Lawson set to start with a sprint penalty in Austin!

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Formula 1's newest full time driver Liam Lawson is set to make his bow in 2024 with a grid penalty for the sprint race at next month's United States Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas.

Lawson made give Grand Prix starts last season sitting in for an injuired Daniel Ricciardo. He now gets the seat in his own right for the rest of 2024 after RB decided to drop Ricciardo after the Singapore GP.

Unfortunately the number of engine parts that can be used is determined by the car rather than the driver, meaning that Lawson has already reached his maximum allocation for several components this season despite not turning a wheel.

Red Bull motorsports consultant Dr Helmet Marko confirmed that the car will need new parts for the next Grand Prix in October which will mean a hefty grid penalty for his first spring outing with RB.

“The first, I think, won’t be relevant because he has an engine penalty,” Marko told Motorsport-Total.com this week. “Ten places in the sprint race, so that doesn’t exactly make life easier in Austin.”

Read also: Lawson replaces Ricciardo at RB for remainder of F1 season

Ricciardo was right on the limit of a penalty in Singapore, and his team mate Yuki Tsunoda had already taken an extra engine out of his allocation of power units this season.

Red Bull drivers Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez have similarly already exceeded their original allocation of ICEs this season, while McLaren's Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri have yet to do so.

©AlphaTauri

Half the grid has already taken some kind of penalty for new engine parts this year, and that number is likely further to increase as the season goes on.= with six races remaining on the calendar.

Lawson is aware that he has no time to waste and can't afford to hang around if he wants to make his mark in the season, beginning with back-to-back races in the US and Mexico in October.

"I need to try and obviously show my worth in F1 and I would say do a similar job to what I did last year," he said, recalling his five-race stand-in stint when Ricciardo injured his hand in 2023.

“I need to perform basically, I need to try and obviously show my worth in F1 and I would say do a similar job to what I did last year," he commented. “That’s what’s given me the shot now, is what happened last year.

"I just need to do enough to stay in the seat next year," he added.

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.