Liam Lawson reveals why ‘raw’ Supercars dream still appeals beyond F1

Liam Lawson has said he’d love the chance to go off and race a “raw” Supercars if an opportunity arose, following rumours early in the Spring break.

The Kiwi driver was rumoured to be taking part in a Supercars race in New Zealand as he returned home at the start of the unofficial F1 Spring break, but it turns out these rumours were merely an April Fools’ joke gone awry…

Liam Lawson explains his Supercars ambition

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The third and fourth rounds of the Australian Supercars championship are being held during this extended gap in the F1 calendar, with the Taupo Super 440 being held on April 10 and 11, while the Christchurch Super 440 takes place from April 17 to 19.

At the start of April, media reports from Australia and New Zealand blew up with speculation that the Kiwi driver was in line to take part in one, or perhaps both, race weekends as a guest star.

Given that fellow F1 grid rivals Max Verstappen and Lance Stroll have been carrying out extracurricular racing in GT3 during the same break, Lawson’s return home coinciding with the two New Zealand-based rounds of the championship did appear to open up the possibility.

However, PlanetF1.com understands the situation was merely an April Fools’ joke that happened to gain legs, coinciding with Lawson being out of contact as he returned home.

“I landed in New Zealand, and my phone was blowing up with, ‘Oh, Liam, you’re racing supercars next week’,” he laughed as he spoke about the situation to select media, including PlanetF1.com, in the middle of the Spring break gap.

“I was like, ‘I don’t even know I was racing supercars next week, so I don’t really know how everybody else seems to know that I’m racing a supercar next week!’

“But, yeah, it’s a very, very cool idea.

“It’s obviously a series that I’ve grown up watching, and I would love to do it at some point, for sure.

“Obviously, when my life is not so focused on one thing, maybe, and I can actually put the time in to prepare for it would be cool. But, obviously, no real truth to that one.”

In 2021, Lawson raced in Germany’s DTM championship under GT3 rules, narrowly missing out on the title as he was beaten by three points as Maximilian Gotz scored back-to-back victories at the Norisring.

The Racing Bulls driver has also had the chance to sample Supercar machinery, driving a Triple Eight Race Engineering-built Chevrolet Camaro at Highlands Motorsport Park, as raced by Shane van Gisbergen.

This Chevy won the 2023 Bathurst 1000 with van Gisbergen, and is owned by Triple Eight team co-owner Tony Quinn, one of Lawson’s primary backers.

Previously, Lawson’s first time behind the wheel of a Gen3 Supercar was at Melbourne’s Albert Park in 2024, when he sampled a Blanchard Racing Team Mustang.

With knowledge of how Supercars and GT3 machinery feel to drive, Lawson said he’d love the chance to take on some extracurricular racing if an opportunity ever arose that fitted in well with his F1 schedule.

“Definitely, I’ve done it in the past, and loved it,” he said, when asked by PlanetF1.com if the idea of racing elsewhere was appealing.

“I think driving different cars, I don’t think anything really hurts you too much.

“I think always having that level of adaptability is good. I’m lucky that I’ve had the opportunity to do that since I was very young.

“In New Zealand, I was driving a race car on a race track at 12 years old, which is quite young.

“Before racing F4 in Europe, for most guys, that’s year one of racing cars, and I had done, like, three years of circuit racing on a track for four years.

“So, it would be cool. Supercars, especially, is something I’ve grown up watching, and I think the series is amazing.

“I think they do such a good job of keeping the cars raw. They still have, obviously, a V8 naturally aspirated. They have sequential gearboxes, which they’re not going away from.

“They’re not going towards paddle shifts and other things like three pedals; there’s no auto blip and stuff like that, that sort of managing everything themselves.

“I think that’s just such a cool thing. The racing has been really, really good as well. So I like the series a lot. It’s something I would love to do.

“I’ve driven the car a couple of times and just had a blast.

“But other series as well, obviously, I did DTM a few years ago and enjoyed it. I hated the way it ended, but, honestly, I had a really, really enjoyable [time]. I enjoyed the season throughout the year, and getting to work with a different team and a very, very different series.

“Being a bit more aggressive, you know, throwing some dive bombs, slamming some doors, stuff like that. It was something we obviously can’t do too much in Formula 1.

“So it was good fun, and I’ve always tried to do stuff like that, even if it’s in different sports, and riding a dirt bike a lot as well, and enjoying it.”

Lawson has returned to Europe after spending some time in New Zealand following the Japanese Grand Prix, and spoke of his enjoyment at getting some downtime, even if he did have some life admin to take care of at the same time!

“I was in New Zealand for over a week, actually, I did have to go and get a new passport, which was successful!” he said.

“So I can now travel for the rest of the season, which is great, but we obviously fill up pages pretty quickly! It’s the second time I’ve needed to do this.

“But I’ve spent a lot of time with my family. Obviously, I didn’t get to see too much, and I trained… I have a dirt bike track out there, so I rode quite a lot, and yeah, it was very relaxed. It was very refreshing.

“It was nice to be home for a bit. But, obviously, there’ll be points in the break where we’re using this time to maximise preparation for Miami, a lot of teams will bring in new stuff, and we have to be ready for that.

“So a lot of time planned in Europe, Faenza, and in the UK for the simulator coming up in the next week or two.”

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