Lawson’s “mega” Austin return to push Tsunoda to higher level – RB

Liam Lawson‘s impressive Formula 1 return at the United States Grand Prix will force Yuki Tsunoda to step up another gear, says RB team boss Laurent Mekies.

Lawson was brought back for the final six races of the 2024 season as Red Bull weighs up its options for the Red Bull seat alongside Max Verstappen for 2025 and beyond.

Incumbent Sergio Perez has not been consistent enough to help Verstappen and Red Bull defend their constructors’ championship lead thus far so, despite the Mexican having a two-year deal, Red Bull could yet opt to make a change at any time.

Daniel Ricciardo was brought into its satellite RB squad as a potential replacement but failed to convince Red Bull, leading to the Australian’s departure from Austin onwards.

Tsunoda now has another challenger in the form of Lawson, who made an impressive start to his second F1 stint after a five-race cameo in 2023.

Lawson made a statement by taking third in Saturday’s Q1, setting a faster lap than Tsunoda managed during the entire qualifying session, and then recovered from a grid penalty to move up from 19th to ninth in the race as the only RB to score points.

Lawson’s weekend was dubbed “just about perfect” by team boss Mekies, who says it was a reward for the 22-year-old’s 12-month long efforts behind the scenes to be ready to grab his chance with both hands.

“It’s a mega impressive weekend,” Mekies told Motorsport.com. “We are very, very happy for him, because you don’t get there by luck, you don’t get there also just with talent.

“You think back to the full year that he has been doing in the engineering office, watching the onboards, watching the data, the hours in the simulator, the very little occasions to actually run the car. And you have to give him credit for the amount of hours he has put in it with little return.

“He was certainly 100% ready to jump in the car, so well done. It was already a mega statement in Q1, we thought that could be the statement of the weekend.

“But then a faultless race, the right pace. There is not much more you can ask, honestly. It’s just about the perfect start.”

There was no evidence of Lawson’s racecraft being rusty either, given the aggressive way he defended against Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso in Saturday’s sprint seemed to rattle the Spaniard.

“I think also that was refreshing, he was already not…