Speaking at his media session ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix, Alex Albon was asked about Liam Lawson missing out on the AlphaTauri seat to Daniel Ricciardo.
Photo credit: Red Bull Content Pool
On the Tuesday after the British Grand Prix, AlphaTauri announced that the Perth-born driver would be replacing Nyck de Vries for the remainder of 2023. Had the Aussie not taken the offer, the drive would have gone to Lawson.
The pair were teammates in DTM in 2021 and Lawson was massively impressive. If it wasn’t for underhanded tactics, the New Zealander would have won the championship in his rookie campaign.
After two seasons in the Formula 2 championship with a best result of 3rd in the championship, the 21-year-old was sent to Super Formula this year and is doing a mighty job. Three wins so far leaves him a single point behind the championship leader with three races to go.
Albon has no doubts that Lawson will get an F1 opportunity in the very near future.
“We can say it now, but I’m sure his time will come. It’s not that it’s not coming. I’m confident that he’s going to have a seat in F1 soon.”
The Williams driver also added that it’s probably best for the Kiwi not to come in during the season and trying to learn a completely new car against Yuki Tsunoda. The Japanese star is performing really well this year to date.
“To put him in now I think would be tough for him because he’s coming in as a rookie halfway through a season. When you’ve got a driver next to you who’s in very good form and has also just done 10 races already. It would be very hard on him.
“I think in some ways it almost gives him some time where when he does come into Formula 1, he will be on a bit more of a level playing field. Even though it will be a new car, it will be a fresh car, and he can have the testing can go into it in a proper way.
“Whereas if he was to come in now, if he doesn’t perform well enough in the first three races he’s going to be attacked straight away [by the media]. That tends to be what happens.
“So in some ways I think it’s not a silly decision to put Daniel in, someone who’s already got experience and doesn’t need such a big learning curve like Liam would.”
