{"id":529854,"date":"2026-07-17T00:21:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T00:21:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/529854\/"},"modified":"2026-07-17T00:21:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T00:21:09","slug":"very-special-liam-lawson-reflects-on-driving-famous-mclaren-car","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/529854\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Very special&#8217;: Liam Lawson reflects on driving famous McLaren car"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Kiwi Formula 1 driver Liam Lawson has reflected on a &#8220;very special&#8221; and emotional moment, where he got to drive Bruce McLaren&#8217;s Le Mans-winning car.  <\/p>\n<p>The Racing Bulls driver said he was shaking after getting behind the wheel of the No. 2 Ford GT40 at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in the UK \u2013 steering it along the event&#8217;s famous hillclimb.  <\/p>\n<p>Lawson said the drive gave him &#8220;indescribable&#8221; feelings.<\/p>\n<p>McLaren drove the car to victory in the 1966 24 Hours of Le Mans. It&#8217;s a car that was immortalised in the 2019 Oscar-winning film Ford vs Ferrari.  <\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/chris-amonbruce-mclaren-ford-gt40-mk-ii-during-the-24-hours-HSREFGAPQZFCTJDLOVWIJX5GLI.jpg\" alt=\"Chris Amon\/Bruce McLaren (Ford GT40 Mk II), during the 24 Hours of Le Mans at Circuit de la Sarthe on June 18-19, 1966 in Le Mans, France. \" width=\"800\" height=\"606\" loading=\"eager\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"ImageMetadata__MetadataParagraph-sc-hi5x8q-0 cWTYyG image-metadata\">Chris Amon\/Bruce McLaren (Ford GT40 Mk II), during the 24 Hours of Le Mans at Circuit de la Sarthe on June 18-19, 1966 in Le Mans, France.  (Source: Getty)<\/p>\n<p>Ahead of this weekend&#8217;s Belgian Grand Prix, Lawson said driving the Kiwi legend&#8217;s car was &#8220;very special&#8221;.  <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I probably won&#8217;t ever have a feeling like that again in a race car,&#8221; Lawson said. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Motorsport in New Zealand and Formula 1 especially, there&#8217;s a lot of history \u2013 it&#8217;s been a long time since the success of those guys.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;For me, as a New Zealander growing up, learning about the history, working and having relationships, having mentors with people that were close or knew the families of Bruce, of Chris Amon. It&#8217;s very, very cool.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p>Lawson <a href=\"https:\/\/www.1news.co.nz\/2026\/07\/06\/lawson-in-another-top-ten-finish-in-chaotic-british-grand-prix\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">has had a strong start to the F1 season<\/a> and heads into this weekend&#8217;s race with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.1news.co.nz\/2026\/06\/26\/early-days-liam-lawson-on-f1-future\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">consistent points-scoring finishes<\/a>.  He has produced some of the best results and consistency <a href=\"https:\/\/www.1news.co.nz\/2026\/06\/23\/lawson-details-online-abuse-crazy-justification-for-red-bull-axing\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">among the drivers outside the big four teams.<\/a>  He currently sits 10th in the driver&#8217;s championship. <\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/racing-bulls-driver-liam-lawson-of-new-zealand-steers-his-ca-I2K5T6EJSBHVXD5UFRDRFHSST4.jpg\" alt=\"Racing Bulls driver Liam Lawson of New Zealand steers his car during the qualifying session ahead of the British F1 Grand Prix, in Silverstone, England`.\" width=\"800\" height=\"449\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"ImageMetadata__MetadataParagraph-sc-hi5x8q-0 cWTYyG image-metadata\">Racing Bulls driver Liam Lawson of New Zealand steers his car during the qualifying session ahead of the British F1 Grand Prix, in Silverstone, England`. (Source: Associated Press)<\/p>\n<p>He said the season had been &#8220;very good&#8221; and that he was feeling confident.  <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I think it&#8217;s just the progression. It&#8217;s probably the most satisfying part. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Just the fact that each sort of upgrade we&#8217;re bringing, or each area we&#8217;re focusing on, we&#8217;re managing to execute and find those gains that we&#8217;re searching for,&#8221; he said.  <\/p>\n<p>Lawson said that while things were often uncontrollable in motorsport, &#8220;everything that&#8217;s in my control, I&#8217;m trying to focus on, and it&#8217;s been bringing results&#8221;. <\/p>\n<p>The first practice session of the Belgian Grand Prix starts tonight, with qualifying at 2am on Sunday and the race at 1am on Monday.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"text-greyDarkFaded\">The morning&#8217;s headlines in 90 seconds, including a strong quake rocks the south, and the rescue of a man stuck in a portaloo.  (Source: Breakfast)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kiwi Formula 1 driver Liam Lawson has reflected on a &#8220;very special&#8221; and emotional moment, where he got&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":529855,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[238294,111,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-529854","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-f1autoz26","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=529854"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529854\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/529855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=529854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=529854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=529854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}