Liam Lawson says he would love to have a crack at another New Zealand Grand Prix after witnessing this year’s ‘Race of Champions’.
The 2019 Grand Prix champion was on the sidelines for this year’s event, mentoring current Toyota Racing Series points leader Matthew Payne from a race engineer perspective.
The Grand Prix boasted one of the most elaborate Kiwi grids seen since the launch of the TRS, with eventual winner Shane van Gisbergen producing a sensational last-to-first drive.
In an interview with NewsHub, Lawson says not racing in this year’s Grand Prix gave him itchy feet and he would relish the chance to be a part of the event in the future.
“That was an awesome event,” he said.
“To have all the Kiwi stars come back home was really cool and I know the event organisers want an even better field next year.
“It’s New Zealand’s biggest motorsport race and I have had the honour to win one before, so to repeat that would be really cool and I hope we can make it happen.”
Lawson, who spent two seasons in TRS, will be graduating to FIA Formula 2 this season with Hitch GP.
However, one of his former TRS teammates and rivals Yuki Tsunoda will be going one better. The Japanese driver will be making his Formula 1 debut with AlpaTauri, and Lawson is interested to see how his friend gets on in the premier series.
“It’s pretty exciting to see my good friend Yuki Tsunoda get a F1 gig with AlphaTauri.
“Just 12 months ago I was racing him here in New Zealand, so it’s pretty surreal to see how quickly he has got to the main game.
“It’s exciting how close I am getting, but I’m still not there yet as I said, so the focus is on this campaign.”
Lawson will be dovetailing a season in DTM alongside his F2 commitments, with the latter kicking off in Bahrain next month.
Main Image: TGRNZ
