Formula One: What needs to happen for New Zealand’s Liam Lawson to get fulltime seat

Liam Lawson became the 10th New Zealander to compete in a Formula One race over the weekend, finishing 13th at the Dutch Grand Prix.

The 21-year-old from Pukekohe was called up to race for AlphaTauri after Australian Daniel Ricciardo broke his hand during a crash in practice.

But what happens from here and how does he make a claim for a fulltime gig?

AlphaTauri have already confirmed Lawson will race for them at Monza next weekend, at the Italian Grand Prix.

Speaking to Newstalk ZB’s Mike Hosking this morning, Lawson was hesitant to put an expectation or target on the race but was excited to get a full week of training in before the race.

How good was his debut?

Bob McMurray, one of New Zealand’s leading motorsport minds and a former McLaren race team member, thinks Lawson will have done everything the team wanted him to do. Speaking to Newstalk ZB’s Sportstalk with Jason Pine, McMurray said he would have taken “a huge amount of confidence” out of his debut.

“I would think he was very happy to have navigated the really difficult weekend. It was difficult from the word go until the word stop. I would say he’s very happy and now he’s probably working even harder to get himself ready for the next race around, which is Monza next weekend. I think about the 12th or 13th lap, he actually put the fastest lap up. The team would have wanted him to bring the car back in one piece. Do as well as you can keep your nose clean and get experience, get miles, get laps. And that’s exactly what he did.

“Liam had never driven that particular car in the wet before. He had never driven on those tires before. He had never driven that car around that track before; he did have some experience of that track, but it’s a very physical track and suddenly he’s out there with 19 other of the hungriest drivers in Formula One.

“There’s... a little saying in Formula One that was coined by Ron Dennis, he said welcome to the Piranha Club. Well, I think that’s exactly what Liam Lawson would have thought as he launched himself onto the track with all these other cars around him. He excelled in my opinion. I can’t think of a more difficult debut for Formula One than Liam’s. I really honestly can’t think of another driver in history that’s had to do what he did at that time.”

What does Lawson need to do from here?

Lawson has the perfect opportunity to stamp his claim in a fulltime seat in Formula One. If he’s able to avoid a wreck at Monza and do well on the track, that will go a long way.

McMurray believes Red Bull - the owners of AlphaTauri and big brother team Red Bull Racing - are a big fan of Lawson, given all the opportunities they’ve presented him, unlike the last Kiwi to drive in Formula One, Brendon Hartley.

“Liam has been brought up in the form in the Red Bull sphere as a junior driver through Formula Three, Formula Two and put into Super Formula. Liam has been kept on board and has been nurtured if you like by Red Bull. There isn’t and there wasn’t a place for him to step up into a main team like AlphaTauri or Red Bull, so that’s why they put him at in Japan to race there. I don’t think Brendan had that opportunity all the way through. He wasn’t quite nurtured as well as Liam has been,” McMurray said.

“The problem with Liam, of course, is there isn’t really a door opening for him to be into Formula One. This door opened with the damage to Ricciardo, which is a fortunate thing for Liam, unfortunate for Ricciardo, obviously, but suddenly he’s got his hand on the handle of a door and he’s just opened it and he’s shown Red Bull what he can do, and now they’ve got a bit of a problem because they’ve got a perfectly good, eager young driver just itching to get into Formula One, with the talent.

“And if Red Bull really don’t give him a chance, I think there’s maybe one or two other teams that could leap at [Lawson].”

What’s happening with Ricciardo?

Ricciardo, who replaced Nyck de Vries at AlphaTauri mid-season, underwent surgery on his hand less than 36 hours after sustaining the injury. The operation involved placing a metal plate and some screws into the bone.

Red Bull boss Christian Horner confirmed the bone was “broken in multiple places” but would not reveal the timeframe for Ricciardo’s return, simply saying “certainly not Italy [Monza].”

Daniel Ricciardo was injured during a practice session ahead of the Dutch GP. Photo / Getty Images

“He had an operation earlier today, he’s had several screws and a plate fitted to his metacarpal, it went well, it was successful. It was a fairly straightforward procedure so now it is all about recovery and we’ll see. For a normal human being that would be a couple of months, for a Grand Prix driver it’s often much shorter,” Horner said.

Singapore, which takes place two weeks after Monza, is reportedly the target for Ricciardo’s return.

Who is Liam Lawson?

Born in Hastings in February 2002, Lawson is one of the “most prodigious talents in the current Red Bull Junior Team driver development programme”, the team website says. He’s won on debut in Formula First, Formula Ford, Formula Four, Formula Three Asia and the Toyota Racing Series, which he won overall in 2019 - all before turning 17.

Luke Kirkness is an Online Sports Editor for the NZ Herald. He previously covered consumer affairs for the Herald and was as assistant news director in the Bay of Plenty. He won Student Journalist of the Year in 2019.