Liam Lawson knows he missed a golden opportunity to graduate to Formula 1 this season, but admits it was an obvious choice for AlphaTauri to go in another direction.
The sister team to Red Bull, initially established in order to give drivers of the Red Bull academy like Lawson opportunities at the top level, found themselves with an empty seat for 2023 after Pierre Gasly opted to join Alpine next season. Lawson has spent 2022 as the reserve driver for both AlphaTauri and Red Bull and has been the former’s rookie test driver, but was overlooked when the seat became free as AlphaTauri instead signed current Mercedes reserve driver Nyck de Vries.
Speaking to the Herald about that decision, Lawson said he hadn’t had a conversation with AlphaTauri as to why they went in another direction because it seemed clear to him given how his season in Formula 2 had played out.
“I feel ready for Formula 1, especially with the F1 tests that I’ve done, I think there’s no reason why I shouldn’t be there,” Lawson said. “But at the same time, there are results on paper, and this year they haven’t been there. So, it doesn’t matter what the reasons are, at the end of the day there’s no excuse. As unfortunate as it is, it was a bit expected.”
Lawson started his Formula 2 campaign with a bang, finishing on the podium in the first three races of the year including a race win in the sprint in Saudi Arabia. However, he has had his share of issues as the season progressed and was forced to retire from four races – three of those being the feature races, where the most points are on offer.