Liam Lawson has been part of the Red Bull junior team since 2019. Photo / Getty Images
Many kids playing video games of their favourite sports dream they might one day get to play on the same stage as their heroes.
Kiwi motor racer Liam Lawson is living that fantasy.
It was a realisation that hit him during his debut Formula 2 campaign last season when, in just the second event of the year, he was driving at the historic Circuit de Monaco.
"It was just a special place to drive," Lawson recalls. "There's a lot of history and since I was a kid playing Formula 1 games, that was the track that I drove on all the time.
"It's way tighter, way bumpier and a lot faster than it looks."
For the 20-year-old New Zealander, life changed in 2019 when he was scouted by Red Bull Racing while driving in New Zealand in the Toyota Racing Series. Having just returned from Europe following a season competing in Formula 4, Lawson was impressive in the opening leg of the Toyota series.
He recalls that at one point during the race at Highlands Motorsport Park in Otago in January, he pulled off a big overtake which he believes caught the attention of Red Bull. Whether it was that particular manoeuvre or his performance as a whole, Red Bull took notice and, in February, he was announced as the newest signing to the junior team of one of the biggest names in motorsport.
In May the same year, he made his Formula 3 debut, racing for MP Motorsport. In his first season, Lawson took a couple of events to find his footing, but was in the points by the third event of the campaign.
He finished the season in 11th place on the ladder, earning points in seven of the 16 races including two podiums, before joining HiTech Grand Prix for the following season. The move saw him take a big step in terms of performance, finishing fifth on the Formula 3 leaderboard, picking up points in 15 of the season's 18 races. The three races he failed to register points in were races he was forced to retire from.
In 2021, his stocks increased as he was promoted to Formula 2 and made a huge statement, winning the feature race of the first event of the season in Bahrain. But competing in Formula 2 wasn't his only track time in the Red Bull setup. At the end of the year, he got the opportunity to test driver for AlphaTauri — Red Bull Racing's sister team — in the Formula 1 car.
"It was very surreal," Lawson says of the experience. "I'd obviously been wanting that since I was a kid so it was a very cool day. I did a lot of preparation, flew to Faenza — AlphaTauri's factory — and did seat fits and prep on how to just operate the car because it's very complicated, and the test itself went really good.
"The car is so fast. Even with all the preparation I did, nothing can prepare you for how fast that car actually is. We did a lot of development on the car as well, and for me that was good because I got to feel what the car was like in different setups. We did short runs, long runs; I think I did about 130 laps which was plenty for a day. My neck was falling off by the end of it."
Of the rookie drivers who got to take part, Lawson posted the second-fastest lap time — ahead of Guanyu Zhou who now drives full-time for Alfa Romeo's Formula 1 team.
Lawson has now been named AlphaTauri's rookie practice driver for 2022, which guarantees him another two chances to drive the Formula 1 car later in the year; the dates are yet to be determined.
It's one of two big moves for the flying Kiwi for the season, moving from HiTech Grand Prix to Carlin for the 2022 Formula 2 season — a decision he and Red Bull made collectively.
"Red Bull laid out the options and we were able to decide what we thought was the best option for us and in the end it was between both of us. Carlin are very experienced and have been very strong, especially in Formula 2 in recent years so for us it was a good opportunity.
"Already I'm surprised by how much I've learnt. I've done a season of F2 and you think you know everything about how to drive a car, then you go to a new team and there's so much more to learn. It's been really good so far."
The results have spoken for themselves for Lawson since the move. In two events of the 2022 calendar, he's produced a third, second and first to begin the season, before being forced to withdraw from the feature race in Saudi Arabia late last month after a pit stop gone wrong.
Lawson doesn't just work in the lower competitions. As a Red Bull junior, he is heavily involved with the team — spending a lot of time in the Formula 1 factory, in simulator sessions with them, working alongside the team at events and learning how they operate.
It's a lot of work, but work he is eager to carry out as he chases the dream of a full-time position in Formula 1.
It's a position many motorsport fans expect to see Lawson in the future as he continues to improve and show his class in the lower competition. New Zealand has only had one driver compete in Formula 1 since 1985, with Brendan Hartley holding down a seat with AlphaTauri's predecessor Toro Rosso in 2017 and 2018.
When asked about the expectations upon him to be the country's next driver to break through, Lawson admits he hears the noise, but he welcomes it as there's only so much he can take control of.
"I would like to be able to carry the form on that we've been achieving so far," Lawson says of his 2022 outlook. "I think if we do that for the rest of the season, we'll be in a good position by the end of it. I want to be fighting for the championship in the last couple of races. It's all very well to sit here and say 'I want to win this year' and stuff like that, but basically, I want to be going into the last races in a position where I can achieve that.
"A lot has to happen before then, so being consistent over the season and scoring good points is the target, then by the end if we are in a position to fight for the championship, I think I would have achieved all my personal goals as well from a driving standpoint.
"For me, it's nice to know that the support is there. I know when I come home, I feel a lot of it as well, and it's very cool. It's a very difficult thing, and a rare opportunity that I have, and I wish that more young drivers from New Zealand could have the same opportunity, because I know how tough it is to just break out of the country and be able to race in Europe.
"I'm pushing very hard to achieve this goal, and it doesn't distract me or add any pressure to anything. It would be very cool for it to happen and I think for New Zealand as well, it would be quite a cool thing for a New Zealander to race fulltime in F1 but no, it doesn't add any pressure to achieving that."
A host of Kiwi entries have withdrawn for various reasons.