Lawson reveals Daniel Ricciardo support after ‘worst guy’ Singapore GP fear

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.

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’s seat just over a year later, which spelt the end of Ricciardo’s F1 career.

Daniel Ricciardo never said a bad word to Liam Lawson

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Lawson made his debut with Red Bull’s 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.

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.

Speaking on the Gypsy Tails podcast, Lawson revealed that just hours before Ricciardo’s crash, he had been “quite aggressively” asking Marko, “what more can I do? What more could I have done?”

Marko was apparently “talking about, ‘You’ve just crashed in Super Formula.'”

“Yeah, but, I’ve been winning races, more races than anybody this year,” Lawson had reasoned. “You’re not going to know until you give me a chance.”

Ricciardo’s misfortune was soon to become Lawson’s gain.

Having been down at the Red Bull garage at the time of Ricciardo’s Zandvoort FP2 crash, AlphaTauri summoned Lawson post-session. He was in for FP3.

“I think that conversation, in my mind at least, maybe played a big role in that,” said Lawson of his Marko encounter, “because there were quite a few people that weren’t wanting, and I can understand it, a rookie to jump in, in Zandvoort.”

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.

“I found Helmut talking to Franz at the time at Red Bull, and he just looked at me, and he’s like, ‘You ready?’ I was like, ‘Yep,’ and that was it. That was the end of the conversation. I walked away, and I was just like, ‘Holy smokes, dude.'”

Lawson contested the Dutch GP, and four further races for AlphaTauri that year, ahead of Ricciardo’s return.

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.

Lawson replaced Ricciardo from the United States GP.

“That whole week of Singapore, like, it sucked for me,” said Lawson. “Obviously sucked so much more for him.

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“And 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.

“I went there not knowing if he thought I was the worst guy ever. Straight away he spoke to me and said, ‘I want you to know there’s nothing against you through this. I know it’s nothing to do with you and it’s completely separate from that.’

“Since then, every time I’ve called for advice, the guy is completely open to talk and give advice on everything that I’ve asked in the last couple of years.”

Ricciardo retired from motor racing in 2025, having been inactive since his F1 exit, and became a global ambassador for Ford Racing.

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