Liam Lawson remembers the day Helmut Marko called him to sign him up for the Red Bull academy. The New Zealander, who could make his debut as a regular this season, recalls that he often rubbed shoulders with Red Bull drivers.
“Funnily enough, I was racing in New Zealand when I got involved. So we have this series, which was very, very popular. A lot of F1 drivers have competed in it. Lando [Norris] “He raced there, Lance Stroll raced there, a few F1 guys raced there.” says Lawson.
“It’s the Toyota Racing Series, which was held for five weeks in January in New Zealand, in the summer, when everywhere in Europe and the United States it’s much colder, so there’s no racing. So there were drivers from all the championships, very high level.”
“As a Formula 1 enthusiast kid, I watched this series every year and dreamed of driving it – to me it was the Formula 1 of motor racing at the time. I finally got to compete in this series after doing my first year in Europe.”
“After the first weekend, where I was very strong, there was a Red Bull driver racing at the time, Lucas Auer. He was racing, he was my teammate. So I guess Helmut was watching Lucas’ races. I had a very good first weekend.”
“I never thought something like this would happen. I remember the year before I raced in F4 in Europe and Jack Doohan was a Red Bull junior at the time, and we did some testing together somewhere.”
“It was maybe in Hockenheim, Germany. I remember seeing him walking around in his Red Bull suit and I remember thinking that was really cool and it would be great to be a Red Bull Junior.”
A few days after that weekend in New Zealand, Lawson received a call he still remembers clearly: “I got the call after that first weekend in New Zealand, I found out a day or two after the weekend – I was sitting in a cafe, I remember exactly where I was sitting.”
“I remember I couldn’t walk! It was really weird. They told me, and I was obviously really emotional, but I was like, ‘Man, I need to go for a walk,’ and I couldn’t really walk properly! It was really weird.”
And if he was so shocked, it was because it was an opportunity for him to revive a dream that was coming to an end: “It was a great achievement because, to make a long story short, when you come from New Zealand and you try to race overseas it’s very, very difficult to get money.”
“So we put together in New Zealand a group of amazing people who supported me, sponsors and investors, the structure to get enough money to go to Europe, do a season and try to get recognised by a junior team.”
“Because without that I had no chance of getting to F1. I did that first season in Europe, and I had a good season, but no team called me, and then I just did this championship in New Zealand in the off-season with no plan on what I was going to do in 2019, and I got picked at the perfect time, and it saved my career. Without that I had four weeks left in that championship, and I had no plan after that.”
Being a reservist is “not easy”
Lawson is chaining together sessions in the simulator this year, because that is what his role entails. He explains that he does not intend, this year in any case, to drive as a regular: “That’s largely my role. Obviously, as a reservist, I don’t do much driving. I don’t do any racing.”
“It’s actually the first time since I was probably seven years old that I haven’t played in a championship for a season. So I’m mostly dealing with the development, the behind-the-scenes stuff.”
Although he admits that it is not easy after having raced his entire career, including in F1, he has learned to put things into perspective: “Obviously it’s part of the process. It’s tricky, for sure, especially because I had a very brief taste of Formula 1 last year, and it was incredible.”
“But obviously I had to come back to that position, and now it’s kind of a waiting game. It gives you a different perspective. I’m obviously very fortunate to have done that, and it probably helps me more in my role as a reserve now because I kind of know what it’s like to drive.”
