New RB driver Liam Lawson said he did not enjoy being on the sidelines at the Singapore Grand Prix as the situation with Daniel Ricciardo unfolded.
On Thursday, Red Bull’s second team confirmed that Lawson will replace Ricciardo for the rest of the year.
The likelihood of that outcome had grown during the build-up to the Singapore Grand Prix, but Red Bull didn’t confirm the decision then.
Ricciardo was emotional in interviews after the race as it became clear it was his last in the sport.
During various sessions that weekend, F1 cameras occasionally focused on Lawson, who was in the paddock as Red Bull’s reserve driver, watching from the RB garage.
Asked how he felt being there over the weekend, Lawson told Newstalk ZB’s “Mike Hosking Breakfast”: “Not good, honestly. Singapore was definitely not an enjoyable weekend for me, because we all knew what was coming.”
The New Zealander bolstered his case for a full-time drive in five appearances last year after Ricciardo broke his hand in a crash ahead of the Dutch Grand Prix.
Lawson said he had never got a negative feeling from Ricciardo at any stage, despite the growing speculation that he was about to take the veteran driver’s race seat.
“Daniel has always been very good to me in a lot of ways when I drove last year. Even this season, I’ve never felt in competition with him or anything like that. It wasn’t a nice feeling [in Singapore].
“But obviously this, for me… I get one shot at F1, and it’s come now and I’m obviously grateful for that and I need to take it with both hands. He said the same to me. He said, ‘You need to make the most of it.’
“He did a very good job at the weekend, honestly. I have a huge amount of respect for how he dealt with everything. It’s [a] similar position to what I was in last year, but obviously the guy’s a lot more public, a lot more famous than I am, so he’s getting a lot of questions and trying to sidestep those. He did a very good job at that.”
There has been a lot of speculation about when Red Bull made the decision to swap its drivers.
Lawson said he knew before the Singapore Grand Prix which way things were going.
“It had been a plan for a long time, or this is where it was leading, at least. I had a contract date that needed to be fulfilled. It was going towards this way, and then a couple of weeks ago they told me this was going to happen, and then basically not long after that, it was basically set in stone.”
Sources have told ESPN that Ricciardo was aware ahead of the Singapore Grand Prix that he was leaving the team.
An option clause in Lawson’s contract was exercised a week earlier, the same day as the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, which was contractually when the company needed to make a decision on his future.
RB’s announcement of Lawson made no mention of 2025, as Red Bull continues to evaluate the longer-term future of Sergio Pérez, whose poor form has allowed McLaren to move into the lead of the constructors’ championship.