Liam Lawson becomes Max Verstappen's teammate this season after competing in 11 Grands Prix in F1 alone.
This is obviously a lot of pressure put on the young driver, responsible for making Sergio Perez forget.
When talking about how he got to this stage of his career, he was extremely grateful to Dr. Helmut Marko, who helped him for several years.
The key moment in Lawson's career was when he got the chance to join the Red Bull Junior Team. After competing in the German F4 championship, where he finished second, he had to return to New Zealand, as he had not received an offer at the time. As he does not have a wealthy family, the offer from Red Bull changed his career.
“First of all, my relationship with Red Bull started before! I have to tell you a story. The first Formula 1 game I played was F1 2010. I was eight years old. That year, Sebastian Vettel won his first championship I always played with Mark Webber's car in the game, to be able to compete with Vettel I always drove the Red Bull.”
“After F4 I came back to New Zealand and did the Toyota Racing Series (TRS). We had no money, no plans for 2019, I couldn't afford to do racing. F3. I knew it was my last chance The first weekend after the race I received a contract from Red Bull sent by Helmut.
“When I became a Red Bull junior, arriving here in Milton Keynes, at the time I already felt like an F1 driver. It's like being in NASA's mission control center.”
What helped Lawson improve a lot were the famous phone calls from the Red Bull advisor, very early on the Monday morning after a racing weekend. Feared by some, these calls on the contrary stimulated Lawson.
“The best thing for me was probably the last five years as a Red Bull junior, the phone calls from Helmut at 7 a.m., which put pressure on. The threat of losing his career at 16, if the you don't perform well in the next race, it really helped me prepare for Formula 1, because, I admit, facing Max at Red Bull, it's a lot of pressure.”
