Jared Lawson shares advice for son Liam ahead of Formula One debut in Texas

If your son is about to go Formula One racing, what sort of dad advice would you give him on the eve of his biggest adventure?

The Weekend Herald put this question to Jared Lawson earlier this week as his son Liam gets ready to go F1 racing at the Circuit of the Americas for the United States Grand Prix this weekend.

“My one-line piece of advice for Liam would be to be confident,” said Jared. “I don’t think he has any issue with confidence, but sometimes the occasion, especially in F1, can get to you. He knows he has the ability, so just do it.

“I had a good long chat with him early this week to see how things are going. He’s in a good headspace and he knows it’s going to be a fairly big mountain to climb this weekend [he has a grid penalty from a previous Daniel Ricciardo engine change].

“He’s only driven this car once before, I think, and so not a lot of time in the car. I think like a lot of these drivers are, he’s quietly confident but he knows he’s got work to do.”

The Lawson family don’t have any longstanding pedigree in motor racing and Jared is more of a couch fan than someone who stays up all night rebuilding engines and race cars in his garage.

He did, though, see something in Liam from early on and decided to support and nurture his precocious talent. This included surrounding Liam with people who also saw his potential, had the right connections and, most importantly, had his best interests at heart.

“We sort of just followed the pathway and when he left karting we put him through the SpeedSport Scholarship the likes of Shane [van Gisbergen], Richie [Stanaway] and Nick [Cassidy] had been through.

“Dennis [Martin] when he saw him said he would put him second only to Richie, bearing in mind Richie was 14 and Liam was only 12.

“I had no idea and, when Dennis said that, I realised we had to push things along and without Grant McDonald’s help also there would be no Liam racing overseas at all.”

McDonald is a former motor racing journalist and broadcaster who became Lawson’s manager about a decade ago.

“He has been the total believer in Liam’s talent since he saw him at 12,” Jared said. “When Liam told him he wanted to go to Formula One, Grant said that’s what we’re going to do, and he never stopped believing and rallied people around to get and keep Liam racing overseas in the early days.

“There have been a few pivotal moments in his career so far and one was the race at Highlands during the TRS [Toyota Racing Series] when Liam passed Marcus [Armstrong] around the outside.

“We had no plans after the TRS and then to get the call from [Red Bull Racing adviser] Helmut Marko just set everything up and enabled Liam to get to Europe. And that was the start of the next step to getting him into a junior programme and the right places.”

This isn’t Lawson’s first time battling it out in a spaceship on wheels, having deputised for Ricciardo last year in five rounds of the F1 championship. Much has been said and written about how well the then-21-year-old acquitted himself, but this time he hasn’t been parachuted into the seat as a back-up.

He’s in F1 now on merit and has six races to prove he’s good enough to earn a fulltime gig for 2025 and potentially a seat in the senior Red Bull Racing team alongside current F1 champion Max Verstappen.

“It wasn’t until I was driving to work this week that it really hit me that ‘Holy hell, he’s driving this weekend’, which is fantastic, and I can’t wait until he actually gets going,” Jared said.

“Even before he started racing, his personality is that he’s highly competitive and that translated as soon as he got into karts and that translated into him wanting to win.

“From our perspective as parents, we want him to do well. He’s got big goals in his head and we don’t want him to be disappointed and want him to make the best of the opportunity he has now.

“We know he will put 110% into it and he can only control what he can control and if he doesn’t have a long and successful career in F1, it won’t be from lack of trying.”

Liam will be so busy this weekend and will be seriously under the microscope with every man and his dog wanting a piece of the New Zealander. With that in mind, it was decided Jared and Liam’s mum Kirsty would not make the trip to Austin, Texas, to watch him.

“We’ll be watching as a family at home this weekend. At this stage, we may look at heading to Abu Dhabi for the final round of the season.

“He’s going to be flat out busy [this weekend] and, with what’s coming up with two double-headers with a race weekend in between, it’s so full-on.

“Honestly also, when you’re there and in the paddock, they are so busy that if you don’t get to see him the night before you barely get 10 to 15 minutes with him each day.

“Their day is completely planned out to the last minute, so there is very little time where you get the chance to sit and chat and see how things are going. We just want to let him get on with the job.”

How to watch Liam Lawson

Sky Sport 2; Practice 1, Sat 6am, Sprint qualifying, 10am.

Sky Sport 1; Sprint Race, Sun 6am, F1 race qualifying, 10am

Sky Sport 2; F1 race, Mon 7.55am

Eric Thompson has covered motorsport for the Herald for decades, with an eye on the domestic racing scene and Kiwis abroad.