Lawson wasn't proving a point with Alonso and Perez battles

Lawson replaced Ricciardo in 2023 for five races starting from the Dutch Grand Prix after the Aussie broke his hand in a crash in practice at Zandvoort.

Despite performing well, Red Bull and VCARB decided to bring Ricciardo back, but that faith did not last for long as he was shown the door ahead of the 2024 United States Grand Prix in Austin with Lawson called back in as the plan was to evaluate the Kiwi to see whether he would be good enough to join Max Verstappen at Red Bull in 2025 as Sergio Perez's contract was terminated.

Lawson ultimately got the job, but his performances in 2024 raised eyebrows as he did not back down when fighting with Fernando Alonso in Austin and did the same with Perez in Mexico City.

Alonso labelled Lawson an "idiot" over the team radio, while Perez said the young driver should be more humble. Lawson, on the other hand, insisted he was not in F1 to make friends.

However, speaking to Motorsport.com in an end-of-season interview, Lawson insisted, when asked, that he was not trying to "lay down markers and show he is no pushover".

"I'm not trying to set an example or anything like that," he insisted. "I feel like I'm racing everybody the same way, I'm not racing anybody any differently.

"I have a very short window here at the moment, so it's very important [to prove myself], but I'm not trying to set an example, or set, like, a – I don't know what the word is.

"Prove a point? I'm not really trying to do that, no," he concluded.

Lawson's biggest challenge starts now, as he has to prove himself as a worthy teammate to Verstappen at Red Bull Racing in 2025, something several drivers have failed to succeed in doing.