “Honestly from when I was a kid, I never had that thought [that I would never make it as a full-time F1 driver], which was quite weird. When I was in New Zealand racing go-karts and even entry-level cars there, for some reason, I always felt like I was going to be in Formula 1.

“I would say those thoughts [not getting a race seat full-time] have only ever come into my mind in the last 12 months. It never really felt like that before then. And I didn’t think that I wasn’t going to get a seat, it was more that I was questioning whether it was going to work out.

“Obviously I needed to replace somebody, and obviously after a certain amount of time I wasn’t sure where that was going to be.”

'It was definitely a difficult weekend for all of us, especially for Daniel'

Eight-time race winner and Netflix’s Drive to Survive fan favourite Ricciardo is who Lawson is stepping in for. He knew this during the Singapore Grand Prix weekend.

Ricciardo knew this then, too. But there was no official confirmation – which made for an odd situation.

“It was definitely a difficult weekend for all of us, especially for Daniel,” says Lawson. “It’s something that we knew going in what the situation was. For me, I was lucky. I didn’t have to do too much media, I could keep myself away from that. But it wasn’t like that for all of us.”

Daniel Ricciardo and RB part ways

It’s a measure of who Lawson is – and how much he respected Ricciardo – that he went to chat to the Australian in Singapore to discuss the impending change. The two are friends and have got on well together during their time in the same team, even if they were vying for the same seat.

“Luckily he’s a great guy,” says Lawson when he recalls that conversation. “He knew it was nothing to do with me. And that’s probably the thing with Daniel for the whole time we’ve been in this situation.

“Even for the last 12 months, it’s never felt like we were in direct competition as much as we all are in the sport in some way.

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“With Daniel, it never really felt like that, he was always good to me, he was always open to giving advice when I was driving. He was good to me throughout the year, in any way he could be.

“So, it never felt like we were in direct competition for a seat. We were also at very different point in our career, so that’s something that probably helped that.

“I went and saw him and said obviously sorry about this whole situation as it’s not nice, and sorry you had to go through it. But he said there’s obviously nothing against me, and he said ‘you get one shot at F1, make sure you take it’ – and he said ‘good luck’.”

SINGAPORE, SINGAPORE - SEPTEMBER 22: Daniel Ricciardo of Australia and Visa Cash App RB on the grid — Ricciardo's last race was in Singapore, where he knew he was to be replaced by the 22-year-old New Zealander afterwards

The mission at hand

The focus now is on making the most of this opportunity. The mission is simple. He must beat team mate Tsunoda in the final six races.

The New Zealander knows the Japanese racer well, having spent five races alongside him but they've also raced as team mates in F2 and the Toyota Racing Series in New Zealand. They’ve even lived in the same building for a while. Lawson, then, knows exactly what he’s up against.

“[The target set by Red Bull of needing to beat Tsunoda is] pretty much what I expected, they don’t want to see me going in there and seeing me outperformed for the rest of the year – but it’s always been like that,” adds Lawson.

“With Yuki, we’ve been compared since we were 17 or 18 years old. He’s had a really good start to the season, and he’s been performing better this year than any other year but also the team has changed up a lot this year and is heading in a really great direction so it’s exciting to be part of that as well.”

Lawson will only have one practice to get up to speed this weekend in Austin as it’s a Sprint weekend, but this doesn’t seem to faze him. It’s clearly helped his confidence that he was able to do deliver instantly when he subbed for Ricciardo – he only had one practice in his first race in the Netherlands after stepping in for FP3 onwards – and the nature of the Red Bull programme has toughened him up to the extent that he is schooled in learning to deliver from the off.

MONTE-CARLO, MONACO - MAY 26: Liam Lawson of New Zealand and Visa Cash App RB looks on in the — Lawson's goal is to become a Red Bull driver but knows his performances for RB will be key

“Everyone has their own views of the Red Bull programme, especially the junior programme and how tough it is,” he says. “At the time, I probably felt like it was too tough at times, but honestly that is what has prepared all of us who have been through it to get to F1.

“If you can’t survive that part of the programme, if you can’t survive it at that age, you’re never going to be able to survive in Formula 1 anyway.

“It’s something that I’m really thankful for now, to do the five races last year. I don’t think I would have been able to do that at a decent level if I hadn’t been through that programme. I would hate to think what it’s like to jump into F1 without having the experience of that pressure from a young age. The expectation on us is something that helps build you for F1.”

The next six races are essentially a job interview for Lawson. Fail to deliver and he could be out. Do a decent job and he’ll likely be in the RB alongside Tsunoda full-time next year.

Go above and beyond and he’ll be giving Red Bull the good kind of headache – an option to move up to the Red Bull works squad. It’s clear which one Lawson is targeting.

“The conversations have always been in the direction of becoming a Red Bull driver in the future and that’s what I’ve said to them – that’s what I want to become, that’s why I joined the team and want to stay with them and join them in F1,” he says.

“That’s my goal and their goal, I think, is to have drivers to replace current drivers in the future at some point. That’s the goal. When that could happen, I have no absolutely idea. But I know it’ll be based on how I perform in the car.”