Liam Lawson finally got his chance, although last year, replacing Daniel Ricciardo, he showed what he was capable of. But now the New Zealand driver, who spent several years on the Red Bull bench, has finally taken the Australian’s place in the RB team.
Liam makes no secret of the fact that the dominant feeling in the complex range of emotions he experiences in the run-up to the American Grand Prix, his first race of the season, is a sense of relief.
“The funny thing is, when I called my parents, and in general everyone in our family who supports me, their reactions were dominated by a sense of relief,” he said in an interview with the championship’s official website. “That’s exactly what I experienced.” I have come a very long way, which I started at a very young age, so this news brought us all relief first, and joy second.
But the year was especially difficult for me because if I get a spot on the team, it means someone else loses that spot. But I tried not to think about it, even though it was a bit harder than usual for me. The support from Red Bull certainly helped, but it all took a very long time. I rarely rode this year, but during all the tests I understood that they were evaluating me, although they said these were just tests.
While there are very few opportunities to drive a real car, the importance of such tests only increases. All year round the team assessed my prospects well, but after a certain time my mood already began to deteriorate… I would say that over the past 12 months more than once the thought occurred to me that I would never again receive a full-fledged contract, although previously I had no such premonitions at all.
Obviously I had to take someone’s place, and of course the weekend in Singapore was difficult for all of us, but especially for Daniel. Then we already knew what was happening and how everything would end. You could say I was lucky, because there was no need to communicate too much with the press, I tried to stay away from here. But not everyone was in the same position.
Luckily Daniel is a cool guy. He understood that I had nothing to do with it. Throughout the year I never felt like he and I were direct competitors. He never let me know, he always treated me well and was ready to give advice when I got behind the wheel. Plus, we’re at completely different stages in our careers, and this probably helped in some way too.
I approached him and said that of course I was sorry that the situation developed this way, it was unpleasant for me, and I was sorry that he had to go through this. But he replied that he had nothing against me. These are his words: “The opportunity to get into F1 only comes once, so try to take advantage of it.” And wished me good luck…”
Source: F1 News

I am Christopher Clyde, an experienced journalist and content writer with a passion for sports. I have been writing about Formula 1 news for the past five years and am currently employed as an author at athletistic.com, one of the top sports websites in the US.