Formula One features some of the world’s fastest and most sophisticated cars, most brilliant engineers, and most talented drivers. For the people in the sport, the climb to reach the “pinnacle of motorsports” is the most daunting part of their careers. In Origin Stories, we take you beyond today’s news to understand how today’s players earned their starring roles.
The emergence of Liam Lawson has been one of the most surprising, feel good stories of Formula One in 2023.
Drafted in for the Dutch Grand Prix at the last minute by AlphaTauri after Daniel Ricciardo broke his hand in a practice accident, Lawson stepped up from his reserve driver role. At 21, he became the youngest driver on the F1 grid.
He seized the opportunity. Lawson’s impressive performances in the last four races not only lifted AlphaTauri — he scored the team’s best result of the season in the Singapore GP — but proved he is more than ready to race full-time in F1 once that chance comes his way.
Making that happen would be the realization of a dream that started over 11,000 miles away. Lawson knew that making it to F1 was tough for anyone, anywhere. To make it from New Zealand would be even tougher.
But through sacrifice, hard work and bags of talent, Lawson has broken through and put himself on the doorstep of a bright future in F1.
Kiwi heroes
Lawson grew up in Pukekohe, a town of just over 25,000 people on the outskirts of Auckland, New Zealand’s capital. He caught the racing bug at a very young age, his father being a fan of F1 and the Australian V8 Supercars series. As a child, he became obsessed with cars, bikes, even diggers and tractors. “Basically, it was everything with a motor,” Lawson told The Athletic.
In pre-school, Lawson became best friends with a kid called Matthew Payne, whose father was a racing driver. Lawson tagged along to watch a race one day and fell further in love with motorsport, prompting him to try go-karting. He quickly showed a talent for it.
“From the age of seven or eight years old, when it became serious, we were traveling all over the country to go to the national events,” Lawson said. “There was lots of time off school from a young age, lots of weekends away with Dad.”
As he climbed the motorsports ladder, Lawson repeatedly flashed an ability to quickly adapt to the particulars of each new series. (Joe Portlock / Formula 1 via Getty Images)
New Zealand has a small number of full scale racing tracks split between its north and south islands, all of which played a big role not only in Lawson’s development, but that of his fellow Kiwis who proved to be an important source of inspiration.
For a country of just over five million people, New Zealand has a prolific record in producing top-level racing drivers.
Scott Dixon is a six-time IndyCar champion. Shane van Gisbergen has three Supercars titles and won on debut in NASCAR this year. Mitch Evans and Nick Cassidy are front-runners in Formula E. Brendon Hartley is a three-time 24 Hours of Le Mans winner. All have enjoyed success in premier categories, flying the flag for New Zealand.
The 34-year-old Van Gisbergen, who will make a full-time switch from Supercars next season, is a close friend of Lawson’s and an important source of advice. “He’s always been super good,” Lawson said. “All the Kiwi guys have been. Everyone stays pretty close, because there’s not that many of us.”
One of Lawson’s most important supporters is driver Kenny Smith, a national motorsport icon in his homeland. He’s a three-time winner of the New Zealand Grand Prix — a race using junior formula cars that Lawson himself would win in 2019 en route to the Toyota Racing Series title — and has competed in the event for over 60 years. He’s 82 years old and still racing. “It’s incredible,” said Lawson. “He’ll keep on driving.”
Lawson met Smith in Formula First, a club level single-seater series. “I passed like three cars in the grass right in front of him,” Lawson recalled. “After the race, he came down to see me. I remember being super, super nervous to talk to him, because he’s a hero in New Zealand motorsport.”
They became fast friends. Lawson would sometimes skip school to head to Smith’s workshop and talk cars. Smith served as an important mentor, attending all of Lawson’s races in New Zealand and Australia. To this day, he remains a key source of advice. “He’s always been a big part of my racing journey,” said Lawson.
Half the world away
After Lawson impressed in the national single-seater categories across New Zealand and Australia, the time came for the move all drivers from his part of the world must make if they are to reach F1: going to Europe.
Aged 16, Lawson packed up his life and moved to the Netherlands, where his Formula Four team, Van Amersfoort Racing, was based. “It was very foreign to what I was used to, being from New Zealand,” Lawson said. He had to learn to look after himself and live alone for the first time. “I definitely wasn’t good at it! It took a long time to get used to cooking and everything like that, trying to survive,” he said. “But it’s definitely something that I would say I embraced and enjoyed.”
All he wanted to do was go racing, and he did so with success. After finishing runner-up in the German F4 series, he was picked up by Red Bull’s young driver program for 2019 alongside another young talent: his future F1 teammate and housemate, Yuki Tsunoda. Together they raced in Formula Three, Euroformula Open, and the Toyota Racing Series in Lawson’s native New Zealand. His family took in Tsunoda during his month-long stint in early 2020.
“From the age of seven or eight years old, when it became serious, we were traveling all over the country to go to the national events,” Lawson said. “There was lots of time off school from a young age, lots of weekends away with Dad.” (Malcolm GriffithsFormula 1 via Getty Images)
“He’s met my whole family!” said Lawson. “He came to my house. I spent a lot of time with him then. And then we lived in the same building in the UK as well.” Lawson doesn’t think Tsunoda has changed much from the kid he first met five years ago. “He’s the same person I think,” he said. “He’s been super helpful to me joining (AlphaTauri) now. He’s been very supportive of it.”
As Red Bull fast-tracked Tsunoda toward F1, Lawson bided his time with a second year in F3 before moving up to Formula Two, where he spent two years. He dovetailed the 2021 year with a season in DTM, the German touring car series that is the best in Europe. Lawson lost the championship in controversial fashion after being taken out in the final race, but he’d done his standing within Red Bull’s junior setup a world of good.
Wherever Red Bull placed him, Lawson kept winning. He’s won races in every championship he’s competed in, and at least once per year throughout his single-seater career. Lawson even won on debut in F2, DTM and Japan’s Super Formula series, where he starred this year to put himself in championship contention ahead of the season finale at Suzuka in late October.
Adaptability has always been Lawson’s strong suit. Be it different machinery, different circuits, even different racing cultures as varied as Japan or Germany, Lawson embraced it all – and kept winning. It meant the way he took to life in F1 upon his late call-up at Zandvoort came as no surprise.
“He’s a gritty racer, we know that about him,” said Jonathan Eddolls, AlphaTauri’s head of trackside engineering. “He’s grabbed this opportunity in Formula One that very seldom drivers get. He’s done a tremendous job and certainly has put himself firmly on the radar and cemented the feeling that we had about him.”
The waiting game
News that Lawson would not be racing for AlphaTauri in 2024 broke ahead of last weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix. Red Bull opted to stick with its lineup of Tsunoda and Ricciardo for its sister team next year, leaving Lawson in a test and reserve role.
Lawson took the news well, heartened by the fact there he’d done all he could to stake a claim for a drive. He should get at least one more F1 outing before Ricciardo returns, and he’s proved himself to be more than ready for his own seat.
Oscar Piastri offers proof that it’s more a setback than a roadblock. The Australian won the F3 and F2 titles in consecutive years, but then had to spend 2022 in a test role at Alpine as there was no room for him on the F1 grid, before McLaren swooped in to sign him for this year. His impressive start to life in F1, including his first podium in Japan last Sunday, serves as proof that an extra year preparing in a test and reserve role does not preclude a driver to success in F1. It will surely be Lawson’s final step before finally graduating in 2025.
Lawson has made the most of his surprise chance to drive in F1 this year, delivering AlphaTauri’s best result of the year in Singapore. (Rudy Carezzevoli/Getty Images)
It is still a frustrating situation. One driver who can sympathize with Lawson is Alpine’s Pierre Gasly. After winning the GP2 (now F2) title in 2016, Gasly had to wait until late in the 2017 season before getting his F1 shot. Like Lawson, Gasly was placed in Super Formula until the F1 chance came along.
“I know how he feels,” Gasly said. “He’s got to be patient. It’s not nice to hear, it’s not nice to do, but unfortunately there is no other choice. I’m confident we’ll see him in ’25.
“He is fast, which is the most important thing, but it’s not going to be the easiest time.”
Inspiring the next generation
One thing on Lawson’s mind throughout his current cameo, however much longer it lasts, and any future F1 opportunities that follow, is the responsibility to his country. No matter how talented they are and what success they may enjoy nationally, geography is always going to work against those Kiwis bidding to reach the very top. It’s for that reason many set their sights on the Supercars championship in Australia, only a hop over the Tasman Sea, as their ceiling in racing.
But just as the likes of Dixon, van Gisbergen and Evans paved the way for him to look much further than that, Lawson wants to do the same for the next generation of Kiwi drivers.
“In New Zealand, we have this mindset that it’s impossible to go to Formula One,” Lawson said. “I was always told it was impossible from when I was young. Even guys I looked up to told me it was impossible. I go home and meet kids, they’re just eight year olds racing karts, and I ask them what they want to do, and they say, ‘oh, Formula One’s impossible, so I want to do this.’
“But when you’re eight years old, you can do whatever you want. I’d say a big part of this is showing it’s for sure possible. Hopefully we can have a bit more of a structure for New Zealand drivers to do something like this.”
The kid from Pukekohe proved it is possible. And what’s even sweeter is that Lawson’s best friend from pre-school, Matthew Payne, has also made it as a racing driver: He won the Toyota Racing Series title in 2021, two years after Lawson, and is now racing in V8 Supercars.
After news of his F1 debut at Zandvoort was announced, Lawson called up Payne. Both reflected on how far they had come.
“Starting at that age, three or four years old, two kids having a dream…” Lawson said with a smile. “That’s definitely a conversation we had.”
(Lead image of Liam Lawson: Kym Illman/Getty Images; Design: Eamonn Dalton/The Athletic)
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