Liam Lawson’s promotion to Formula 1 is imminent.
However, he may have to wait a little bit longer as Red Bull’s F1 junior team AlphaTauri look to retain their current driver line-up for 2022.
Without a vacant spot at either AlphaTauri, Lawson, who is a Red Bull junior driver, will almost certainly stay in Formula 2.
It is not unusual for drivers to spend a few seasons in F2 before they step up to F1.
Still, Lawson’s raw talent has raised the suggestion he may be already prepped for a gig in the main game.
He kicked off his F2 career this year with a bang, winning on debut in Bahrain.
He has since claimed one further podium and should have added a second win at Monaco but was later disqualified on a technical breach.
But AlphaTauri team boss Franz Tost said over the weekend at the Hungarian Grand Prix that he wants to see his current line-up of Pierre Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda stay on for another year.
“I don’t see any other driver there and I hope that we go on to next year with Pierre and Yuki,” Tost said.
“Both drivers are confident enough and I don’t see any reason to change anything during the summer break on our driver line-up.”
Lawson and Tsunoda were teammates in the Toyota Racing Series last year.
The Kiwi finished second in the championship, with Tsunoda a big chunk of points back in fourth.
Tsunoda then made the leap from F2 to F1 this year with AlphaTauri.
Despite a shaky start to the year, which the team said was down to being too motivated, Tost is pleased with Tsunoda’s start to his rookie F1 season.
“Yuki is a newcomer, and he is doing a good job,” he said.
“But he has to get experience, and he has to learn a lot. That’s nothing special. That’s logical with young drivers. It’s the risk you take when a rookie comes onboard.
“We have to give the young drivers the time because just to come from another category, to think you can come in and drive without doing any mistakes and you will be immediately successful is dreaming on the wrong side.”
Tost said he hopes to the team will confirm their driver pairing before the next race at Spa.
Lawson has made it clear that his primary goal is to make it to F1.
He is still in a chance of winning the F2 title this year but needs to have a turnaround in fortunes as he is eighth in the standings with 12 races in hand.
