Daniel Ricciardo has been lauded for his “amazing” show of support for Red Bull junior and AlphaTauri injury replacement driver Liam Lawson, who will take the wheel in place of Ricciardo as he recovers from a nasty crash over the Dutch Grand Prix weekend.
Ricciardo broke his hand during practice at Zandvoort in an ugly incident with fellow Australian Oscar Piastri.
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With Piastri parked in the wall on the outside of the highly-banked Hugenholtz corner, Ricciardo didn’t react in time to seeing the McLaren stopped across the outside of the turn and instead was forced to bail out into the wall, with the resulting jolt being so forceful that it broke metacarpals in his left hand.
Lawson, who is racing this season in the Japanese Super Formula series while also serving as the reserve driver for Red Bull sister team AlphaTauri, was yet to make his Grand Prix debut when Ricciardo was forced to withdraw, and stepped in for his first taste of a competitive Grand Prix weekend.
The 21-year-old opened up on the experience and told PlanetF1 that Ricciardo was gracious in handing over the reins, knowing that the smallest lay-off in Formula One, with so few seats available, can spiral into a much longer stint away.
“It was very sudden,” Lawson said.
“Obviously it is never a situation (that you want to be in) and I feel for Daniel (Ricciardo). I didn’t want to make my debut in Formula 1 in that kind of style, but obviously, when you have that opportunity, you need to take it.
“When I found out what the injury was, and that there was a very good chance he wasn’t going to be able to drive, then it was just very anxious for two hours before we actually made the decision. We had to wait for everything to be 100% sure (about Daniel).
“Those two hours were quite stressful just because I didn’t know what was going to happen. And then once it’s confirmed, maybe another hour of stress after but then we had so much to do to prepare for driving so eventually it was taken over by the workload that you have to go through.”
Lawson waxed lyrical about how supportive Ricciardo had been in handing over to the young Kiwi, with Lawson also set to drive at the Italian Grand Prix in Monza.
“Daniel being the amazing guy that he is, he was super supportive,” he said.
“Basically before he left to go have surgery, he was still on the track and he was very supportive.
“He told me to make the most of it and if I needed any help then to ask him. He was very, very good about it.”
Asked whether he thought it was an omen for bigger things in the sport, Lawson played a straight bat, saying he was just focused on what was in front of him.
“Any time you drive in F1, I guess it’s an audition for full time,” he said.
“Whenever you get put in the situation, you get one shot, you don’t get to do this again.
“I’m just looking at it race by race right now. It’s just this weekend. It’s all I’m doing and that’s what the whole focus is on.
“Right now the focus is on FP1 and then beyond that for the rest of the weekend. So yeah, definitely not looking too far ahead at the moment.”