AlphaTauri CEO Peter Bayer has revealed that DTM boss Gerhard Berger was instrumental in convincing Red Bull to focus its attention on Liam Lawson as a future F1 prospect, but team boss Franz Tost was skeptical.
Lawson’s early karting and Formula 4 credentials, coupled with an outright win in the 2019 Toyota Racing Series earned the Kiwi a spot that year in Red Bull’s young driver programme.
However, the 17-year-old’s transition to Formula 3 with MP Motorsport was a rather laborious affair, with Lawson concluding his maiden campaign in the series a lowly P11.
In 2020, Lawson finished runner-up in the winter Toyota series and fifth in the FIA Formula 3 Championship with Hightech Grand Prix.
In 2021, he dovetailed his debut F2 campaign with a stint with Red Bull AF Corse in the DTM, where he caught the attention of Berger, the German series’ managing director, and finished just three points short of the title.
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The former Ferrari and McLaren Grand Prix driver was so impressed with Lawson that he advised Red Bull motorsport boss Helmut Marko to keep close tabs on the young gun.
The Austrian did just that during Lawson’s second season in F2 in 2022 and run to third in the championship, a strong achievement also witnessed by Bayer during his tenure with the FIA.
“Gerhard is a big fan of Liam's racing style," recalled Bayer, speaking to Speedcafe. "He said, ‘He's the one. He's going for the gap, and he's fast'.
“Helmut was also very convinced by his natural speed but Franz was initially a bit skeptical. He said, ‘Looking at his results, I'm not sure'.
“If you purely look at the results, he wouldn't be a standout driver, but he has done a lot of racing, and in different categories, and again and again he was showing there was a spark. Helmut was 100 percent ‘That's the guy'.
“Franz, Christian [Horner], and I had a long discussion, and that's how Liam got the reserve role [with Red Bull Racing].
Imbedded with Red Bull on race weekends, Lawson was called upon at the last hour at last August’s Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort when Daniel Ricciardo was suddenly sidelined by a hand injury sustained in Friday’s practice.
The 21-year-old acquitted himself remarkably well in treacherous conditions in qualifying and also on race day. Lawson would go on to take part in four more races, scoring his maiden top-ten finish in Singapore while just missing out on points in Italy and in Japan.
By the end of Lawson’s substitute period, Bayer had no doubts about his driver’s outstanding skills, delivered while under “huge pressure”: he was the real McCoy as far as the AlphaTauri executive was concerned.
“You get this one chance in Formula 1, and you want to deliver because there are only 20 seats,” explained Bayer.
“I told Liam about my interview [for the AlphaTauri CEO position] with the shareholders. I've done so many interviews, and done so much talking in my life, but I was still bloody nervous.
©AlphaTauri
“For these guys, it's a one-off when they know they have to deliver. They may get one opportunity and that is it.
“Liam said that in Zandvoort he was so f***ing nervous. He said he was like this in the car shaky hands], but then once he got going, he was alright.
“That's a racing driver, when suddenly the switch falls and you transform that excitement into performance.
“That's really where you see the difference with these guys, and that's what he [Lawson] is absolutely capable of. Put him in the car, that's the switch, and he goes.”
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