Liam Lawson to make F1 debut at Belgian GP

Liam Lawson is set to make his Formula 1 debut with AlphaTauri in the first practice session of the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps later this month.

The Red Bull junior driver currently competes in the FIA Formula 2 Championship, scoring two wins throughout the 2022 season with Carlin Motorsport, and has recently been given the opportunity to drive Red Bull’s sister team’s F1 car following his recent promotion to reserve driver.

“We plan to run Liam Lawson in FP1 in Spa,” said Franz Tost, head of AlphaTauri in Hungary last week.

The New Zealand driver will have to juggle driving duties between to F1 and F2 during the Friday later this month.

AlphaTauri is still on the fence about its driver lineup for the 2023 season with Yuki Tsunoda’s contract extension still unconfirmed. Pierre Gasly will remain with the team until at least the end of 2023.

Lawson will become the first Kiwi to get behind the wheel of a current F1 car since Brendon Hartley when he raced for Scuderia Toro Rosso in 2018.

Australian 2021 F2 champion Oscar Piastri will also be making a first practice session appearance at either Spa or Monza with Alpine.

Piastri recently experienced some confusion with the French F1 team as they announced he would be driving for them in 2023 yet Piastri denied such claims.

We will be watching Lawson’s practice session closely on August 27 as the Belgian GP gets underway.