Lawson knew he would take the RB seat in advance; Ricciardo was surprised.
Liam Lawson spoke after taking Daniel Ricciardo’s place for the remainder of the 2024 season.
For Lawson, sharing the RB garage with Ricciardo during the Singapore Grand Prix was “definitely not a fun weekend,” as he was aware he would replace the experienced Australian driver in the Formula 1 seat. Just hours after it was officially confirmed that Ricciardo was returning to the F1 grid, Lawson gave an extensive interview to New Zealand radio station Newstalk ZB.
Despite numerous rumors that Lawson would take Ricciardo’s place mid-season or in 2025, it seemed that Ricciardo only realized this possibility as the Singapore weekend progressed. Lawson, who was in the garage as a reserve driver throughout the weekend, apparently knew what was going to happen long before Ricciardo.
In his statement to Newstalk ZB, Lawson said, “Honestly, I knew this for the last two weeks. However, I didn’t really feel it was confirmed until it was announced to everyone, and I couldn’t tell anyone.”
“He told me the same thing, saying ‘you need to make the most of this.’ He did a really good job over the weekend. To be honest, I have a lot of respect for how he handled everything because I can’t even imagine what that feels like. It’s a situation similar to what I went through last year, but honestly, he’s much more in the spotlight and much more famous, so he gets a lot of questions and tries to navigate through them. He did a great job.”
It seems quite clear that Red Bull intended to make this change before the Singapore weekend, perhaps even earlier. Red Bull was effectively evaluating not only Ricciardo but also Sergio Perez every weekend.
Lawson did not confirm exactly when the possibility of taking Ricciardo’s seat turned into certainty. It had long been known in the paddock that Lawson would be released if Red Bull did not commit to a 2025 seat by the end of this month, but there were no conditions thought to be in place until 2024.
Lawson stated, “That’s been the plan for a long time; it was at least heading in that direction. Obviously, I had a contract deadline that needed to be fulfilled. So it was basically always going in that direction, and a few weeks ago, they told me that this was what was going to happen, and shortly after that, everything fell into place.”
Lawson’s last experience in an F1 car was about two months ago at the beginning of the summer break, when he tested a 2022 AlphaTauri in Monza. Given all the speculation throughout the season regarding RB or Red Bull’s lineup changes and Lawson’s position in this puzzle, it was seen as an important evaluation test.
Lawson confirmed that this was indeed the case and responded “no” when asked whether his situation for the end of 2024 had been finalized regardless of how the test went.
“These were all evaluation days, designed to put a lot of pressure on me. Just like last year, they wanted to involve me in such an event mid-season this year. They had to know that I would perform in some way. These were definitely evaluation days,” he added.
Lawson carefully answered questions regarding his situation after the remaining 2024 races. When asked whether the rest of 2024 had been clarified and if he knew whether he would have an F1 race seat in 2025, he replied, “That’s correct.”
“Basically, I have time until the end of the season, and I’ll learn more as the season progresses. There are six races left at this stage,” Lawson continued.
When asked if he knew what kind of performance he needed to show in these six races to secure the 2025 F1 seat, he responded, “Essentially, I need to perform. I need to clearly show my value in F1, and I can say that I need to do a job similar to what I did last year. This is what is currently giving me this chance.”
“I also need to show sufficient performance to stay in that seat next year.”
