Formula One: Liam Lawson on pressure to perform at Red Bull and Daniel Ricciardo’s message in hunt for 2025 seat

Liam Lawson has finally been given the green light by Red Bull but enters the Formula One season chasing the pack. With six races left, and tracks he’s never raced, the odds seemed stacked against the young Kiwi. In this interview, the F1 driver opens up on the pressures of the sport, the temptation to move teams and how only results will keep him where he wants to be.

Having finally ticked off his life’s ambition of sealing a place in Formula One, Liam Lawson knows he has to perform to stay there.

Last Friday, more than a year on from being told there was no place for him on the grid this season, Red Bull confirmed the sport’s worst-kept secret and announced the 22-year-old Kiwi would finish the season with its subsidiary team, Racing Bulls.

That confirmation came after Lawson was expected to be announced as a driver for 2025 as well, in accordance with a clause in his Red Bull contract which allowed him to leave if not signed by September 15.

Regardless of the time he’s in the car, Lawson is nonetheless on the Formula One grid, something for which the Hastings-born, Pukekohe-raised driver has always strived.

Speaking to the Herald from California, Lawson admitted he’s had little time to dwell on the scale of his achievement.

“It’s amazing how your brain just goes straight onto the next thing,” he said. “For me, getting that piece of paper was a very nice feeling, obviously. Calling my parents, calling everyone involved with me on this journey, it was amazing to do that.

“But then very quickly, right now, we’re getting to work. I’m racing in a couple of weeks’ time. I need to perform now to sort the next thing.”

That next thing will undoubtedly be securing his future long term. Lawson’s ascension comes with Red Bull backed into a corner as the 2024 Formula One season approaches an epic conclusion.

After starting the year as the dominant force, Red Bull’s plans have fallen apart amid the challenge of McLaren.

While Lawson’s senior stablemate Max Verstappen holds a 52-point advantage in the drivers’ championship, McLaren have supplanted Red Bull at the top in the race for the coveted constructors’ title and lead by 41 points.

The gulf between Red Bull and McLaren comes down the fortunes of Verstappen’s teammate, Sergio Perez. While Verstappen has scored 331 points with seven wins, Perez languishes in eighth with 144 points – and no wins.

Those fortunes saw Lawson touted as a mid-season replacement earlier this year, only for the 34-year-old Mexican driver to be backed to turn his fortunes around.

And even though Perez has a contract in place for the 2025 season and a Red Bull option for 2026, nothing is guaranteed without results.

Liam Lawson in the Racing Bulls garage at the Singapore Grand Prix. Photo / Getty Images

Depending on what you read into Lawson’s six-race opportunity, there is definitely a world in which the Kiwi is auditioning to step in and partner Verstappen next year, given Racing Bulls’ presence as a feeder into the senior team.

Offering up such short contracts is not the modus operandi for an organisation wanting to stay at the top of Formula One. Red Bull will have a plan in place for Lawson, even if they’re yet to announce it publicly.

Should Perez be deemed surplus to requirements, Lawson and Racing Bulls teammate Yuki Tsunoda will be at the front of the queue to step up.

With that in mind, the Kiwi knows exactly what’s on the line for the rest of the year.

“Honestly, there’s definitely an indication. I’ve been given this opportunity for a reason. But obviously it’s always performance-based. Even when you have a full-year contract, or a multi-year contract, those can be broken.

“This sport is all performance-based. That’s what the teams are looking at. It’s not set in stone, I’m not guaranteed racing next year. That’s the target, that’s why they’ve given me this opportunity – to prepare me for hopefully driving next year.

“But they still need to evaluate how I go in the car. There’s an indication, but it’s not set in stone.”

In Lawson’s favour is the fact he’s already proven he can cut it in Formula One.

Over five races last year, deputising for an injured Daniel Ricciardo, Lawson outperformed teammate Yuki Tsunoda in four, and achieved the team’s then-best result of the season in Singapore. That display also saw Lawson knock Verstappen out of qualifying, coming hours after learning that at that stage he had no place in 2024.

Fittingly, after Singapore 2023 saw him learn he’d missed out, this year’s race was where Lawson learned he was in.

But there are two sides to every story. While Lawson is the beneficiary of Red Bull’s ruthless nature, Ricciardo is the man to make way.

The 35-year-old Australian is arguably the most loved motorsport athlete in any class, worldwide, thanks to his starring role in Netflix’s Drive to Survive documentary series.

In the hours that followed Lawson’s confirmation as a Racing Bulls driver, his personal social media accounts were flooded with abuse from Ricciardo loyalists, unable to accept their hero had to make way. That doesn’t take away from what Ricciardo has achieved in the sport, including more than 250 races for eight wins across both Red Bull and McLaren.

Given his role as Red Bull’s reserve driver, Lawson and Ricciardo have shared a garage for the better part of two years. And while Lawson knows he’s earned his chance to push for higher honours within Red Bull, Ricciardo has always been a positive influence in his development within Formula One.

“Throughout the last 12 months, from when he broke his hand, to me jumping in, to him stepping back in after that, and then all the way to this point now, I’ve never felt in competition with him,” Lawson said of Ricciardo.

“It’s strange, because I have been. We’re all in competition with each other whether you’re in a seat or not.

“He’s always been good to me. He was supportive of my situation versus his. We’re at different points in our careers, he’s always been supportive of my career starting.

“Singapore was rough, it wasn’t an enjoyable weekend for either of us. We both knew what was coming. He had to avoid answering questions, I had to avoid interviews altogether.

Daniel Ricciardo and Liam Lawson at last year's United States Grand Prix. Photo / Getty Images

“But after the race, he said ‘good luck with everything, make sure you make the most of this opportunity’. That’s how he’s always been towards me, which is really cool.”

If there’s any warning for Lawson in his bid to push from Racing Bulls into Red Bull, it’s the fact that Ricciardo has largely tried and failed to do the same this year.

The danger of Red Bull having two teams and four seats on the grid is that there will always be room for the “next big thing” to step out of the shadows and challenge the incumbents.

And while that role was largely been filled by Lawson over the past two years, Red Bull have already made moves to promote current Formula Two driver Isack Hadjar into reserve to give the current drivers reason to look over their shoulders.

Drivers making way is nothing new within Formula One. Hundreds of millions of dollars are on the line for every single placing in the constructors’ championship.

Aside from Red Bull terminating Ricciardo, Williams also did the same to American Logan Sargeant, Lawson’s former Formula Two teammate, midway through this campaign.

Of Formula One’s 10 teams, Red Bull are by far the most ruthless. Elsewhere on the 2024 grid, three other drivers (Carlos Sainz, Alex Albon and Pierre Gasly) boast ties to Red Bull, having tried and failed to crack it with the current world champions.

Given the nature of the sport in general, Lawson is realistic about his time with the team and knows only results will keep him where he wants to be over the coming years.

“It’s always been like that,” he professed. “It’s always been ‘perform or you’re out’.

“There’s been many times in my career, especially with Red Bull, where it’s been close. But even with the first backing I had from New Zealand, getting that first bit of money together, they had to believe in me for a period as well. They had to see performance, and I had to perform to get their support.

“It’s always been like that. The higher you get, the more the pressure builds. I had that experience in F1 last year.

“It’s always been like that, it always will be like that.”

The past year has been difficult for Lawson, having been asked to sit on the sidelines and wait for any chance he could to return to Formula One.

Filter through any comments section on his social media profiles and you won’t be hard pressed to find someone telling Lawson to leave Red Bull and go somewhere else in order to find his chance.

But aside from perseverance and talent on the track, Lawson’s best quality is arguably loyalty.

Since his move away from New Zealand as a teenager, Lawson has competed under Red Bull’s banner through Formula Three, Formula Two, Germany’s DTM series and Japan’s Super Formula, all to gain the experience necessary to see him where he is now.

After his successful debut last year, there was interest from elsewhere on the Formula One grid for Lawson.

Audi-backed Sauber are understood to have explored signing the Kiwi, with Red Bull’s current sporting director Jonathan Wheatley joining as team principal next year and eager to take Lawson with him. Williams also wanted a short-term deal this year, only for it to be blocked by Red Bull.

While Lawson’s first preference was always to stay with Red Bull, the Kiwi admits there were discussions about leaving before he decided to stay put.

“I always had faith in Red Bull,” he explained. “I had a contract date so I couldn’t go anywhere anyway.

“Nothing is ever a guarantee in this sport. As much as I believed in Red Bull giving me a chance, and believing their promise to me, I was never going to put all my eggs in one basket.

Liam Lawson at the Australian Grand Prix. Photo / Getty Images

“I definitely had communication with other teams to see what was out there and see what was potentially possible. But at the same time, I was told I’d be given this opportunity by Red Bull and they kept their word to me.

“I always wanted to stay with Red Bull, I always wanted to drive with Red Bull. The only reason I’d go anywhere else is because they didn’t take me.”

No athlete gets to the top of their sport without sacrifice. Those sacrifices aren’t always their own.

In Lawson’s case, anything he’s had to forgo in order to chase his dream in reaching Formula One is also shared by his parents, Jared and Kristy.

Motorsport at any level is expensive, and New Zealand has few donors ready to invest heavily in up-and-comers, stumping up the sums of money required.

The likes of Sir Colin Giltrap, Rodin Cars, Turners and the Tony Quinn foundation have been among those to back Lawson and help him stay in a sport that’s seen others forced to give it away prematurely.

Before all of that, Jared and Kristy sold their family home to give their son the financial injection needed to compete, sacrificing security to see their son compete.

The Lawson family haven’t owned a home since. It’s Liam’s first goal as a fully-fledged Formula One driver to buy his parents a house. Given the estimated average driver salary sits at over NZ$20 million per year, that may not take too long, even if Lawson will be on the lower end of that scale.

His sisters also gave up promising careers as Irish dancers to help their brother.

Getting to share his success with the people who helped make it possible has been Lawson’s greatest satisfaction of his achievements.

“The happiness for me was giving them the news,” he said. “Everyone I called – all my family, my mum and dad included and the board of amazing people who’ve believed in me since day one – their first reaction was exactly the same.

“It wasn’t excitement or happiness, it was relief. I could hear it in their voice after how long it’s been, how much hard work and sacrifice has gone into this, especially for my family.

“The relief in their voices came straight through. Then it was obviously happiness and excitement. The most enjoyable thing about receiving the contract was being able to tell them. I owe a lot to a lot of people for putting me in this position.”

Now, though, Lawson has a job to do. When the Formula One season resumes at Austin at the end of October, he’ll effectively be going in cold.

Lawson’s only time behind the wheel of this season’s Racing Bulls car, the VCARB01, came at Italy’s Monza circuit earlier this year in a tyre test that allowed for 50 laps before the session was washed out.

Regulations mean Lawson won’t be afforded any time on track before then, and leaves any practice time having to come from the simulator. What’s more, an expected engine change will see Lawson slapped with a 10-place grid penalty for his first race.

Liam Lawson in the 2023 AlphaTauri car. Photo / Getty Images

If there’s any solace, though, Lawson’s debut at Zandvoort last year saw him start at the back of the grid in 20th and earn a 13th-place finish – where he beat previous race-winners Charles Leclerc (Ferrari), Valtteri Bottas (Sauber) and George Russell (Mercedes).

“Obviously it’s not going to be an easy weekend, not a smooth entry back into F1. But we’ll spend the next couple of weeks doing all the preparation we can for it.”

After Austin, Lawson will finish the season with grands prix in Mexico, Brazil, Las Vegas, Qatar and Abu Dhabi. The Kiwi drove last year’s Qatar Grand Prix to finish 17th.

While inexperienced in Formula One, Lawson completed a practice session in Mexico in 2023, and picked up first and third in Formula Two’s sprint and feature races respectively during his final season in the feeder series.

Alex Powell is an Online Sports Editor for the NZ Herald. He has been a sports journalist since 2016, and previously worked for both Newshub and 1News.