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Liam Lawson: When and how he found out about the Red Bull cockpit

Liam Lawson has reached an intermediate goal in his career with the regular cockpit at Red Bull Racing: “The big goal is to become Formula One world champion”

Liam Lawson has known since December 9 that he will probably be driving Formula 1 for Red Bull Racing in 2025. Although the official confirmation did not come until December 19, ten days later. But on December 9, team principal Christian Horner had already sent him a text message saying that it looked good for him and that basically everything was in place.

He had suspected “for a while” that it might turn out this way, Lawson says in an interview on the official Red Bull Racing YouTube channel. Then, on the Monday after the season finale in Abu Dhabi, a meeting of the decision-makers at Red Bull took place, at which it was decided to make Lawson Max Verstappen’s teammate in 2025.

After the meeting, Horner told him that it had gone “well,” Lawson reveals, “and then he called me to break the news to me. It was the classic one-liner: ‘Welcome to Red Bull Racing!’ It was very exciting to hear it over the phone. So yes, that was a cool moment.”

It took a few days before the driver line-up could be officially communicated because the termination agreement for Sergio Perez still had to be drawn up. He did not leave his cockpit entirely voluntarily, because he would originally have had a two-year contract for 2025 and 2026.

Emotional phone call with father Lawson

At some point, Lawson called his father, whom he describes as an “enormous influence” on his growth as a racing driver: “He never raced himself, but he made me believe as a child that I could achieve anything if I believed in it enough and worked hard enough for it, and I always took that to heart.”

The conversation was “very emotional”: “I’ve never seen him like that before.” No wonder, as Lawson’s family once sold their house in New Zealand to enable their son to pursue a racing career in faraway Europe.

At first, Lawson just told his father that he would not be testing in Imola this winter, but in Silverstone instead. It took a moment for him to realize what that meant. But while the Racing Bulls traditionally complete their shakedown in Italy, Red Bull Racing usually does it in England. At some point, the penny dropped.

Until 2017, Lawson raced in New Zealand and Australia before moving to Germany in 2018 to compete in Formula 4. There he finished second in the championship behind Lirim Zendeli but ahead of drivers like Jack Doohan, Frederik Vesti and David Schumacher. He was then accepted into the Red Bull junior team for the 2019 season.

In 2019, he won the Toyota Racing Series, among other things, and in 2020 he finished fifth in Formula 3 and in 2021 he was runner-up in the DTM. He was destined to win a championship, but for one thing: he collided with Kelvin van der Linde in the first round and later, an internal Mercedes team order allowed Maximilian Götz to become champion after all.

In 2022, Lawson finished third in Formula 2, behind Felipe Drugovich and Theo Pourchaire, but ahead of drivers like Logan Sargeant, Jack Doohan and Frederik Vesti. He also competed in Super Formula in Japan that same year, where he finished runner-up. This ultimately put him in first place on the waiting list for Red Bull juniors.

Used to play Mark Webber in the F1 game

The fact that he now, just two years later, has a contract with Red Bull Racing in the bag, the 22-year-old describes as “crazy”. Back in 2010, when the official Formula One video game was released, “I always played Mark Webber so that I could race and beat Sebastian Vettel. Since then, I have always dreamed of becoming a Red Bull Racing driver myself one day.”

But being a Red Bull junior wasn’t always a bed of roses. He remembers phone calls with Helmut Marko, and he knew exactly: “If I don’t perform, you’ll be kicked out.” But: “It’s a tough program. But it’s exactly that pressure that prepares you for Formula 1.”

Now, after just 11 races for Red Bull’s B team in the 2023 and 2024 seasons, Lawson has arrived where he somehow always saw himself: as Max Verstappen’s teammate in one of Formula 1’s best teams. “I always wanted to be world champion, even as a kid, and now I’m in a good position,” he says.

Even though he realizes that it probably won’t happen right away: “The goal for the team is the Constructors’ Championship, and my job is to contribute to that. That’s why I’m here. But of course I’ll also try to be in a good position personally as early as possible. After all, I have the best driver as a teammate, from whom I can learn.”

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