Kiwi Formula One driver Liam Lawson said he has “no idea” if he’ll be offered a full-time seat once injured teammate Daniel Ricciardo returns.
The 21-year-old has impressed during his brief stint in F1, scoring a best result for AlphaTauri, coming in 9th at the Singapore GP on Monday.
Filling in for Ricciardo, Lawson has finished all three of his races in the AlphaTauri machine, which can’t be said about his teammate Yuki Tsunoda.
Tusnoda has struggled this season, sitting in 17th place in the driver's championship on three points.
Despite the positive results, Lawson's future in F1 after Ricciardo returns is currently up in the air.
Earlier this week, F1 journalist Tobi Gruner said AlphaTauri is set to renew Tsunoda’s contract, meaning Lawson will miss out on a full-time seat.
Lawson said he has “no idea” if the Red Bull junior team will pick him up full-time but believes “I should be in F1”.
“I think every driver feels like they should be (on the grid),” he told media.
“To be at this level, we all have to have self-belief, and I certainly have that, but right now, I’m focused on delivering these weekends.”
Lawson is set to be on the starting grid at the Japanese GP at Suzuka, a track he’s familiar with - racing on it in SuperFormula.
It will also be Tsunoda’s home race, but he also said his future with the team is “not confirmed yet”.
“I was speaking already, it’s not confirmed yet, but I don’t know, to be honest. I think from both perspectives, they are positive.
“Daniel brings definitely more experience, and he showed a lot of feedback comparison. I think it’s really good to kind of. He definitely can tell more details about how the car is behaving, so I think it helps a lot for the engineers.
“I think, and as you analyse it, especially how he talks and how he helps the development side, so if the team wants to develop the car more to be competitive, maybe Daniel. But, at the same time, Liam, I think he showed in the first two-three races, and he’s probably still progressing.
He said that Lawson’s recent performances and Ricciardo's track experience have him “scared".
“If they want more results, Daniel is probably easier, he has more experience, so maybe he can extract those results, but also Liam, I don’t know, I’m scared to say!”
He then jokingly offered his own solution to AlphaTauri’s driver dilemma.
“I think Liam also had the best score. He did ninth, I’ve never done ninth, so I’ll stop here. Liam and Daniel… Three seats.”
Lawson's future 'all depends on this weekend'
Motorsports Youtuber Josh Revell told Breakfast that if Lawson can once again impress in Japan this weekend, it might boost his chances of getting a full-time ride.
"There are a lot of moving parts with regards to marquee value in drivers, which is why Daniel Ricciardo is virtually confirmed there this year.
"However, with how he's [Lawson] been performing, there's little to no reason why the powers that be should not take a chance on him."
He said that even if AlphaTauri doesn't pick him up for next year, another team may take an interest — given Lawson's performance.
"Who knows... this weekend could be the decider for that."
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