Liam Lawson would have felt hard done by not to get a seat on the 2024 Formula 1 grid. After all, he’d delivered in impressive fashion during his stand-in stint at AlphaTauri last year.
AlphaTauri had to call up Lawson when Daniel Ricciardo broke his wrist in practice for the Dutch Grand Prix last August. The team needed a stabilising presence after a tumultuous period.
Ricciardo had only completed two races after replacing the under-performing Nyck de Vries at the Hungarian GP. But after his accident, the team had to call upon a fourth different driver.
Fortunately, Lawson surpassed expectations, bagging two points for a team that only managed 25 all season. Despite the significant gulf in experience, the New Zealander out-raced teammate Yuki Tsunoda three times.
And yet, the bosses at senior team Red Bull decided to stick with Tsunoda and Ricciardo for 2024. That relegated Lawson to a watching brief on the sidelines.
But Ricciardo’s early struggles may have opened the door. The 34-year-old is trailing Tsunoda 4-0 in the qualifying head-to-head and is yet to score a point, while his teammate has seven.
There were even claims that Ricciardo could lose his seat after the Miami Grand Prix, though Helmut Marko refuted those and Lawson’s management had ‘no idea’ where they came from. Still, ‘no one would be surprised’ if a mid-season change occurred.
Helmut Marko addresses chances of Liam Lawson driving in 2024
In an interview with Kleine Zeitung, Marko was asked whether Ricciardo had failed to meet expectations at RB this season. He merely replied that the eight-time race winner will spurn his chance at a promotion to Red Bull if he doesn’t start beating Tsunoda.
On the subject of Lawson, he acknowledged that the 22-year-old will have the option to leave if he doesn’t get a seat for 2025. And giving him a run of races this year could offer a ‘clearer picture’ of his talents.
He said: “The challenge for him [Ricciardo] was that he clearly had to be faster than Yuki if he wanted to have any hope of winning the seat at Red Bull. That hasn’t been the case so far, even if, as I said, it was close. We’ll see how this develops.
“Of course, with Liam Lawson as reserve driver, we have a strong driver in the team who is contractually entitled to drive for another team if he does not get a cockpit with us in 2025. In this regard, it would of course be exciting for us if we could see him in Formula 1 this year to get an even clearer picture. But this is a complex topic and we have to see what happens next.”
Liam Lawson could partner Yuki Tsunoda once again
There’s a growing feeling that RB will once again field a line-up of Tsunoda and Lawson, if not this year than next year. Journalist Edd Straw says they’re certainly ‘trending’ in that direction.
F1TV presenter Will Buxton feels Lawson is an ‘almost definite’ inclusion on the 2025 grid. The Super Formula runner-up himself has refused to be drawn on rumours of an even earlier return.
Few would dispute his worthiness for a spot in F1. Former driver Christijan Albers ‘doesn’t understand’ why he’s not part of this year’s field, and Christian Horner has assured him he’ll get his chance.
We could then see him battling Tsunoda for a place at the top team, and he may already have an advantage. Despite the Japanese driver’s strong displays this year, there are concerns over whether he has the temperament to represent a front-runner like Red Bull.
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