Liam Lawson says his extra outing at the Qatar Grand Prix gives him a further chance to prove to Red Bull he should be in a race seat in future, despite his 2024 role already being finalized.
At the Japanese Grand Prix, AlphaTauri confirmed Yuki Tsunoda and Daniel Ricciardo will be its driver line-up next year, with Lawson reverting to a reserve role for the team alongside the same duties at Red Bull. The New Zealander has impressed throughout his spell standing in for the injured Ricciardo so far, and with Ricciardo again missing Qatar despite a successful simulator session earlier this week, Lawson sees another opportunity to strengthen his future hopes.
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“In Japan, the news became public that I’m back to the role of reserve driver next year,” Lawson said. “Obviously, my goal is to be in Formula 1 full-time, so as much as it’s disappointing, it’s still my goal, and it’s now about trying to make sure that I can make that happen in the future. Right now, I’ve still got this opportunity to keep trying to show something, and I’ll try to make the most of it.
“For now, as long as this lasts, I’ll focus on it, and then once I step back from F1, it’ll be full focus on preparing for the final round of the Super Formula championship at Suzuka on the weekend of the Mexican Grand Prix. It’ll be very different adjusting back to the car, but it’s certainly been useful having driven so many laps at Suzuka throughout the Grand Prix weekend.”
The added challenge of this weekend’s race at Lusail is that its the first Sprint that Lawson will have tackled, and he admits he’s also not certain AlphaTauri will be as competitive as it was in Singapore and Japan.
“I’m not sure how we’ll get on there or how the upgrades will work,” he said. “I think it’s hard to say, because where we struggled in Japan was mainly in the high speed, in Sector 1. We still have more to learn about our new package, and I’m not so sure that Qatar is the type of circuit that will suit our car.
“Learning takes time, and we’ve got more opportunities in Qatar to try and get the most out of it. However, it’s also a Sprint weekend, so at the same time, that makes it quite tricky, especially in my situation. I’ve never driven here, so going into the Sprint weekend will be extra tough.
“I drove the Qatar track in the simulator at the end of last week. It’s very fast, a very high-speed circuit and quite unique, and I’ve not seen many tracks like it, as there’s only one low-speed corner in the whole track. The rest is just fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh gear, so I think it’s going to be exciting to drive.
“With only one free practice session, we drivers will have to know where to improve because it’ll get faster at night when it’s much cooler, and we need to know exactly how to extract everything out of the car. I’m expecting it to be tougher than the races we’ve just done.”