Liam Lawson

The following year, Lawson graduated to the NZ F1600 Championship Series.

There he dominated proceedings, claiming fourteen of the fifteen victories on offer to become the youngest champion in not just the series' history, but the youngest ever Formula Ford champion in world at the time.

Starting 23rd for the final round at Sochi, Lawson only improved to 18th in Race 1.

Liam Lawson (born 11 February 2002) is a New Zealand motor racing driver currently serving as a reserve driver for Red Bull Racing.

Lawson, who is mentored by three-time New Zealand Grand Prix winner Ken Smith, previously competed for the Carlin team in the FIA Formula 2 Championship, where he finished third in 2022.

He is a previous Toyota Racing Series champion and former member of the Red Bull Junior Team, In 2021, he also raced for the Red Bull AF Corse team in the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters, partnering Alex Albon, narrowly missing out on the championship in the last round.

He is also the runner-up during the 2023 Super Formula Championship with Team Mugen.

Lawson also currently serves as a reserve driver for Red Bull Racing.

He made his Formula One debut at the 2023 Dutch Grand Prix, replacing Daniel Ricciardo at AlphaTauri after Ricciardo sustained a broken bone in his hand during a crash in free practice.

He achieved his first points in Formula One at his third race, the 2023 Singapore Grand Prix.

At Monza, Lawson he claimed 13th.

However, he managed to progress up to seventh in Race 1, giving him a front row start for Race 2.

At the start, Lawson dropped to fourth after being passed by Jake Hughes and fellow Red Bull junior Yuki Tsunoda.

A few laps later, he was able to pass polesitter Fabio Scherer and later re-pass Hughes.

Lawson would eventually finish second behind Tsunoda, taking his second podium of the season, earning another breakthrough.

Born in Hastings but raised in Pukekohe, Lawson began karting at the age of seven, competing in numerous championships across New Zealand, including two karting titles in 2014.

Each year he returns to the Kartsport Auckland Go Kart Club on Rosebank Road, Avondale and competes in the big City of Sails race on Auckland Anniversary Weekend according to Speedhive myLaps, the transponder company that was used.

The Red Bull Ring round was rather forgettable, taking 14th and 25th.

An impressive qualifying saw him at Silverstone in seventh, and in Race 1 Lawson dropped back to eighth.

It gave him reverse pole for Race 2.

Lawson held the lead for nearly half race distance before being overtaken by Leonardo Pulcini and Robert Shwartzman, eventually finishing third.

This gave him and MP Motorsport's first podium of the season.

Following that, Lawson did not score at all at both the Hungary and Spa-Francorchamps rounds.

In 2015, Lawson made his single-seater debut in the Formula First Manfeild Winter Series with Sabre Motorsport, taking a win and ten podiums to finish second overall.

A few months later, he joined Sabre to contest the NZ Formula First championship, taking a win and three podiums on his way to sixth in the championship and the Rookie of the Year title.

In 2017, Lawson moved up to the Australian F4 championship with BRM, taking five wins to finish as vice-champion in only his rookie season.

The following year, Lawson remained at Formula 4 level, moving across to contest the ADAC Formula 4 championship with Van Amersfoort Racing and received backing from Turner's, the New Zealand used car network that had previously sponsored IndyCar champion Scott Dixon.

Claiming three wins and three pole positions, Lawson's performances saw him claim his second consecutive F4 vice-champion position, behind Lirim Zendeli.

In November 2018, Lawson joined M2 Competition for the 2019 championship.

Lawson dominated on debut at Highlands, taking 2 races wins by over nine-seconds each and won the Dorothy Smith Memorial Trophy as a result of winning Race 3.

Claiming three additional wins across the season, Lawson secured the title at the New Zealand Grand Prix after a season long battle with Ferrari junior and fellow countryman Marcus Armstrong.

Lawson had been set to join the inaugural season of the Formula European Masters with Motopark, alongside fellow Red Bull Junior Yuki Tsunoda, but followed the German outfit to the Euroformula Open Championship when Formula European Masters was cancelled due to a lack of entrants.

Lawson won the opening races at Paul Ricard, and also in Pau.

He would go on to take two more victories to become runner-up to Marino Sato.

He did however, win the rookies' championship.

In November 2018, Lawson competed in the season finale of the Asian F3 championship with Irish outfit Pinnacle Motorsport.

He proceeded to dominate the weekend, taking all wins, fastest laps and pole positions on offer to finish eighth in the championship.

In March 2019, Lawson joined MP Motorsport to contest the inaugural championship, alongside Richard Verschoor and Simo Laaksonen.

His debut at Barcelona, did not go well, qualifying lowest of the MP Motorsport drivers before suffering a throttle motor failure in Race 1.

The second round at Paul Ricard went much better, with him scoring his first points in ninth place in Race 1 and then improving to fifth place in Race 2.