Knowing what was coming, Liam Lawson admits his unease throughout the Singapore Grand Prix weekend.

As we tweeted at one point over the weekend, just a year after all but demanding that Daniel Ricciardo replace Sergio Perez at Red Bull, the Sky team appeared to be salivating at the Australian's potential demise.

As the majority of the team (over)emphasised his low points, the camera would focus on the RB driver sporting a pained expression before cutting away to another part of the team's garage in which Lawson was standing chatting with Laurent Mekies.

As the broadcaster sought to build the drama, the frequent shots of the New Zealander seemed to hint that he was part of the plot to unseat his popular Australian rival.

Now that RB has officially announced its decision to replace Ricciardo, Lawson has revealed his unease over an unnecessarily difficult situation.

"Singapore was definitely not an enjoyable weekend for me," he tells New Zealand's Newstalk ZB. "We all knew what was sort of coming. And, you know, at the same time, Daniel has always been very good to me, in a lot of ways.

"When I drove last year and then even this season, he's always been somebody that there's never been... I've never felt sort of in competition with him or anything like that," adds the kiwi. "He never made it feel like that.

"So it wasn't a nice feeling."

While Ricciardo hasn't helped himself, though many will point to the shortcomings of the car, the situation wasn't helped by the prevarication over the situation at Red Bull where Perez's future also remained in question. Consequently, while there has been talk of Ricciardo being dropped for some time, there was also the chance that he might feature in a significant reshuffle of the two teams' line-ups.

Behind the scenes there was obvious disagreement between Christian Horner and Helmut Marko, not helped by claims that Lawson had a clause in his contract that could effectively make the youngster a free agent were he not guaranteed a 2025 drive.

"It had been the plan for a long time now, where this was sort of where it was leading," says Lawson of his promotion to the RB drive. "Obviously I had a contract date that needed to be sort of fulfilled.

"Then, a couple of weeks ago, they basically they told me, 'This is what was going to happen', and then basically, not long after that, it was basically set in stone."

The option in Lawson's contract came into effect over the Baku weekend, leaving Red Bull with a clear cut choice, retain the New Zealander - at the cost of Ricciardo - or lose him. In retaining him for 2025, Ricciardo's 'death warrant' was effectively signed... as the media was well aware.

"He did a very good job on the weekend," says Lawson of Ricciardo's final weekend. "Honestly, I have a huge amount of respect for how he dealt with everything.

"I can't really imagine what that.. it's a similar position I was in last year but obviously the guy is a lot more famous than I am, so he's getting a lot of questions and trying to sidestep those. He did a very good job.

"I'll never forget that feeling last year," adds the kiwi who replaced Ricciardo in five races following the Australian's crash at Zandvoort and despite qualifying 10th for the Singapore race was told that the team would be retaining its original line-up for 2024.

"I'd gone into the week and just had my absolute best quali, and I got told then, basically that I wouldn't be driving next year. We obviously fast forward a year, it hasn't been the most enjoyable year, but obviously I'm glad that we all stuck with it, and if anything, I'm better prepared now.

"There's so much to learn in F1 that honestly, even if you're not driving and you're reserve, you're absorbing so much information that it's going to be a big step, but I'm glad we stuck in there.

"I get one shot at F1 and it's come now. I'm obviously grateful for that opportunity, but I now need to take it with both hands. At the same time, he (Ricciardo) said the same thing to me, he said, you need to make the most of it."

LATEST NEWS

more news >

LATEST IMAGES

galleries >

Click to go to the main galleries section

READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by BillH, 01/10/2024 16:42

"It is a very good interview by Mike Hosking, the host of the show who is a bit of a petrol head and someone that has been promoting Lawson to New Zealanders (you may not think that F1 needs promotion however we fans are in our own bubble), keeping folks that don't follow motorsport closely, up with the play.
Ted Kravits was the exception to the Sky F1 team's take down of Ricciardo in his monologue from the pit lane stating that "Ricciardo deserves better treatment".
Hopefully Lawson does well and also Ricciardo finds a mission and purpose to move on to.
He is too good a driver to not be racing somewhere though I would not be surprised if he did something completely different."

Rating: Positive (1) Rate comment: Positive | NegativeReport this comment

2. Posted by Celtic Tiger, 29/09/2024 19:40

"Sounds like Sky was doing most of the leg work for DTS during the Singapore weekend. "

Rating: Positive (2) Rate comment: Positive | NegativeReport this comment

3. Posted by Ricardo_sanchez, 29/09/2024 16:13

"Painful for Lawson. Painful for Ricciardo. Very badly managed by RB. "

Rating: Positive (3) Rate comment: Positive | NegativeReport this comment

Lawson's unease over Singapore weekend

LATEST NEWS

RELATED ARTICLES

LATEST IMAGES

POST A COMMENT

Post your comment

READERS COMMENTS

Share this page