{"id":804973,"date":"2026-07-16T23:55:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T23:55:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/804973\/"},"modified":"2026-07-16T23:55:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T23:55:11","slug":"liam-lawson-reflects-on-emotional-once-in-a-lifetime-experience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/804973\/","title":{"rendered":"Liam Lawson reflects on emotional once-in-a-lifetime experience"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Liam Lawson has reflected on the emotional experience of driving Bruce McLaren&#8217;s Ford GT40, admitting it gave him a sensation he expects to &#8220;never have&#8221; again.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>The Racing Bulls driver was incredibly busy during last weekend&#8217;s Goodwood Festival of Speed, getting behind the wheel of several different cars.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>One, however, was significantly more special than the others for Lawson, as he had the opportunity to drive McLaren&#8217;s 1966 Le Mans 24 Hours-winning Ford GT40.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>Lawson was left shaking after driving the legendary race car, particularly given its significance in McLaren&#8217;s career.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>With Bruce McLaren being one of, if not the most famous racing drivers in New Zealand&#8217;s history, experiencing what it was like to drive one of his cars, even for a moment, is something Lawson will never forget.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>McLaren&#8217;s 1966 Le Mans victory is documented in the film Ford v Ferrari, although the story primarily centres on Ken Miles. Nevertheless, the GT40 driven by McLaren does make an appearance.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>Asked what it was like to drive such an iconic car, Lawson replied: &#8220;Yeah, it was pretty cool. Obviously, growing up in New Zealand, motorsport in New Zealand, and Formula 1 especially, there&#8217;s a lot of history.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;So, yeah, it&#8217;s been a long time since the success of those guys. Bruce started McLaren, and that car specifically won that race. There&#8217;s also a pretty sick movie that&#8217;s sort of about it. It&#8217;s more about the Ken Miles car, but that car is in the movie.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;For me, as a New Zealander growing up and learning about the history, working with people and having relationships with mentors who were close to, or knew, Bruce&#8217;s and Chris Amon&#8217;s families is very, very cool.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;So, yeah, it was very special. I&#8217;ll probably never have a feeling like that again in a race car.&#8221;\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Liam Lawson has reflected on the emotional experience of driving Bruce McLaren&#8217;s Ford GT40, admitting it gave him&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":804974,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,827,830,828,831,829,826,813,823,825,806,805,824,803,804,822,85],"class_list":["post-804973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-daniel-ricciardo","tag-f1-calendar","tag-f1-live","tag-f1-results","tag-f1-standings","tag-ferrari","tag-formula-1","tag-lewis-hamilton","tag-max-verstappen","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motorsport","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-racing","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/804973","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=804973"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/804973\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/804974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=804973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=804973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=804973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}