Liam Lawson revealed Red Bull urged him to continue the impressive form that rewarded him with ninth upon his Formula 1 return at the United States Grand Prix.
Lawson was announced as Daniel Ricciardo’s mid-season replacement at RB after the Singapore Grand Prix, making his return at the Circuit of the Americas last week.
After inheriting an engine penalty, Lawson started the United States GP from 19th and climbed 10 places to finish an impressive ninth.
Speaking ahead of the Mexico City GP, Lawson revealed that Red Bull Team Principal Christian Horner and Advisor Helmut Marko have laid down the gauntlet for the New Zealander to continue that form throughout the rest of the campaign.
“Obviously the expectation is to carry on performing as well, so one weekend’s not enough to do too much,” Lawson told select media including Motorsport Week on Thursday.
“They’re obviously happy with how it went, but as I said, this is a very different style of circuit, so we have to really put a lot of effort into these weekends, honestly.
“The preparation is very, very important to how we end up performing.”
Horner impressed with Lawson’s F1 return
Lawson’s mandate is to perform well enough across the final rounds of the 2024 F1 season to earn a 2025 drive at either Red Bull-owned team.
The RB driver’s reintroduction to F1 came at a new circuit for him and in an F1 Sprint weekend to compound the difficulty.
Despite the difficulties he faced, Lawson excelled and speaking to media in Mexico on Friday, Horner said he was “very impressed” by the New Zealander.
“I was very impressed, I mean to jump in the car, a circuit that he’d not been to before, the pressure of just having to get on with it over a sprint weekend, I thought he equipped himself very well and I think that to go from the back to ninth and score points on his seasonal debut, I thought he did a super job,” Horner exclaimed.
Horner was then prompted on how he figured Lawson would fare alongside Max Verstappen at Red Bull.
“I think that’s difficult to hypothesise,” Horner replied.
“I mean he’s obviously a talented guy, we know a bit about him from the work he’s been doing in tyre testing and so on, and he’s a talent that’s continuing to nurture and continuing to grow, so it’s interesting to see how he performs over these remaining five races.”
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