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Liam Lawson

Motorsport

An update on the Liam Lawson to Williams links on loan where he would’ve gone & be a perfect replacement for Sergio Perez at Red Bull Racing for 2025 but it’s still unlikely

by Sports Benches

Image Credit: Lukas Raich via Wikipedia, CC BY 4.0 International

There’s a little more to it a few days ago about the possibility of Liam Lawson racing on loan at Williams-Mercedes from Red Bull next season alongside fellow past Red Bull & Toro Rosso alumni Alex Albon from Thailand.

Last weekend, it was announced that Daniel Ricciardo will be back at Alpha Tauri while they hold on Yuki Tsunoda for another year due to the Honda links they bring into RB’s feeder squad when it comes to the engines + funding. It seems that won’t go away until at least the end of 2025 where Liam should be racing F1s by then in place Ricciardo before RBR & AT will switch to Ford engines from 2026, so that Yuki may join Aston Martin since they will be the next Honda’s works outfit. 

It would’ve been great to see Liam get a full season experience at Williams beforehand next season where he can be a perfect replacement for the under-fire Sergio Perez as Max Verstappen’s next team-mate at the flagship organization in 2025. But then that door is also closed when Williams wanted to retain American Logan Sargeant despite him crashing all the time.

Even though Sargeant may not be back & Liam missing out, Williams would elect to have last year’s Formula 2 champion Felipe Drugovich from Brazil instead in his place. All can Liam do now is learn from both Red Bull teams, then step up to Alpha Tauri in 2025 and go from there to achieve something big so he can go on & race for the main team in 2-3 years time. It’s the same for Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris who had to sit a year out before earning their first moves onto the big time. Let’s hope more Kiwis can follow his lead when it comes to earning their stripes from the ground up to all the way at the top level.

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Motorsport

F1 Live Race Today at Suzuka: Max Verstappen unstoppable with Aussie Oscar Piastri’s first podium in P3 for McLaren while NZ’s Liam Lawson finished 11th in Alpha Tauri

by Sports Benches

Yes, today’s Formula 1 Japanese Grand Prix race was crazy earlier on where we saw a few cars make contact into each other that led to some DNFs along the way. But it was a great day though with Max Verstappen being unstoppable in the Red Bull-RBPT Honda before he was joined by both McLarens to round out the Top 3 as Lando Norris finished 2nd followed our Aussie own Oscar Piastri, who scored his first podium finish in 3rd. We wished Oscar would’ve chased down Max from 2nd, but then he was blocked by the race winner immediately after the race start where Lando took a great view on the outside from 3rd to 2nd before he couldn’t get on hold onto Max as the race progresses. There will always be another Oscar moment after his mother couldn’t be there to watch her son race in-person today, but it looks like we will see him win races & hopefully a World Championship someday thanks to his latest four-year contract extension a few days ago with McLaren.

And shoutout to New Zealand’s Liam Lawson down in 11th for the Alpha Tauri-RBPT Honda outfit. He had a great battle with his team-mate Yuki Tsunoda from the start, although he was losing some track position for a while. But he had a great last half run though nonetheless, having made up some lost time where he got around Yuki before being way ahead of him en route towards another good result – despite being a lap down in his 4th race. Again, this is one driver who deserves a full-time seat. But there’s nothing we can do about it unless Williams can loan him out (which is unlikely) following the news yesterday that Alpha Tauri will retain both Yuki and the injured Daniel Ricciardo next season. Next stop, Lusail International Circuit in Race 17/23 this season under the lights for Qatar Grand Prix on Sunday 8th October/Monday 9th October at 4am AEDT here.

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Motorsport

Thoughts on Liam Lawson missing out a Alpha Tauri 2024 drive after they retained both Daniel Ricciardo & Yuki Tsunoda

by Sports Benches

Image Reference: Lucas Reich via Wikipedia, CC BY 4.0 International

NZ’s Liam Lawson may be underrated at the moment thanks to his fill-ins for the injured Daniel Ricciardo in the other Alpha Tauri-RBPT Honda race car recently. But he will have to spend the next Formula 1 season as their reserve driver for all races after they retained both Riccardo & Yuki Tsunoda unless Williams can loan him out from Red Bull to replace Logan Sargeant, which is going to be less likely to happen now.

He’s done so well in qualifying as well as his race results that includes his first points finish of 9th last weekend in Singapore. Now he still has one Super Formula round to try and win a championship there towards the end of next month, but then that round clashes with the Mexico City GP should Daniel Ricciardo still not recover from his hand injury. It would’ve been better if Danny moved onto Williams; Unfortunately he’s there to help Yuki and the team out over the next year at this stage. There is nothing bad about Liam where he’s so highly rated, especially when he’s our of our Aussie neighbours across the Ditch.

After the announcement today, I guess he will come back better regardless of what happens in the short-term. Once Sergio Perez leaves in 2025, then we will be able to finally see Liam back out on track every round for AT to make a more meaningful impact with results on the board before the team’s switch to Ford from 2026. It’s never been a better time where not only we can see an Aussie in Oscar Piastri & Danny Ric battling up front, but it’s also good to see a Kiwi doing well too in Liam.

Whatever you do Red Bull, don’t waste his talent and lose him to another series. Although I wouldn’t mind if he did race at the Indy 500 and 24 Hours of Le Mans (top hypercar class) next year for the occasion.

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