Did AlphaTauri do the right thing by not taking Lawson?

Bernie Collins was Aston Martin’s chief strategist until last year and since 2023 she has been working as a pundit with Sky Sports, and her interesting comments during the season caught the attention of fans.

This time she was invited to participate in the Australian KTM Summer Grill video podcast (no wonder, it’s summer in Australia), and she said that AlphaTauri should have made Liam Lawson Daniel Ricciardo’s new teammate in 2024, instead of to extend Yuki Tsunoda’s contract.

Lawson replaced Ricciardo at five stages of the season, starting with the Dutch Grand Prix, as Daniel had an accident during training and suffered a compound fracture of his left wrist. Liam coped with a difficult task quite well, earned points in such a difficult race as the Singapore Grand Prix, and they started talking about him as a possible candidate for a place in AlphaTauri.

However, next year the Japanese driver will continue to drive for the Faenza team, while Lawson will remain Red Bull’s reserve driver.

“I did an interview with Liam in Zandvoort and this was his first race behind the wheel of an AlphaTauri car, but I have never seen such calm people,” said Collins. “He’s much calmer than I would be if I was in this situation.”

I remember that until then the track was wet after a rain shower, that Liam had just completed his first laps on slicks and that the fuel load was much higher than in his previous races. So much was happening on the track, but he remained calm.

It is a shame that in Formula 1 some things are done at the dictate of sponsors and linked to business agreements, but if the team only focused on speed, Lawson should have already been given a contract.

Perhaps he should have partnered Daniel Ricciardo, and then it would have been a very strong line-up – a young driver who is clearly very good, and Daniel, who stands out for both good speed and rich experience. I imagine this would work great, and such a setup could bring big benefits to AlphaTauri. It’s a shame this didn’t happen.

It will be interesting to see how further events will develop and what Liam will do next season. He has a solid reputation and should be considered a contender for a spot on either team. I don’t know what would have happened if he had gotten a place at Williams, but he then said he wanted to stay with the Red Bull family. We don’t know the answers to these questions.

Probably, looking at his speed, the leaders of other teams think that getting Lawson fast is not an easy task. But I am absolutely certain that he deserves a place in the starting line-up, and it’s just a shame that Liam doesn’t have one yet.”