Lawson: I have the utmost respect for Daniel.

In Austin, Liam Lawson will take the start of the American Grand Prix at the wheel of a car recently driven by Daniel Ricciardo, but he is willing to admit that he felt uneasy last weekend in Singapore, knowing the fate awaiting him was waiting. shop for his older colleague.

“The weekend in Singapore was not a happy weekend, that’s for sure,” Liam told New Zealand radio station Newstalk ZB. “We all knew how events would develop. And at the same time, Daniel was always nice to me, you know? This manifested itself in many ways.

That was the case last year when I drove his car, but even this season he has always driven like no other… I never felt like we were rivals or anything. He never let me know that. In general, I don’t have the most pleasant experiences.

Red Bull had planned all this for a long time – obviously there was a certain date in my contract and this condition had to be met. And about a few weeks ago I was told that everything would happen exactly like this, which was soon officially confirmed.

The date Lawson is talking about is the expiry of the option on his services (which expired at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix), which Red Bull had to exercise if they were to include the 22-year-old New Zealander in one of their teams in 2025.

“Daniel has done a great job in Singapore,” Liam continued. “I have a lot of respect for him for the way he accepted everything that happened – I say this sincerely. I can’t even imagine what it’s like… Last year I was in a similar situation, but Ricciardo is a much more famous driver than me, so he was asked a lot of questions and he tried to avoid the answers. But it worked very well…

This year hasn’t brought me much joy, although it’s clear that I’m still happy because it at least allowed me to prepare better. There’s a lot to learn in Formula 1 and honestly, even if you’re in the reserves and not racing, you still absorb a lot of information.

But now my time has come and of course I am grateful for this opportunity and I must take full advantage of it. By the way, Daniel told me the same thing…”

According to Australian publication Speedcafe, his future fate will depend on his results, although it has been officially confirmed that Lawson will only contest the remaining six races of the season. If Liam really makes a strong impression at Red Bull, it is possible that he will become Max Verstappen’s new teammate in 2025.

This would be an ideal scenario for Red Bull as it would create a vacancy at RB that could be filled by Formula 2 title contender Isaac Hajjar and allow them to prepare for the new personnel changes coming over a years are expected.

There is a possibility that Yuki Tsunoda will leave RB at the end of 2025 and Verstappen may say goodbye to the team with which he achieved so much success.