“Hello Liam, welcome to Formulation 1. Oh, by the best way, you’ve got acquired a 10-place grid penalty for the dash race on account of an unscheduled engine swap.”
It maybe isn’t the best way that Liam Lawson had envisaged ahead of his long-awaited full-time debut with RB, however the New Zealander is prone to be not too bothered concerning the grid drop.
The penalty will come on the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas – sarcastically the race the place the motive force he’s changing, Daniel Ricciardo, has plentiful help.
Lawson is poised to be measured in each element as he replaces the favored and vibrant Australian, who bowed out in an emotional final hurrah on the Singapore Grand Prix.
There shall be no method he can fill the void left by Ricciardo’s character, which has left a gaping gap in F1, however that is not Lawson’s job. The 22-year-old’s duty now’s to make sure that RB stays forward of Haas within the constructors’ championship and has a powerful finish of the marketing campaign in preparation for 2025.
The truth is, Lawson’s grid drop may even be a blessing in disguise, for it should take the strain off as he assessments himself towards team-mate Yuki Tsunoda.
Apart from, what’s a low spot on the grid for a dash race within the grand scheme of issues?
Lawson has been enjoying the position of Pink Bull’s reserve driver for 33 months – however for 5 races the place he crammed in, fairly admirably so, in 2023 when Ricciardo was out with a damaged wrist.
Liam Lawson, Reserve Driver, Visa Money App RB F1 Group
Photograph by: Alastair Staley / Motorsport Pictures
Lawson had bided his time on the sidelines, travelling to races within the useless hope of getting behind the wheel, collaborating in hours of classes on the workforce’s simulator, listening to every race debrief.
He has performed the lengthy sport and been rewarded for his loyalty, one thing which the person who has backed his name as much as RB holds in excessive regard.
Helmut Marko, head of Pink Bull Racing’s junior programme, has lengthy pushed for Lawson to exchange Ricciardo, whose profession had been ailing.
Fact be advised, Marko had by no means recovered his fondness for Ricciardo after taking a dim view of his determination to shake on a brand new take care of him and the late Pink Bull founder Dietrich Mateschitz for 2019, solely to then go and signal for Renault.
It was Marko who first noticed Lawson when he was racing in his native New Zealand throughout the identical time of Ricciardo’s defection to Renault.
Marko had gone to look at Pink Bull-backed Austrian Lucas Auer within the Toyota Racing Sequence which used to run for 5 weeks over January in New Zealand in the course of the summertime.
Talking on Pink Bull’s Speaking Bulls podcast, Lawson stated: “I suppose Helmut was watching due to Lucas racing. I had a extremely good first weekend. I by no means thought something like that will occur.
“Being a Pink Bull Junior was one thing that… I keep in mind, the yr earlier than, I raced in F4 in Europe and Jack Doohan was a Pink Bull junior on the time, and we examined collectively someplace – might need been Hockenheim in Germany.
Liam Lawson, AlphaTauri AT04
Photograph by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Pictures
“I keep in mind seeing him strolling round in his Pink Bull swimsuit and I keep in mind considering that was so cool and the way cool it could be to be a Pink Bull junior.”
Lawson says that quickly after his maiden weekend within the sequence, the place he received two out of the three races, he obtained a name that will change his life eternally.
“I acquired the decision up after that first weekend in New Zealand, I discovered one or two days after the weekend – I used to be sitting in a restaurant, I keep in mind precisely the place I used to be sitting.
“I keep in mind I could not stroll. It was actually unusual. I acquired advised, and I used to be clearly fairly emotional however I used to be like, ‘Dude, I gotta go for a stroll’, and I could not actually stroll correctly. It was tremendous bizarre.
“It was a giant achievement as a result of, lengthy story quick, being from New Zealand and making an attempt to compete abroad, it is actually, actually laborious to get the cash to compete abroad.
“So we arrange, in New Zealand, a gaggle of wonderful individuals which have been behind me, sponsors and traders, the construction to principally get sufficient cash to go to Europe and do a season and attempt to get recognised by a junior workforce as a result of with out it, there was no likelihood of attending to F1.
“I did that first season in Europe, and I had a superb season, however I did not have any call-ups from any groups, after which I simply did this championship in New Zealand over the low season with no plan of what I used to be doing in 2019, and I acquired principally picked up on the excellent time, and it saved my profession.
“With out it, I had 4 weeks left in that championship, after which I had no plan after that.”
Lawson has since been compelled to play the ready sport earlier than being handed his likelihood when Ricciardo crashed in second follow in Zandvoort in 2023. Whereas Ricciardo was on the sidelines, Lawson impressed within the Dutch, Italian, Singapore, Japan and Qatar GPs – the spotlight being the race on the Marina Bay Circuit the place he posted a ninth-placed end.
He now has his full alternative to showcase his skill and show that on a regular basis spent studying from the sidelines was price it.
