Last Updated on September 28 2024, 1:57 pm

Liam Lawson enjoyed his F1 debut ;last year when he deputised for the injured Daniel Ricciardo who broke his hands during his comeback racing in Zandvoort. His five Grand Prix weekends saw him finish 2-1 ahead of team mate Yuki Tsunoda in the three races where both drivers finished.

Lawson and Ricciardo attended a test in Silverstone following this year’s birth Grand Prix, but unlike in 2023 when at a similar event Ricciardo was lauded as F1 worthy, Red Bull revealed little about Lawson’s performance.

The word in the paddock was the New Zealander failed to live up to expectations and as RTJ13 reports to day, Lawson’s future drive for the Red Bull organisation in 2025 is not yet secured.

 

 

 

Lawson not exactly bullish

Liam Lawson has six Grand Prix weekends to impress and secure a percent drive with Red Bull for 2025. His first race weekend in Austin will see him take an engine penalty and start the Sprint race from the back of the grid.

Yet the Daniel Ricciardo replacement was not exactly bullish over his chances of impressing the Red Bull hierarchy. He claims joining F1 at this time of year is a handicap for him, because other drivers have three quarters of a season experience with the cars, while Lawson comes in cold.

“I’ve dreamed of being a Formula One driver since I was a kid, and I’m very happy to say that dream is finally come true. I want to thank VCARB and Red Bull for this opportunity, I’m extremely grateful and excited to get to work,” said the New Zealander

“Obviously I’m very happy, but it’s six rounds left in the season, so I’m coming in at a difficult time,” he said. “It’s going to be a very challenging point. All these [drivers] have done three quarters of a season now, so I have to try and compete with that – at tracks that I haven’t done [driven at] as well.

”FIA fail again over new F1 calendar

 

 

 

Colapinto relishes chance

Compare this mental approach to that of Franco Colapinto who replaced the hapless Logan Sargeant for Williams at the recent Italian Grand Prix. Second time out the F1 rookie scored four points in Azerbaijan, quadruple that of his American predecessor who competed in third seven Grand Prix weekends.

Knowing he has a limited time to impress, Colapinto said after Monza qualifying, “To achieve Q3 in only my second Qualifying session in F1 is an amazing feeling for me and the team. I was not expecting to go into Q3 as I was just going session by session building up throughout.”

“The car has been on point so far this weekend and I’ve been getting more comfortable with the car and learning a new track. I think we maximised almost every run we did today. We had a difficult start yesterday, but we’ve done a great job to turn it around. It was important to build my confidence up after the crash in FP1 especially at a street track,” the Argentinian said.

Franco admitted he made a mistake in FP1 by putting his car in the wall which was costly during the race on Sunday as he had no long run data to rely on.

Ecclestone verdict on Schumacher F1 return

 

 

 

Williams trying to place Franco with Audi

Williams boss James Vowles recently told the Wall Street Journal despite with no seat available for 2025, Colapinto will remain a Williams academy driver. He suggests they are in talks with Audi to take the young superstar as they take control of the current Sauber operation.

“So, Franco will always be a part of the academy in our programme, irrespective, anyway.

“What he will be next year is if Audi don’t take him, and for transparency, we are in conversations to see if that is a route for him, where he could be on the grid with them for two years.

“Then what we would do [if he stays] is we run a two-year-old car, which is actually the same specification, pretty much, as what we’re running now, and he’d be running in that for thousands and thousands of kilometres to keep himself basically in a good shape.”

New role for Ricciardo at Red Bull

 

 

 

Marko muses Ricciardo decisions

Meanwhile Lawson has no guarantees beyond Abu Dhabi this year and once drivers leave the Red Bull academy programme, their future careers is more often than not down to them.

Dr. Marko was clear in his analysis of Ricciardo’s F1 decisions. “I think the decision to leave Red Bull Racing was the turning point in his career.” Ricciardo decided to leave Red Bull in 2018 despite fairing well against Verstappen across three seasons. Yet following a coming together between the pair along the straight in Baku, Ricciardo felt the team had favoured Verstappen and so the wrtigin was on the wall.

“Then he didn’t have a winning car at either Renault or McLaren. He did win at Monza, but those were special circumstances,” added Marko.

“I don’t know what exactly happened, because if we knew, we would have helped him. But the speed and, above all, this late braking, and then he goes left or right… in these last few years he tried but it was no longer there, the killer instinct was gone.”

Lawson to be “evaluated” with no guarantees for 2025

 

 

 

Lawson ‘no excuses’ and crack on

Sources close to Ricciardo have suggested he was concerned about the incoming Honda power unit and that the sweet talking Cyril Abiteboul had persuaded Daniel as a full blown constructor Renault were set to come good.

“Financially, there wasn’t much difference between what Renault offered him and what we offered,” says Marko. “I also told him: ‘Shoeys will be hard for you’. I don’t think we’ve seen Renault on the podium a lot. 

He came to us, beating Vettel with three-to-zero victories in 2014 and after that, Daniil Kvyat was faster than him at times, but over the season he also had him under control. “And then Max came and he got stronger and stronger, so that was certainly one of the reasons for his decision to choose Renault over us.”

Liam Lawson will realise quickly enough that being a Red Bull driver means no excuses are allowed. He should be looking at the next six races as a guild edged opportunity, nit complain his experience is behind the curve.

Update: Steiner vs Haas court case

 

 

 

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