Liam Lawson became the spectre hanging over Daniel Ricciardo and his F1 seat. It was not the most comfortable of positions for Lawson to be in.<\/p>\n
But, Lawson opened up on how magnanimous Ricciardo was throughout the Singapore 2024 ordeal, and continues to be towards him. Replacing an injured Ricciardo at Zandvoort 2023, Lawson would take over Ricciardo\u2019s seat just over a year later, which spelt the end of Ricciardo\u2019s F1 career.<\/p>\n
Daniel Ricciardo never said a bad word to Liam Lawson<\/p>\n
Want more PlanetF1.com coverage? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a> for news you can trust.<\/p>\n Lawson made his debut with Red Bull\u2019s junior team, then known as AlphaTauri, at the 2023 Dutch Grand Prix. Ricciardo crashed out during the second practice session, suffering a broken metacarpal bone in his left hand, which meant that a replacement was needed.<\/p>\n Lawson, at that time, had been contending for the Super Formula crown, off the back of coming P3 in the 2022 Formula 2 Championship. He was desperate for F1 opportunities beyond sim work and FP1s, so arrived at Zandvoort ready to turn up the heat on then Red Bull senior advisor and driver programme boss, Helmut Marko.<\/p>\n Speaking on the Gypsy Tails podcast, Lawson revealed that just hours before Ricciardo\u2019s crash, he had been \u201cquite aggressively\u201d asking Marko, \u201cwhat more can I do? What more could I have done?\u201d<\/p>\n Marko was apparently \u201ctalking about, \u2018You\u2019ve just crashed in Super Formula.’\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYeah, but, I\u2019ve been winning races, more races than anybody this year,\u201d Lawson had reasoned. \u201cYou\u2019re not going to know until you give me a chance.\u201d<\/p>\n Ricciardo\u2019s misfortune was soon to become Lawson\u2019s gain.<\/p>\n Having been down at the Red Bull garage at the time of Ricciardo\u2019s Zandvoort FP2 crash, AlphaTauri summoned Lawson post-session. He was in for FP3.<\/p>\n \u201cI think that conversation, in my mind at least, maybe played a big role in that,\u201d said Lawson of his Marko encounter, \u201cbecause there were quite a few people that weren\u2019t wanting, and I can understand it, a rookie to jump in, in Zandvoort.\u201d<\/p>\n As it became clear that Ricciardo was injured, and conversations were taking place about who would be his longer-term replacement, Lawson sought out Marko and Franz Tost, the team principal of AlphaTauri at the time.<\/p>\n \u201cI found Helmut talking to Franz at the time at Red Bull, and he just looked at me, and he\u2019s like, \u2018You ready?\u2019 I was like, \u2018Yep,\u2019 and that was it. That was the end of the conversation. I walked away, and I was just like, \u2018Holy smokes, dude.’\u201d<\/p>\n Lawson contested the Dutch GP, and four further races for AlphaTauri that year, ahead of Ricciardo\u2019s return.<\/p>\n Ricciardo got the nod to continue at AlphaTauri in 2024, but the Singapore Grand Prix proved to be his final race with the team, and in Formula 1.<\/p>\n Lawson replaced Ricciardo from the United States GP.<\/p>\n \u201cThat whole week of Singapore, like, it sucked for me,\u201d said Lawson. \u201cObviously sucked so much more for him.<\/p>\n More on Daniel Ricciardo from PlanetF1.com<\/p>\n Horner: Daniel Ricciardo could have been world champion with Red Bull<\/a><\/p>\n Daniel Ricciardo: It took time to find happiness after retiring from Formula 1<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cAnd through all of it, he just never said a bad word, was always just good to me through it, which shows the kind of person that he is.<\/p>\n \u201cI went there not knowing if he thought I was the worst guy ever. Straight away he spoke to me and said, \u2018I want you to know there\u2019s nothing against you through this. I know it\u2019s nothing to do with you and it\u2019s completely separate from that.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cSince then, every time I\u2019ve called for advice, the guy is completely open to talk and give advice on everything that I\u2019ve asked in the last couple of years.\u201d<\/p>\n Ricciardo retired from motor racing in 2025, having been inactive since his F1 exit, and became a global ambassador for Ford Racing. <\/p>\n Want to be the first to know exclusive information from the F1 paddock? Join our broadcast channel on WhatsApp<\/a> to get the scoop on the latest developments from our team of accredited journalists.<\/p>\n You can also subscribe to the PlanetF1 YouTube channel<\/a> for exclusive features, hear from our paddock journalists with stories from the heart of Formula 1 and much more!<\/p>\n