Who is Red Bull junior driver Liam Lawson?

Lawson to replace Checo? 

Liam Lawson has been part of the Red Bull family since 2019. As part of the Red Bull driver academy, Lawson represented the team throughout his F3 and F2 campaigns. His best finish in the F2 championship came in 2022 when he finished third after taking four victories and a further six podiums. The young New Zealander got his first experience in F1 machinery driving Red Bull's 2011 RB7 at the 2021 Goodwood Festival of Speed. He then took part in the 2021 Post-season Young Driver test in Abu Dhabi for Alpha Tauri (now VCARB). 

For 2022, Lawson was announced as the reserve driver for the Italian team, before also becoming Red Bull's reserve driver. He made his free practice debut for the team in Belgium and also drove the car in Mexico. In Abu Dhabi in the same year, he drove for Red Bull in FP1. He completed the post-season young driver test again, this time with Red Bull. In 2023, he was again announced as reserve and test driver for both Alpha Tauri and Red Bull Racing. 

Super stand-in performances

After Nyck de Vries' sacking, Lawdon believed he had a chance of taking the seat alongside Yuki Tsunoda. However, the team opted for the experience of Daniel Ricciardo. Lawson stated after the decision he "understood the decision" and admitted jumping in the car mid-season would be "extremely tough". It didn't take him long to get his chance to prove himself. 

Lawson was called up to drive the Alpha Tauri at the 2023 Dutch Grand Prix after Ricciardo broke his hand during an FP2 crash. With limited practice time, Lawson qualified P20. He made up for it in the race, finishing P13 and ahead of his more experienced teammate Tsunoda. After the weekend, it was confirmed Lawson would stay in the seat until Ricciardo made a full recovery. 

The 2023 Italian Grand Prix saw him qualify P12 and finish the race P11. It was the Singapore Grand Prix that made everyone notice him. On the Saturday of that weekend, Lawson qualified P10 after knocking reigning world champion Max Verstappen out of qualifying. He scored his first points during the race, fighting with former Red Bull driver Alex Albon to finish ninth. 

Lawson finished 11th again in Japan but suffered a more difficult weekend in Qatar, where he spun out of the sprint race and finished last of the running cars. Ricciardo returned for the US Grand Prix, but Lawson had done enough to get himself in contention for a seat. The 22-year-old continued as reserve driver for both teams for 2024, and on Thursday, June 11, 2024, completed a testing day for Red Bull Racing at Silverstone, further fuelling rumours he could replace Sergio Perez.