Liam Lawson opens up on F1 dream, family sacrifice

Wednesday, 24 June 2026

Liam Lawson has admitted that pursuit of success in Formula 1 has come at the cost of his own happiness, and candidly described the sacrifices his family had to make for the Kiwi driver to pursue his motorsport dreams.

The Racing Bulls driver, who currently sits 10th in the driver championship standings, detailed his upbringing in NZ, introduction to motorsport, and his current F1 form to the High Performance podcast.

The cost of an F1 dream

When asked what F1 had cost him personally, he said it ‘sounded quite sad’, but it was happiness.

“I think people probably think you’re a lot happier because of the position I’m in, and don’t get me wrong, I understand how lucky I am to be here, but because of that thing that we’re so focused and driven towards, I feel like I’m not happy until I do it or until I achieve it,” he said.

“So for me, it’s probably just overall happiness. I have happy moments for sure. It’s not that I’m not happy all the time, but it’s overall in life, at the moment.”

‘Dear dad, if I like racing, will you spend more time with me? Like Liam?’

Lawson also talked about the sacrifices his family made growing up so he could pursue his motorsport career.

The interview became emotional when Lawson mentioned a card written by his younger brother, asking their dad whether he would spend more time with him if he liked racing.

“Dear dad, if I like racing, will you spend more time with me? Like Liam?” Lawson recalled the card saying.

Lawson visibly held back tears, and did the hosts paused, doing the same, before commenting on how heartbreaking hearing that was.

He said his brother laughs about it now, but said it showed the effort his family put in to rise up the racing ranks.

“I feel like I’ll never be able to almost repay the amount of sacrifice that, and it’s not just about just money,” he said.

“Like for my siblings and family that have just given up so much. Like time with my dad and never going on holiday. Never doing anything.”

The infamous Red Bull demotion

Lawson was also asked about his demotion from Red Bull, after only just two races in 2025. He was replaced by Japanese driver Yuki Tsunoda, who is without an F1 seat after also being dropped at the end of the season.

In the 2025 China Grand Prix, Lawson’s last race with the team, he said he had no warning he would be swapped.

“At the start there started to be a rumour about the Japanese Grand Prix coming up, Yuki [Tsunoda] is Japanese, do they do that?

“And I honestly remember trusting my team so much and I was like, that’s insane that they’re even saying that. Classic F1 rumours. And then I went back and I couldn’t believe it.”

He said Red Bull had made an experimental set up change for the race, a move the team hoped would set a foundation moving forward.

“Max [Verstappen] wasn’t happy. Everyone was like, this is not working and we need to try something quite radical here,” he said.

“And so we all kind of had a meeting on Saturday night and it was decided I was on board with it, because the idea was let’s try something quite crazy but it might help get a direction for Liam and for the team going forward to make this car a bit easier to drive.”

The set up “sucked”, Lawson said, finishing 12th. Upon returning to the UK, he received the call he was being swapped for Tsunoda.

He said at the time the decision was tough to deal with, especially with the next Grand Prix in Japan. There were also calls from the public to dump him from the sport altogether.

Now back in Racing Bulls, Lawson said the experience had changed him as a driver and made him more resilient, while also helping him become a “smarter” driver this season.

“There are situations where there’s being a smart driver, and I feel like this year I’m trying to do more of that as well,” he said.

“But also keeping that you can’t let people walk all over you.”

Lawson has had a solid start to the season so far, bagging points in five of the first seven rounds. He leads his British rookie team-mate Arvid Lindblad by 15 points.

He remains in the running for best of the rest in 2026 - the midfield battle for drivers not in the big four teams of Ferrari, Mercedes, McLaren and Red Bull.