FEBRUARY 5, 2024

Lawson admits F1 future with RB promising

Liam Lawson admits that the future of the team that he will probably race for sooner or later in Formula 1 is looking "promising".

Last year, Red Bull turned to its top junior to substitute for injured Alpha Tauri regular Daniel Ricciardo - and 21-year-old New Zealander Lawson impressed.

Dr Helmut Marko is already hinting that Lawson might get another opportunity in 2024, before a true full-time ride for the newly-rebranded Visa Cash App RB team the following season.

Indeed, Lawson - to be the full-time Red Bull and RB reserve in 2024 - was at Faenza last week.

From my conversations and involvement so far, it's looking really promising and exciting, he told the NZ Herald.

It's not something that will probably happen straight away, but obviously with the direction the team's going, I think in time the improvements can be pretty big, which is obviously exciting for everyone.

Lawson finished second overall in the Super Formula series in Japan last year, but Red Bull has not assigned a racing project for him in 2024 - so that he can fully prepare for his F1 future.

He says he isn't sure what his full program will be this year.

In terms of what I'll be driving and when I'll be driving, that's still to be set out, said Lawson. I'd love to be behind the wheel of a Formula 1 car and we're all working towards trying to make that happen - whether it's testing or racing - but right now nothing is confirmed.

As for Marko's hint about Lawson perhaps getting another chance to race in 2024, he said he hasn't sat down at length with his bosses to delve into either an analysis about last year or what will be coming next.

It's really just a few conversations, he said. We have conversations over the year as the season's going along and then at the end it's really just pretty brief.

He hinted that he has things to learn from after just missing out on the Super Formula title last year, but many think his F1 sojourn was a distraction.

I think we all recognised that it (winning the title) was achievable and that the speed was there, but obviously to win a championship, you need more than that, said Lawson.

There's things that I did over the season as well that I reflect on that I will probably regret, let's say, in that championship moment that cost a lot of points, but it's part of the process.

(GMM)