Liam Lawson reveals he was informed that he would be driving for AlphaTauri in the Qatar Grand Prix via a FaceTime call from Daniel Ricciardo earlier this week.
Lawson has deputised for Ricciardo at the previous four grands prix after the Australian broke the metacarpal in his left hand during an FP3 crash at Zandvoort in August.
The New Zealander has impressed during his quartet of stand-in appearances thus far, scoring AlphaTauri’s best result of the year with a ninth-place finish in Singapore.
However, Lawson was unsure whether he would drive the AT04 beyond the Japan weekend, with Red Bull Team Principal Christian Horner previously pinpointing the Qatar GP as Ricciardo’s possible return point.
Despite planning to conduct a simulator session this week, Ricciardo has postponed his comeback, leaving Lawson to partner Tsunoda again for AlphaTauri this weekend.
Lawson says he discovered the news courtesy of Ricciardo himself when the ex-Red Bull race winner surprised the Kiwi with a “random” FaceTime call on Monday.
“So Monday, I was sitting at lunch and I had a random number call me and it was a FaceTime,” he disclosed.
“I was really confused because people don’t just FaceTime randomly, so I answered it and it was just Daniel’s face.
“And he basically said that he thought he’d let me have another weekend. Yeah, obviously good to be back, good to be in the car this weekend, a different circuit, but I’m excited.”
Lawson admits he was already prepared for the eventuality of being required to slot in this weekend – but he expects Ricciardo to be back in the car for Austin in a fortnight.
“To be honest, after Japan, it was looking more likely that we’d be driving so we just carried on preparing like normal,” he explained.
“I didn’t assume I was driving but we prepped like a normal situation like I would be. It’s a bit different. I want to be here full-time but just trying to make the most of this.
“I think [Austin] is definitely the target [for Ricciardo]. I think that’s more likely.
“Obviously, I can’t say for certain, but we have over a week to get more time to be ready for it. So, I would say it’s probably Austin.”
