Red Bull and RB recently confirmed that Daniel Ricciardo will be leaving the team mid-season and will be replaced by Liam Lawson, who served as the reserve driver for RB till the Singapore Grand Prix.
This will be a huge opportunity for the New Zealander who could make his RB seat permanent with a good outing in the last six races of the season and potentially make his case to replace Sergio Perez in the Red Bull next season.
“I’ve basically got to the end of the season, and then I’ll find out more. At this stage, it’s the six races plus the three sprints. I need to perform basically. I need to try and show my worth in F1 and do a similar job to what I did last year.” Lawson said after the promotion.
Lawson made the leap from karting to junior formula racing in 2015, clinching his first championship in the 2016–17 NZ F1600 Championship. He also finished as the runner-up in the 2017 Australian F4, the 2018 ADAC F4, and the 2019 Euroformula Open championships.
In 2019, Lawson won the Toyota Racing Series with the M2 Competition. He then transitioned to Formula 3 in the same year and raced for MP Motorsport, accumulating 41 points and finishing in eleventh place. The following year, he switched teams to Hitech Grand Prix, where he garnered 143 points and achieved a fifth-place overall finish.
In the 2021 Formula 2 season, Lawson continued with Hitech Grand Prix, securing 103 points and ending the season in ninth place. The subsequent season saw him join Carlin, where he accumulated 149 points and finished third overall.
Liam Lawson’s previous Formula 1 experience
The United States Grand Prix won’t be the first time that Lawson will be racing in the F1. The 22-year-old has already made a name for himself in 2023 when Daniel Ricciardo broke his hand in the practice session of the Dutch GP while racing for Alpha Tauri. Lawson, being their reserve driver, was called up as a quick replacement for the Aussie.
After starting the race from the back of the grid, Lawson fought his way to a respectable 13th position, fighting Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and finishing ahead of teammate Yuki Tsunoda in the process. He was confirmed as an Alpha Tauri driver until Ricciardo was medically fit. In the Singapore GP, he famously knocked out Max Verstappen from Q2, which was an achievement in itself given the Verstappen’s dominance in the 2023 season. He managed to score two points from the race which were his first points of the F1 career.
Read More: Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Exit: 5 Moments That Made the Australian a Popular F1 Driver
Mohd Faisal Hakak is a sports author from Kashmir. He likes to keep tabs on the sporting world with a keen interest in football, motorsports, NBA, and other marquee sports. He is a science graduate from Islamia College Srinagar.
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