After two seasons in Formula 2, the 20-year-old Kiwi driver will trade the circuits of Europe and the Middle East for the nine-round Japanese Super Formula championship as he looks to take another step towards earning a seat on the Formula1 grid.
It’s a championship that has been used as a launching pad by F1 titans Red Bull and their junior drivers in the past. Pierre Gasly finished second in the series in 2017, and earned a full-time seat with Red Bull’s sister F1 team Scuderia AlphaTauri (Toro Rosso at the time) for the next season.
Gasly and Lawson were teammates at F1 team AlphaTauri in 2022 – with Lawson the team’s reserve driver – and gave the young Kiwi an idea of what to expect with his change of scenery.
“It’s a great step for me to do,” Lawson told the Herald. “Formula 2, I haven’t enjoyed too much. It’s been quite a battle and this is a great step towards Formula 1; the car’s faster and the championship’s very high-level which is cool. I’m excited.
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“I spoke to Pierre earlier in the year about Super Formula, and he explained how much of a challenge it was for him to go and do. I think it’s very tough and most foreign drivers who go there really struggle to start off with.
“I need to really prepare for next year because it’s going to be hard to walk in and do well straight away.”
Liam Lawson finished third in the Formula 2 drivers' championship standings in 2022. Photo / Getty Images
Although driving in Japan next year, Lawson will maintain his role as a reserve driver for Red Bull’s F1 team. Exactly what that role will entail is yet to be outlined to Lawson, however, and would likely take on a different form following the arrival of eight-time F1 race winner Daniel Ricciardo, who joined the team in a reserve capacity.
“I’ll find out pretty soon,” Lawson said of what would be expected of him with Red Bull in 2023. “For now, the priority is for me to really focus on Super Formula, but to be able to grow experience alongside the Formula 1 team is really crucial as well.”
Lawson was in Japan testing with his new team – defending champions Team Mugen - earlier this month to get a feel for his new vehicle and the team operates. He said while it felt more professional than Formula 2, the language barrier would be something he had to find a way around as soon as possible.
His new team is entirely Japanese and, while his engineers speak some English, he admitted it would take some planning for them to all be on the same page.
“What we’ve been doing in the test is figuring out words that we might think are the same word but we’re using them differently, and try to use the same words. For example, things like a bump in the road, I would say a bump whereas they would say a gap. Things like that, just trying to use the same words and making lists to try make that easier.”
As well as getting some knowledge from Gasly, Lawson has been leaning on fellow Kiwi and former Super Formula championship winner Nick Cassidy for advice on how to capitalise on the opportunity ahead of him.
“He mastered it in Japan; he mastered the way of how to succeed in that championship and the country, and he’s going to be a huge part of helping me next year in any way he can,” Lawson said of Cassidy.
“It’s very different and I know it took him a bit to get used to – as it does for everyone – but I just don’t have time to get used to it. I need to know everything I can from all these different people who did master it and be able to try make it work straight away.”
Kiwi driver Nick Cassidy raced in Super Formula for four seasons, winning it in 2019. Photo / Getty Images
While Lawson doesn’t have the pressure of needing to earn points towards a super license – which is required to drive F1 – as he already has one, there will still be a high expectation on him from the Red Bull team as they continue to look at Lawson as a future F1 driver.
Lawson was believed to be in the mix to fill the seat vacated by Gasly at AlphaTauri for 2023, with the French driver joining Alpine. However, AlphaTauri team principal Franz Tost noted a lack of experience worked against the Kiwi driver.
“The plan is Formula 1 seats as soon as possible, but when that can be, it’s impossible to tell. I’d like it to be at the end of next year, but I wanted it to be at the end of this year as well and the year before that I wanted it last year.
“But at the same time, there are benefits of doing another season without Formula 1 because when I do get there, I want to be as ready as possible and there’s definitely no harm in doing something else. In Super Formula, I’ll learn and be more ready next year than I was this year.”
The 2023 F1 season gets underway in Bahrain in early March, with the Super Formula season beginning in Oyama in early April.
