Liam Lawson has been breathing easy on the sidelines after getting a taste of F1 in 2023, albeit having competed in just five races. While he has experienced a fair share of competition from his young peers in the junior formulas, Lawson predicted how it could increase from a different avenue. The Kiwi driver cited how drivers from eSports and sim racing industry could start foraying into F1 and other motorsport series.
According to a video by BBC News on Instagram, Lawson stated, “There’s going to be more drivers coming from eSports and sim racing. There’s already guys doing tests sort of drivers who have never raced [in real life]”.
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Lawson mentioned how he has a friend who does a lot of sim racing online. So, when he raced him on a track in New Zealand, his friend got on very well with the real race car and understood the handling pretty smoothly.
The 22-year-old cited how this sort of adaptability felt quite impressive to him. Lawson then also mentioned how a lot of development in F1 cars is coming via simulators these days. Due to the limitations of testing, the work of sim drivers increases and they share an abundant load of providing insights for car development and upgrades.
Lawson, currently a reserve driver for Red Bull and V-CARB, also shares simulator duties with many of Red Bull’s sim drivers like Sebastian Buemi and Jake Dennis. Thus, he understands how these sim drivers can adapt to real-life race cars.
How Liam Lawson and his simulator driver peers help Red Bull and V-CARB
Liam Lawson has been extensively involved with Red Bull and V-CARB (formerly AlphaTauri) as their reserve and test driver, after graduating from F2 in 2022. During this time, the Kiwi driver has undertaken a lot of simulator work to assist with car development and help drivers understand the car better.
The aforementioned drivers like Sebastian Buemi, Rudy van Buren, and Jake Dennis among others, also actively put in hours of simulator work for the Milton Keynes outfit even on Grand Prix weekends. The latest example of the same is the 2024 Imola GP.
As Red Bull grappled with handling issues on the Italian circuit, Buemi was the one to help the team iron out their issues after Friday’s practice. The WEC driver’s simulator session data assisted Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez immensely in salvaging their Imola GP weekend by picking up pole and the win.
