Life Won’t Be Easy Liam Lawson, But Could Get Interesting

He has already got a taste of the top flight of motorsport racing, the pinnacle in the world of single-seater F1 racing, hasn’t he? What’s more?

He has already got a taste of what it means to be competing alongside nineteen of the world’s fastest and most capable racing drivers and that too, in the top draw of competitive Grand Prix racing. As they say, Grand Prix racing at its finest. And now, not too long from the present day, Liam Lawson shall most likely be getting a taste of what it means to be racing alongside Max Verstappen, a multiple world championship winner, someone who’ll begin 2025 as F1’s defending world champion and someone who’s thumped worthy contenders for the driver’s title such as Charles Leclerc and Lando Norris.

This is where, this is precisely where, it could be argued that things are likely to get interesting for Liam Lawson, undoubtedly one of New Zealand’s finest exports to the world of F1 racing and easily, the most-talked-about F1 driver from the land of the enormous F1 legend Sir Bruce McLaren.

Truth be told, Liam Lawson is one of those present day drivers about whom sir McLaren (after whom the great racing outfit is named) would have himself been excited. After all, Liam Lawson is young. He is fast and most importantly, specifically from a Red Bull perspective, he hardly relents or eschews a challenge on the grid.

Here’s a timely example.

While on the one hand at the USA Grand Prix of 2024 held at COTA one saw a racing heavyweight or a titan in the form of Fernando Alonso pushing for a strong finish in the midfield battle, on the other hand, we saw a relentlessly charging Liam Lawson who clearly seemed utterly unafraid, absolutely going for it.

Surely, some of his moves around turns nine and ten, weren’t that good and maybe a bit overly ambitious, it certainly got the attention of the F1 double world champion. Alonso was pushing and doing his best to keep the nose of that Aston Martin ahead in the game but Liam Lawson was having none of it.

Resultantly, the young Kiwi driver finished ninth, which, truth be told, was a good thing especially since that particular drive marked his return to proper Grand Prix racing. Following a lowly P16 at the Mexican Grand Prix, Liam Lawson would mark another impressive result given his fighting P9 at the São Paulo-bound Brazilian Grand Prix. While Liam Lawson’s future Red Bull teammate Max Verstappen made headlines in the front, it was then daunting effort mounted in the midfield by the Kiwi that earned him plaudits.

Now in the future, while winning an F1 race won’t actually be out of the question of the driver who has already scored points in three of the eleven races he’s competed in at the highest level in the sport, it would become an intriguing scenario especially because he would be up against the rest of the grid and quite frankly (also most importantly) against the most competitive driver that there is. Who else but Max Verstappen?

Which is why while it makes absolute sense for Liam Lawson to feel excited about the prospect of having been signed by none other than Red Bull, a totally brutal force out in the front of the F1 grid, the same opportunity could also be marked by an enormity of challenge. Wouldn’t you agree?