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Previewing the Qatar Grand Prix, Liam Lawson opened up about his 2024 status
Somebody had to be the odd driver out at AlphaTauri. With three drivers vying for two seats next season, someone was going to be disappointed.
Unfortunately for Liam Lawson, that feeling is his and his alone.
When AlphaTauri announced their driver lineup for next season ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix, the two drivers picked for the upcoming season were Yuki Tsunoda and Daniel Ricciardo. That meant Lawson, who has performed admirably since stepping in for an injured Ricciardo, would be back to a reserve role with AlphaTauri and Red Bull for the 2024 campaign.
Previewing this weekend’s Qatar Grand Prix, Lawson addressed the news.
“In Japan, the news came public that I’m back to the role of reserve driver next year. 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,” said the young driver.
Still, Lawson believes that this weekend is another opportunity for him to showcase what he can do in Formula 1.
“Right now, I’ve still got this opportunity to keep trying to show something, and I’ll try to make the most of it.”
As for this weekend, Lawson admits that the Qatar Grand Prix — like the bulk of his early F1 experience — will be something of a voyage of discovery. Making matters even more complicated is that this is an F1 Sprint weekend, meaning he will have just one practice session ahead of qualifying for hte Grand Prix.
“Now we move on to Qatar. I’m not sure how we’ll get on there or how the upgrades will work. 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,” said Lawson. “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.”
In a way, that is a setting that Lawson has some experience with. Following Ricciardo’s injury, Lawson had just one practice session in advance of qualifying at the Dutch Grand Prix.
What he is not familiar with, however, is the track in Qatar. Losail International Circuit is a demanding track that poses lots of challenges, from the corners down to the conditions.
In his mind, it might be his toughest test yet.
“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,” said Lawson. “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.”
How he answers this test remains to be seen.
