Liam Lawson enjoyed the dream start to his Formula One career when he substituted for the injured Daniel Ricciardo for five Grand Prix weekends last in the autumn of 2023. The New Zealander finished ahead of his team mate Yuki Tsunoda in four of their five outings together and was even the topic of paddock whispers to replace Daniel Ricciardo at the start of this year.
It appeared that Christian Horner got his way and Ricciardo was retained in the V-CARB pairing for 2024 even though Dr. Marko insisted he wanted to see Lawson get a full time drive for part of this year. Yet the widely hoped for the comeback of the Aussie into something like his previous form failed to materialise and Lawson was given six races to prove his worth.
Liam returned to F1 with a bang, electing against hiss team’s advice to run a one stop race at the USGP. As it turned out the event which is usually a two stop strategy became a one stopper for many of the field given the new asphalt had reduced sliding and tyre wear.
Red bull junior hits the ground running
The Red Bull junior driver did though cause some controversy within the team as he emerged ahead of Yuki Tsuynoda after his single stop for fresh tyres. The famous ‘red mist’ descended on the Japanese driver who uttered an expletive over team radio before demanding, “tell me how this could happen?”
Tsunoda was clearly rattled as his engineer was forced to remind of him a penalty he’d served earlier in the race for his part in a coming together with Alex Albon. Lawson did however manage to upset Fernando Alonso during the Sprint after the Aston Martin had overtaken the RB along the back straight before the infamous turn 12.
Red Bull’s young gun braked later than Fernando, performing a switch back style move and squeezing the Spanish driver as he re-took the place. “Man, the AlphaTauri is such an idiot,” Alonso said on on team radio, referencing the RB team’s previous name.
The pair were seen in animated conversation after the session with Lawson subsequently bleating to the media that Alonso had said he was going to “screw him over.” As reporters pressed Alonso over the issue, he recalled a similar event he had with Lance Stroll back in 2022.
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“I think on the straight we nearly crashed like I did with Lance two years ago, at 300 something [kph], and then the way he squeezed out of the corners to the track limits itself, in lap one out of 11,” said Fernando though he re-iterated he did not wish to make a big deal of the matter.
Yet Lawson came home in ninth place bringing a much needed haul of two points as V-CARB attempt to reel in their arch rivals Haas F1. Next time out in Mexico City, Lawson qualified in twelfth right behind team mate Yuki Tsunoda but his race was not to be a repeat of his giant killing feats in Austin, Texas.
With Yuki crashing out before even turn one, it appeared set fair for the Red Bull junior to eclipse his team mate once again. However, Lawson was to encounter a charging Sergio Perez who despite a false start had carved his way through the field to P11 by lap 13.
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Lawson went ‘too far’ in Perez duel
As Checo closed in on the V-CARB driver the new Zealander ran wide at turn 4 and as the wheel to wheel action continued to the next corner, the pair collided leaving the Mexican with substantial damage to his side pod and floor.
Red Bull’s boss of the young driver program, Dr. Helmut Marko spoke to Austrian channel ORF about the Lawson and Perez incident. “You can’t talk about his [Perez] performance because his car was so damaged.
“So there was no way he could drive on the limit. And also the performance of the car was terrible. I would say that we could not make the car work on the hard tyre or the medium tyre.” The 81 year old Austrian revealed the extent of the downforce loss Checo had suffered as being in the region of “60 points. So the car was far from competitive.”
Marko was in no doubt who was to blame for the incident and it made matters worse that both drivers are from the same racing stable. “[It was] an unnecessary collision, where I see Lawson as being more to blame.”
Lawson shows a lack of respect
The pair met again on track around lap 42 although this time Lawson easily overtook the stricken Red Bull RB20 on ageing tyres. The latest Red Bull driver was clearly upset with Perez for the earlier incident and so he flicked the Mexican the bird as he cruised on by, something Checo commented upon later.
“Checo was also very upset with Lawson. So I think we have to sit down and discuss it here,” Marko told Viaplay. “But we know Lawson is a very tough racer. He’s very difficult to overtake. But it shouldn’t be [this fighting within a team], not team-mates, but with sister teams. There should be more respect.”
So Liam Lawson is clearly making his mark as he sets course on his six weekends race “evaluation,” as Marko described it. Yet upsetting senior F1 drivers Fernando Alonso and Sergio Perez in consecutive races would hardly have been in the V-CARB driver’s play book.
Christian Horner was pressed after another miserable weekend for Sergio Perez as to whether the team would consider replacing the Mexican with academy driver Liam Lawson before the season ends. His response was not categoric but he said, “I think it’s highly, highly unlikely. We’ll sit down and look and try and understand what happened in this race.”
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Perez furious with V-CARB driver
Perez on the other hand was furious with Red Bull’s latest youngster, “I think the way he has come to Formula 1, I don’t think he has the right attitude for it,” Checo told the assembled media.
In what was clearly a reference to the middle finger salute issued by Lawson, Sergio calls for V-CARB’ss young gun “to be a bit more humble, you know. When [a] two-time World Champion [Fernando Alonso] was saying things last weekend, he completely ignored him.”
“It’s like when you come to Formula 1, you’re obviously very hungry and so on, but you have to be as well respectful off-track and on-track,” added Checo. “I don’t think he’s showing the right attitude to show a good pace for himself, because I think he’s a great driver. I hope for him that he can step back and learn from it,” he concluded.
Should Lawson share in the task of hauling in the Haas F1 team, then these spats will be quickly forgotten. Although upsetting Fernando Alonso first race back and being threatened by your boss to “show more respect” is hardly the back story Liam would want to be trailing.
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Both cars left the circuit, but the world champion escaped a sanction from the stewards because his McLaren rival completed an overtake outside track limits. The Woking based F1 team sought a ‘right of review’ from the stewards following previously unseen onboard footage from the Red Bull car showed Lando Norris had completed the pass before the corner.
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With over 30 years of experience in Formula 1 as an insider journalist, I have built trusted connections across the paddock, from race engineers and mechanics to senior team figures. At The Judge 13, I and a handful of trusted colleagues share exclusive Formula 1 news, expert analysis and behind-the-scenes stories you will not find in mainstream motorsport media.
