Albon's new talented teammate could well mean the end of his F1 career
F1 News
Alexander Albon will have the opportunity in 2021 to prove in the DTM that his relegation is unjustified. However, he has to get to work, because with Liam Lawson he will have a talent from Red Bull on his side that he cannot just brush aside.
Another driver from New Zealand
Born on February 11, 2002, in Hastings New Zealand, Liam Lawson is known as one of the greatest talents in the current Red Bull set-up. Lawson was given the opportunity in 2020 to show what he could do in Formula 3, as one of the youngest drivers. Despite the slightly weaker car of Hitech Grand Prix, he still won three races.
And with that Lawson proved something he has been showing for years: He is a talent to be reckoned with. Lawson, like all young talents today, started karting at a young age and won two karting titles in New Zealand.
In New Zealand, he came second in the Formula First Manfeild Winter Series and sixth in the New Zealand Formula First Championship. Both for the Saber Motorsport team.
The dreaded step to Europe
More success followed in 2016 and 2017. In 2016, he won the New Zealand Formula Ford Championship with 14 wins from 15 races and also finished second in the CAMS Jayco Australian Formula 4 Championship. He was pushing the boundaries and finally seemed ready to move to Europe in 2018.
In 2018 Lawson made a strong impression in the ADAC Formula 4 Championship. He was second behind the three years older Lirim Zendeli and took three victories. He ended the season with three races in the F3 Asian Championship. He won all three races. It was time for the real work in 2019.
Red Bull junior
As a Red Bull junior, Lawson has had several opportunities. He won the Toyota Racing Series and finished second in the Euroformula Open Championship. He has nine victories to his name, although he expected more from the first season in Formula 3. He was on the podium twice but has to make do with an 11th place finish in the standings.
Lawson's international breakthrough followed in 2020 where he made a big impression in Formula 3. Hitech Grand Prix is a far from a competitive team in Formula 3, where it has to compete with superpowers such as Prema and ART. Lawson's three teammates; Max Fewtrell, Pierre-Louis Chover and Dennis Hauger together scored 24 points. Lawson, on the other hand, scored 143 on his own and won three more races.
Lawson vs Albon
However, his year was also defined by many technical problems. Lawson is fast, but his entire weekend in Hungary was ruined by problems with his car, for example. Things were not going well for the New Zealander, but hopefully, with the support of Red Bull in 2021, he can show what he really can do.
At 18, Lawson is still very young, but Albon should not underestimate his new teammate in the DTM. Lawson has shown for years that he can race very fast with weaker material. With Albon, he also gets an ideal benchmark. If he manages to beat him in the DTM, then Helmut Marko can hardly ignore him for a seat at AlphaTauri in 2022. So a lot to gain for Lawson, where Albon may now have everything to lose.