Red Bull junior driver Liam Lawson revealed talks between he and former F1 star Daniel Ricciardo at last weekend’s Canadian Grand Prix.
Lawson is one of six drivers who had never raced an F1 car around the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve heading into the weekend, with the Kiwi racer looking to Ricciardo for assistance on how to tackle the track at his 10th round of the season.
Having not come close to scoring a point across the first seven races of the year, Lawson scored four in Monaco with a brilliant eighth-place finish, before finishing 11th in Spain, just five seconds off the points-paying positions.
He would no doubt have been heading to Montreal looking for another confidence boost, and revealed that he spoke to former Red Bull star Ricciardo about how to approach the track and all of its various quirks, including the Wall of Champions.
Lawson revealed he had spoken with the man he replaced at Red Bull’s junior team in 2024, admitting that Ricciardo said he ‘loved’ the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.
The Aussie racer was axed back in September 2024, in what was likely the last action of his illustrious F1 career, with no return on the horizon for the 35-year-old despite having not officially retired.
“It’s good to know that the car was fast last year, but at the same time, it’s quite often now that we look at last year’s results and, to be honest, they don’t repeat themselves a lot of the time,” Lawson told media during Thursday’s FIA press conference ahead of his first Canadian GP.
“Tracks that maybe we haven’t been strong at, we’ve actually been strong at this year, and vice versa. So I think we just have to take it like any weekend.
“For me personally, it’s a track that I’m very excited for, it’s an iconic place, it looks like a fun track. I actually spoke to Daniel [Ricciardo] last week about this track and he loved it. So, yeah, I’m looking forward to it.”
Daniel Ricciardo claimed his maiden F1 victory at the 2014 Canada GP
“So, yeah, I think it’s unique, it’s something that we all enjoy, and I’m looking forward to it.”
Sadly, it seems Ricciardo’s advice didn’t go a long way with Lawson after an awful qualifying and a late change to his car meant the 23-year-old lined up at the back of the pack for Sunday’s main event.
The RB driver’s weekend did in fact go from bad to worse in Canada when he was later forced to retire after experiencing a cooling issue, with his engineer describing it as ‘the cherry on top’ of a weekend to forget.
Lawson rebuilding F1 career
After replacing Ricciardo in 2024, Lawson then went one better by replacing Sergio Perez at the main Red Bull team for 2025, with everything looking up for the New Zealander.
However, that promotion lasted just two races, and Lawson has since been trying to rebuild his career at the junior team once more following a demotion.
Whilst rookie Isack Hadjar has largely outperformed him during their time as team-mates, there have been signs of a recovery for Lawson in recent weeks, with the rookie simply needing to keep that up if he is to have any chance of being promoted, or even retaining his seat for 2026.
Lawson could have an opportunity to impress in the RB21 again later this season, with Red Bull having confirmed that either he or Hadjar would step up if Max Verstappen is given a one-race ban for accumulating too many penalty points.
After the Dutchman was on relatively good behaviour in Canada last weekend, he only has to survive one more race in Austria on June 29 to avoid being banned from the following British GP.
