Introducing F1’s rookies: Alonso and Perez spats will stand half-rookie Lawson well at Red Bull

For the third a part of a brand new mini-series the place Autosport is assessing the early Formulation 1 careers of the six 2025 rookies, right this moment we’re introducing a driver the championship already is aware of reasonably properly: Liam Lawson.

The truth is, with 11 race begins underneath his belt and three factors finishes as a brief AlphaTauri/RB driver in 2023 and 2024, it’s fairly a stretch to think about the New Zealander as an F1 beginner.

However, this 12 months was the primary time he’s executed a full pre-season and he heads to Melbourne as the one one of many ‘rookie’ crop with none expertise of the Albert Park structure. The circuit was solely added to the Formulation 2 calendar after Lawson moved on to race in Tremendous Formulation in 2023.

“Certainly I am not – Antonelli, Doohan?” was his shocked preliminary reply when this was identified to him at F1 75 Stay in London final month earlier than the F2 level was made. “Oh no method. I’m the one man!”

Earlier than F2, the place he achieved a finest results of third in 2022, Lawson was fifth within the 2020 Formulation 3 championship. He dovetailed his 2021 F2 season with a DTM marketing campaign that resulted in a controversial defeat to Maximilian Gotz after two clashes instigated in lunges from his different title rival, Kelvin van der Linde. Lawson was additionally the Tremendous Formulation runner-up in 2023.

However even with out these titles, he made a agency sufficient impression on Pink Bull group principal Christian Horner and motorsport advisor Helmut Marko by that point that they continued advancing him up the chain.

It was his spectacular performances changing the injured Daniel Ricciardo in 2023, nonetheless, that ensured Lawson continued on the F1 path thus far.

And it’s clear from the most recent sequence of ‘Drive to Survive’ that he took being ignored for a full-time RB race drive in 2024 properly/badly (delete as you see match) to fireside him on to maintain impressing Horner and Marko even whereas on the sidelines.

That he hadn’t raced the rest in early 2024 earlier than his Ricciardo-like Silverstone evaluation day after the British Grand Prix final 12 months exhibits how properly he did to be simply 0.2s off the benchmark time set by his new team-mate Max Verstappen.

Per Pink Bull group insiders, Lawson’s tenacity was a substantial think about his fast promotion to that spot, as soon as Sergio Perez’s goodwill earned together with his driving in support of Verstappen in 2021 had lastly run out inside that string of underwhelming outcomes final 12 months.

The Bahrain pre-season take a look at didn’t go as Pink Bull wished general – however this primarily centres on its struggles to seek out the perfect set-up for the RB21.

Lawson did full the second-lowest lap depend of the 20 drivers – though simply six fewer than Verstappen’s 155, because the third lowest whole – however his solely complete day within the automobile got here on the rain-disrupted second day. Throughout this, an engine water strain loss additionally price him time to finish a race simulation.

Liam Lawson, Pink Bull Racing

Photograph by: Pink Bull Content material Pool

However there was an fascinating word from Horner in Bahrain, as he advised F1 TV that Lawson was “working his method into the group and his suggestions is nice – it is per what Max is saying” on how their driving kinds react with the brand new automobile’s dealing with.

This could possibly be important for Lawson’s long-term hopes of holding on to considered one of F1’s most-prized seats, given how Pierre Gasly, Alex Albon and Perez have struggled throughout the storage since Verstappen actually hit his stride whereas team-mate to Ricciardo again in 2018.

In 2025, Lawson has a special race engineer in comparison with Perez since 2021, with Richard Wooden changing Hugh Hen. When Autosport requested about this, with the criticism Hen was getting from Perez’s followers final 12 months in thoughts, Horner claimed “it was a pure change”.

“Hugh has lately added to his household and his talent set can actually be properly utilised inside the manufacturing facility,” Horner added. “So, it was a win-win state of affairs. He will get a couple of extra nights at house, however on the identical time, performs a key function in our car dynamics division, bringing all that trackside data and expertise into that division.

“He is an extremely vivid engineer and he’ll be an asset to that. And on the identical time, it is a part of the group’s pure evolution the place it provides Woody the prospect to step up and into that function of engineering Liam. So, it was only a pure juncture for that to occur.”

However the change of driver would be the greatest aspect in cooling what had apparently turn out to be strained relations on the underperforming aspect of the Pink Bull storage in 2024. A recent begin can simply be so welcome to all events.

Liam Lawson, Pink Bull Racing

Photograph by: Pink Bull Content material Pool

There’s a lesson in Lawson’s quick, present, F1 historical past, nonetheless, that ought to stand him properly now he’s a full-time driver.

That is how the impression he made throughout his cameo run in 2024 rubbed up two very skilled drivers.

One was, in fact, Perez and got here in that almighty scrap within the Mexican GP that ended with Lawson giving Perez the finger in entrance of his house crowd.

Lawson issued a mea culpa when this author steered that’s the form of factor Marko enjoys of his drivers within the fast aftermath of the race on the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, however this had extra to do with how an RB racer had compromised a Pink Bull automobile.

The extra obtrusive challenge, as in the end understood by all events, was simply how badly Perez was driving the RB20 that it was in Lawson’s orbit within the a lot slower VCARB 01 within the first place…

Lawson’s first 2024 spat with a longtime driver got here with double world champion Fernando Alonso solely the earlier week – simply his first week again changing Ricciardo, in america GP dash race.

When it comes to Lawson’s driving, he most likely was over the road concerning aggression in shoving the Aston Martin driver off at Austin’s Flip 11, and Alonso was by no means going to let one thing like that slide.

However in taking this strategy instantly on his F1 return it exhibits that Lawson is completely fearless on the prime degree with all the things on the road – on condition that Marko can lose confidence in a driver on the proof of only a single motion.

That ought to stand Lawson properly as he will get to grips with F1’s hardest job: being Verstappen’s team-mate. Right here, such confidence can rapidly crumble…