Liam Lawson: Time for Aussies to embrace the Kiwi rising star who helped end Dan Ricciardo’s F1 career

There’s a lot of Aussie about the Kiwi who helped end Daniel Ricciardo’s F1 career, writes Julian Linden. He explains why Liam Lawson is a driver Australian F1 fans should get behind.

Liam Lawson is one of the rarest kinds of New Zealanders — he is a Kiwi that Australian motor racing fans could embrace as one of their own – just as long as they can learn to forgive him.

A rags to riches self-starter with plenty of old-fashioned mongrel in him — including giving rivals the bird when he overtakes them on the circuit — Lawson is a throwback to the greatest Kiwi drivers of all time — including Bruce McLaren, Denny Hulme and Chris Amon.

Aussies and Kiwis have always been best mates on the track over the years, but through no fault of his own, Lawson has been cast as a villain to Aussie rev heads after playing a part in bringing Daniel Ricciardo’s Formula One career to a screeching halt.

Liam Lawson, Daniel Ricciardo and Oscar Piastri.

Given one last chance to prove he still has some magic in his wand, Ricciardo was handed a seat at the RB, now known as Racing Bulls, team last year, knowing that if things went really well he might even end up back in one of the top cars at the front of the grid.

But things didn’t go well for the ‘Honey Badger’ and Ricciardo promptly lost his seat to the younger, hungrier and faster Lawson for the last six races of the 2024 season.

A fierce and talented racer, the New Zealander made such a big impression that he not only replaced Ricciardo but ended up winning the race to partner four-time world champion Max Verstappen in the senior Red Bull team after Sergio Perez got the chop.

Liam Lawson and Max Verstappen. Lawson won the race to partner the four-time world champion at Red Bull.

Ricciardo’s loyal fans were right to be disappointed but were wrong to blame Lawson because he’s the closest thing to having another Aussie on the grid and looks set to become one of the most popular drivers in the sport because he’s cut from the same cloth as many of our own.

Unlike some F1 drivers, Lawson earned his way to the top the hard way because he wasn’t born into wealth and his family had to make huge personal sacrifices to help him.

His parents mortgaged the family home to support his dream of being a racing driver while two of his sisters, who were national-level Irish dancers, gave up their sporting ambitions because they couldn’t afford to compete overseas while Lawson was getting started in go-karts.

Liam Lawson meets fans on Southbank on Wednesday. Picture: David Crosling

When he was 16, Lawson left his homeland and moved to Europe to try his luck in single-seat racing but returned to New Zealand a year later after none of the F1 academies signed him.

Convinced his dreams of making it to F1 were over, he was unaware that Helmet Marko had been keeping tabs on him and in 2019, he got an offer to join the Red Bull junior program.

Finally able to show his true potential, he finished fifth in the 2020 F3 championship then third in 2022 F2 championship to earn himself a spot as an F1 test driver.

That’s already enough of a reason for Aussies to like him but Lawson did something else during his intense battle with Perez that won him as many admirers as critics when he cheekily gave the Mexican the middle figure after passing him on the track.

Warned by Red Bull not to do that again, he apologised, but his ruthless determination was straight from Verstappen’s playbook and it was no surprise he got the job full time. The first driver to congratulate him was Ricciardo.

Lawson has already raced in 11 Grands Prix, with three ninth-placed finishes marking his best results to date, but this weekend will be his first time in the cockpit at Albert Park and he can’t wait.

“There’s a lot to look forward to,” he said.

“Myself and the team have prepared a lot for the season which has been great. It’s been my first official pre-season in Formula One, so it’s nice to bring all the hard work we’ve done into Melbourne for this weekend.

“It’s a new crew for me, so I wanted to build relationships with the team ahead of the start of the campaign. It’s obviously really exciting to get the season underway and, of course, have my first Australian Grand Prix.

“It’s close to home, so it feels like a home race for me.”

Originally published as Liam Lawson: Time for Aussies to embrace the Kiwi rising star who helped end Dan Ricciardo’s F1 career