Lawson gears up for 'challenging' Australian Grand Prix
F1 News
- Savannah Lenz
Liam Lawson will compete in the Australian Grand Prix for the first time in a few days. As he has not had a full-time seat until now, this will be his first time driving at the start of the Formula 1 season and at Albert Park as well. Lawson, who is teammates with four time world champion Max Verstappen, has a lot to prove at Red Bull Racing.
Despite not being classified as a rookie, Liam Lawson is headed into his first full season in Formula 1. While the new Red Bull Racing driver has driven two short stints for Racing Bulls in the past two years, there are still tracks he has not raced at, with Albert Park being one of them. The upside, however, is that for Lawson the Australian Grand Prix is essentially a home race for him, with Australia and New Zealand, his home country, being neighbouring nations.
Lawson feels good about the Australian Grand Prix
After completing his pre-season testing with Red Bull Racing, Lawson was asked how he felt about the preparation he has put in for the upcoming season. "I'm feeling good, as good as I can be. Going to Melbourne, it's a track that I haven't driven at, so it's going to be a tough weekend to obviously learn and adapt as quickly as possible," he said to media present including GPblog.
He continued, "That's really how most of my races in F1 have been so far anyway. It's exciting." Lawson was called up to quickly replace Daniel Riccardo after his Zandvoort accident in 2023 and as a permanent replacement to the Australian in 2024. He has driven 11 Grands Prix in total over the course of the past two years.
As Lawson only tested two out of the three days, on day three of winter testing he said, "Obviously, these are very valuable days. To have Max in today as well to finish off our testing plan is very important."
What is Lawson's plan for the Australian Grand Prix? He mentioned, "We'll try and take as much as we can from it to start the season."
The conclusion after pre-season testing is that McLaren seems to be the favourite team to win in Melbourne while Red Bull Racing are expected to tread behind the papaya team while they focus on getting their car up to speed.
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