🇳🇿 Liam Lawson

Liam Lawson is an elite professional single-seater driver competing in Formula 1 for Racing Bulls, holding an FIA Platinum grade. The New Zealand driver has spent nine seasons racing in the junior and senior categories since 2018, amassing 179 starts across open-wheel series and a national touring car championship. His Racer Rating of 7,395 places him among the strongest active drivers on the professional circuit.[1]

Lawson's rise through the formulas showed consistent speed in the junior categories. He won three times in ADAC Formula 4 in 2018, took three wins and eight podiums across two seasons of Formula 3 between 2019 and 2020, and established himself as a frontrunner in Formula 2, scoring five wins and thirteen podiums across 2021 and 2022 with Carlin before graduating to Formula 1. His most recent indexed season came in 2023, when he raced in Super Formula and scored three wins from nine starts, finishing second in the championship standings. He has since remained active in Formula 1, where he currently competes.[2]

In Formula 1 itself, Lawson races among the grid's strongest professionals, regularly meeting drivers of generational standing. He has finished ahead of George Russell, a multiple Formula 1 race winner and champion of GP3 and Formula 2, on four occasions, and beaten Lando Norris twice; Norris is the current Formula 1 champion. Against his most frequent Formula 1 rivals, Oscar Piastri, a generational driver and 2021 Formula 2 champion, Lawson typically finishes behind him, while against Richard Verschoor, an established professional who has raced Formula 2 and Formula 3 extensively, the two are closely matched.