Liam Lawson’s progression through the upper echelons of motorsport has been almost as rapid as the young Kiwi’s utterly blistering pace on track.

ABOUT

Like many, Liam Lawson’s motorsport journey started in karting, but his talent was quickly evident as the Pukekohe-raised racer won two karting titles in 2014 before debuting in Formula First single seaters in 2015. Two wins, no less than thirteen podiums and a Rookie of the Year trophy later and Lawson moved into F1600 (Formula Ford), and things started to move very quickly. Lawson devasted the F1600 field claiming fourteen of the fifteen victories on offer to become the youngest champion in not just the series' history, but the youngest ever Formula Ford champion in world at the time.

He progressed with similar proficiency in Formula 4 in both Australia and Europe and also a debut season in the European F3 Championship before returning home to contest the Toyota Racing Series in 2019 and with 5 wins across the season secured the Championship with a P2 placing at the New Zealand Grand Prix.

Lawson became a Red Bull junior driver contesting the European Formula 3 Championship and this, along with his undeniable pace, has created some excellent opportunities including driving the Red Bull-sponsored Ferrari for the AF Corse team alongside F1 reserve driver Alex Albon while also taking part in Formula 2 and testing for Red Bull F1’s sister team AlphaTauri.

2021 SEASON RESULTS

2021 was arguably bittersweet for Lawson. His performance and ability were never in question as he delivered outstanding results in both the DTM and Formula 2 championships. Lawson concluded his debut Formula 2 season within the top 10 but was frustratingly robbed of winning the DTM Championship on debut after rival driver Kelvin van der Linde failed to navigate turn one of the Championship determining race, colliding into the Lawson who had started in Pole position. The subsequent damage to Lawson’s car meant he couldn’t finish in the points, and he lost the Championship by just three points. Van der Linde later admitted fault for the accident.
After demonstrating his capabilities however, Lawson had impressed as a Red Bull junior and 2021 concluded with a career highlight in the form of a Formula 1 test for AlphaTauri. And what a test it was, posting a best lap time of 1:24.517 around the Abu Dhabi test circuit, Lawson secured Position 2 after 125laps (660.125km.)

After 125 laps of testing Lawson was blown away by the car and clearly grateful for this opportunity.

What an amazing day, it’s incredible how unbelievably fast these cars are. I’ve obviously driven in the simulator before and when I’m there I always think that there’s no way that the car can actually be that quick in real life, but it really is. I want to say a huge thank you to Red Bull, Dr Marko and everyone that has made it possible to be here driving for Scuderia AlphaTauri today. This has been something that I’ve been dreaming about since I was a kid so it’s just incredible and I’m really, really happy.” Lawson said.

It took me a little while to get to full throttle but when I did, I thought ‘holy moly that’s a lot of power!’ The biggest difference is just the downforce, there’s significantly more than anything I’m used to.