LIAM LAWSON KNOWS, better than most, that being a Formula 1 driver is a precarious line of work. The nature of the job has been both a boon and a hindrance to Lawson’s career. In 2023, AlphaTauri rookie Nyck de Vries was dropped halfway through the season and Lawson was passed over for the seat in favour of Daniel Ricciardo. The Australian would injure his wrist shortly afterwards though, allowing Lawson to make his F1 debut in a five-race stint where the New Zealander earned widespread praise.
Despite his strong start, Lawson was ultimately overlooked by AlphaTauri – which has since rebranded as RB – for a permanent seat in the 2024 season. Instead, the team went with the more experienced Ricciardo and Yuki Tsunoda. Then, after a half-season of inconsistency from Ricciardo, Lawson was again called upon and was more than up for the challenge, with two points finishes in his three races so far.
Now there’s three races remaining in the 2024 season and Lawson’s seat is anything but safe. His is the only place on the grid that hasn’t been officially decided for 2025, as his position beyond this season isn’t guaranteed. The pressure to perform has never been higher for the 22-year-old. Nevertheless, he remains even-keeled.
“Even if I had a contract locked in for next year, it wouldn’t change how I approach each race,” he tells Men’s Health from Los Angeles during a video call, one week out from the Las Vegas Grand Prix. “Everything is race by race. You don’t get guaranteed a full year and if you’re not consistently performing, you won’t be in the sport for long.”
Credit: Red Bull
With two point-scoring finishes in his first three races of 2024, Lawson’s second F1 stint could hardly have gotten off to a better start. Still, the New Zealander isn’t one to rest on his laurels. “It was obviously a very good start in Austin [at the United States Grand Prix] and since then we’ve been figuring out things with the car and making little improvements, but we can always go better,” he says. “You can always improve. It’s very rare that you’ll have a perfect race.”
He attributes his fast start on the track to the work he’s been putting in off it. “When you’re not driving you can train all you like – and this year has been the hardest I’ve ever trained – but it’s still hard to get into the car for a race when you haven’t been driving,” he says. “They say you have to be ‘race fit’, which comes as you just naturally get comfortable in a car. I felt like that from the first race, to be honest.”
Race fitness is a necessity in F1, where drivers can feel G force equivalent to six times their bodyweight. “Austin was a super high G [force] track. You’re under a lot of load, it’s very hard on the neck and when you’re pulling that kind of G, it’s hard to breathe,” explains Lawson.
Credit: Red Bull
Lawson’s place in F1 has been a long time coming. He’s been in the Red Bull system for six years, but his journey to racing’s pinnacle began early in his childhood. “I started racing when I was very young. I first did go-karts at six years old and when I was 12 I started testing for scholarships to race in entry level cars,” he says. “I actually started racing a circuit car on a full-size circuit at 13 years old.”
Riding his potential into a third-place finish in the 2022 F2 championship, Lawson was quickly elevated into the conversation as a future F1 driver, and he soon became Red Bull’s go-to reserve ahead of Ricciardo. Lawson believed that during his 2023 cameo he had shown enough to earn a permanent seat for 2024, having outperformed teammate Yuki Tsunoda in four of their five races together. But with five drivers on the Red Bull roster – Max Verstappen, Sergio Pérez, Ricciardo, Tsunoda and Lawson – but only four seats available, Lawson was the odd man out.
An episode of Drive to Survive captured the moment Lawson was told he wasn’t being given a full-time role for 2024, with the visibly upset New Zealander saying “It’s tough knowing that I don’t get the seat even though I’ve beaten a guy that’s getting a seat.”
This level of candour has become a trademark of Lawson’s. He’s still adjusting to life as part of the F1 circus, and after a number of confrontations with other drivers last month, he was quoted as saying “I’m not here to make friends”. When we bring this up, he makes a clarification. “Well, I’m not here to make enemies either,” he says. “I’m learning that stuff can get taken out of context. We have to be careful about what we say and how we say it and that’s part of being a racing driver.”
It is true that Lawson probably isn’t the most popular guy in the locker room right now, with the driver drawing the ire of veterans Fernando Alonso and Sergio Pérez in separate incidents in October. That unfriendliness doesn’t extend to Lawson’s Australian neighbours from across the ditch, however – with the exception of Ricciardo perhaps, who lost his seat to Lawson.
Rather than building the standard Kiwi/Aussie rivalry, Lawson has become good friends with Oscar Piastri and Jack Doohan, the latter of whom has already nabbed a full-time seat at Alpine for 2025. “I’m close mates with both of them,” Lawson says. “Honestly, the rivalry between New Zealand and Australia is only a rivalry when you’re in New Zealand or Australia. When you escape that in an international sport like F1 and you’re on the other side of the world, I think we actually link together because we’re so far away from home.”
Credit: Red Bull
With three races left in the 2024 F1 season, Lawson’s career hangs in the balance. If he disappoints, he may not race at this level ever again. If he continues to impress, he’ll likely earn his first full season on the grid – or, if the rumours are to be believed, a promotion.
Midway through his six-race quarter season, Lawson is already close to surpassing Ricciardo’s total of points finishes in 2024. Ricciardo could only manage three top ten results across his 18 races this year, a strike rate of roughly 17 per cent. Lawson has already finished in the top ten twice and, albeit with a smaller sample size, has a points strike rate of 66 per cent.
Lawson’s run of form hasn’t gone unnoticed by the higher-ups at Red Bull who control his future. “There is always feedback from both Christian [Horner] and from [Helmut] Marko,” Lawson says. “They both play a big role in my future, so they always give feedback after each weekend. The expectation from them is high. That’s why they put me in the car.”
Getting in the bosses’ good books would be wise for Lawson if he is to secure a place at RB next season, but his ambition isn’t limited to the sister team, especially when an opportunity at Red Bull could soon open up.
Max Verstappen’s seat is unimpeachable. His teammate Sergio Pérez’s is not. Over the last 15 races, Pérez hasn’t finished higher than sixth. He is yet to win a race this season while his teammate has won eight. Pérez’s top ten strike rate sits at 71 per cent, only moderately better than Lawson’s 66 per cent. And let’s not forget that Lawson is driving a car that currently sits eighth out of ten in the constructor standings, while Verstappen is cruising to another championship in the same car as Pérez.
Pérez’s underperformance has long been a topic of discussion among F1 fans and pundits. Despite the Mexican driver being given a two-year contract extension earlier this year, rumours have been swirling that Pérez could retire at the end of the season or face retrenchment to RB. Red Bull have done little to quell these rumours, with the team still not announcing who will get the second seat at RB next year.
If a seat were to become available at Red Bull, either Lawson or Tsunoda would presumably fill it. Lawson knows the perils of assuming anything is a given too well to outright declare that the seat will be his, but he does concede that he’s aiming to get to Red Bull eventually. “My goal is to be a Red Bull racing driver in the future. That’s what my dream has been since I was a kid,” he says.
Does he have the talent to partner with a four-time champion? Lawson thinks so. “That decision comes from the team with Christian [Horner] and Helmut [Marko], but I would feel ready for that,” he says. He has three races left to prove it.
Credit: Red Bull
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