Lawson focuses on near future amid Red Bull rumours

As the pathway to the highly-contested 2025 Red Bull seat remains unclear, Liam Lawson says “it would be my absolute goal to drive with them,” but admits his focus for the final five races is simply to “try and stay in Formula 1”.

After the pot was stirred by Red Bull Advisor Helmut Marko on Thursday, the ongoing saga over who will accompany Max Verstappen at Red Bull has been pushed back into the spotlight.

Hopeful of his final six-race stint in the RB putting him in good stead for an instant promotion, Liam Lawson made it clear that he was unaware of Oscar Piastri’s now-denied interest in jumping ship.

“Honestly, I have absolutely no idea,” Lawson admitted.

“My goal, obviously, is to… I’ve been with Red Bull now for six years, and it would be my absolute goal to drive with them in the future but whether that’s next year or any other year, I have no idea when that could be. 

“And for me, it’s about these races.

“I know I have five left, very, very important races to have a seat in Formula 1 and, honestly, I’m not looking at it in any way like ‘its five races to get a Red Bull seat’ or something like that.

“It’s not like that for me, it’s just five races to do a job to try and stay in Formula 1.”

The Kiwi driver has already put his best foot forward in that regard, making up ten positions during last weekend’s exciting United States Grand Prix after starting from the back of the grid due to a 60-place grid penalty. 

Finishing in P9, Lawson added two points to his team’s total, helping to limit the damage Haas caused after demoting RB to 7th in the constructors’ championship following the Sprint.

On a personal note, however, the weekend was a busy introduction into a full-time seat on the grid for the 22-year-old due to the Sprint format, with Lawson instantly doubling his qualifying and race experience in 2024. 

“It’s always hard at first and I think because it was a sprint, it was always quite tricky,” the #30 said.

“Friday, FP1, was a little bit tough, but at the same time, once it’s in there, it’s somewhere in there and you find it pretty quickly, so to be honest, halfway through FP1, I was already starting to get quite comfortable. 

“But nothing compares to driving every other weekend in a season.”

“I think there’s always more [performance] to come the more time I spend in the car, but I don’t expect it to just happen every weekend,” Lawson added.

“The track we’re at now, obviously Mexico’s a very different style of circuit to Austin, so we learned some great things in Austin, obviously for me as well, getting used to the car. 

“I learnt a huge deal but in a way, we sort of start back from zero a little bit, each track we go to.

“A lot of them are new tracks I’ve never driven before so, you know, it’s going to be… with the style of circuit here, it’s totally different to Austin so I don’t expect to come in and just carry on that form, I think we’re going to be doing a lot of learning again on Friday.”

Despite the schedule returning to a traditional Grand Prix-focused format, there will be a continued notion of unconventionality during both practice sessions on Friday in Mexico. 

FP1 will see several rookie drivers taking the wheel, as five teams fulfil their requirement to allow young talent to gain F1 experience during practice sessions.

Notable switches include Lewis Hamilton, who will lend his car to potential future Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli, and Fernando Alonso, who, after missing Thursday due to illness, will make way for Felipe Drugovich. 

Charles Leclerc will also sit out while Ollie Bearman takes his spot, and Zhou Guanyu will swap with Robert Shwartzman.

IndyCar star and local favourite Pato O’Ward will also step into an F1 car for McLaren, although it hasn’t been confirmed which driver he’ll replace.

FP1 will kick off bright and early on Saturday at 5:30 AM, AEST.

Image: Rudy Carezzevoli/Getty Images // Getty Images / Red Bull Content Pool

2024 Mexico City Grand Prix Schedule:

Saturday, October 26

FP1: 05:30 – 06:30

FP2: 09:00 – 10:30

Sunday, October 27

FP3: 04:30 – 05:30

Qualifying: 08:00 – 09:00

Monday, October 28

Race: 07:00

READ THE LATEST ISSUE OF AUTO ACTION HERE

Don’t forget the print edition of Auto Action available via subscription here. For more of the latest motorsport news, subscribe to AUTO ACTION magazine.