Driven NZ teen has F1 watching
Liam Lawson trying to pull the handbrake on expectations
When he was young Liam Lawson dreamed of being a famous racing driver. Now New Zealand’s newest motorsport star is living the dream and having to pinch himself after winning his debut race in Formula 2 competition at the Bahrain Grand Prix.
The 19-year-old shocked the racing world just over a week ago, when he won his first-ever F2 race.
With many Formula 1 teams keeping a close eye on the F2 competition to scout for talented young drivers, his Formula 1 dreams could come true sooner than expected.
“It’s something that I never ever thought would be possible like this, it’s something that you dream of and since I was a kid I wanted to be a Formula 1 driver but even just talking to people about the chances of that happening, people were telling me that’s not possible,” he said.
“As it sort of becomes more realistic, it’s crazy to think the way things have gone in the last couple of years.”
Lawson knows he still has a lot to prove and is trying to remain focused on his next race which will run alongside the Monaco Grand Prix in May.
Lawson grew up driving Monaco’s iconic Monte Carlo track playing Formula 1 games on his
Playstation and he’s looking forward to finally getting to drive on the historic street circuit for real.
“It’s my favourite track and I haven’t even driven on it yet so I’m super excited for Monaco. It’s an absolutely crazy place but it has always been the one that I’ve been most excited for,” he said.
Racing for Hitech GP in Bahrain, Lawson won the first sprint race of the weekend but unfortunately spun out while sitting in third position in the second race.
Coming back from that mistake, he finished third in the feature race to cap off an impressive debut weekend.
In the wake of his great start to the F2 championships, Lawson says he’s been struggling to keep up with all of the messages of support coming from back home.
“It was really cool to see how many people were watching and the support I had from back home especially, but also around the rest of the world,” he said.
The adulation and attention had taken some getting used to.
“I was excited to be in this championship because I knew it was a big step not just in the car but on that side of things, I didn’t realise it was this big though.”
After receiving a scholarship for New Zealand’s Formula First championship at 13, Lawson completed a whole season of racing in 2015 picking up a number of podium finishes and the rookie of the year title along the way.
The next year he progressed into the Formula Ford competition where he picked up 14 victories from 15 races to become the competition’s youngest ever champion in the world at the time.
In 2017, Lawson joined his first international competition, the Australian F4 Championship, winning five races to be the runner-up in his rookie season. Remaining in Formula 4 for another season, he took his talents to Europe where he was runnerup again for Van Amersfoot racing in Germany and Austria. Lawson was signed to Red Bull’s Junior Team in 2019 before he moved up to Formula 3 with his current F2 team, Hitech.