Lawson: My parents sold their house so I could keep racing

On Thursday, Red Bull Racing and VCARB confirmed what was already known and extensively covered over the Singapore Grand Prix weekend. Lawson will replace Daniel Ricciardo at VCARB for the remainder of the current season, and starting from the US Grand Prix in Austin.

Lawson began his racing career in karts in New Zealand, and after a sting in his local-single seater series, moved to Europe to take part in the German F4 series, and despite finishing second that season, he was not picked up by any junior F1 program and had to return to his country to take part in the Toyota Winter Series.

Then, Red Bull's driver consultant, Dr. Helmut Marko, who was monitoring another junior driver, Lucas Auer, noticed Lawson (who was Auer's teammate in the Toyota series) and signed him for the junior driver program he oversaw for the energy drinks company. Stints in Formula 3, Formula 2, and DTM. He then joined the Japanese Super Formula series in 2023 after finishing third in the 2022 F2 season.

It was in 2023 as well that Lawson replaced Ricciardo at VCARB after the latter broke his hand in practice for the Dutch Grand Prix, and despite impressing in his five-race stand in, Ricciardo returned to his seat.

That is until now, as Lawson will have the remainder of the 2024 F1 season to prove his worth and maybe continue in 2025.

But it was not a straightforward path for the Kiwi who told the Talking Bull podcast: "My parents and my whole family really gave a lot, especially in the early years through go-karts.

"My parents sold their house so that I could keep racing. It's massive. They gave absolutely everything for me to be able to race, even just go-karts because it's so expensive.

"I didn't finish high school or anything," Lawson further revealed. "Honestly, I was just excited to be able to go and chase my dream. And there are always hard parts about it, but there was never a question of whether it was too difficult and I wanted to go home.

"Being from New Zealand, trying to get the money to compete overseas is really, really hard," the VCARB driver pointed out.

"So, between a group of amazing people that have been behind me, sponsors and investors, we set up the structure to get enough money to go to Europe and do a season and try and get recognized by a junior team, because without it, there was no chance to get a Formula 1.

"I had a good season, but I didn't have any call-ups from any teams," he said of his first stint in Europe. "And then I just did this championship [Toyota Winter Series] in New Zealand's over the off-season, with no plan of what I was doing in 2019.

"As a kid being into Formula 1, I would watch this series every single year, and I dreamed of driving it. And to me, it was like the Formula 1 of racing at the time."

As to how he got notice by Marko, Lawson mused: "I guess Helmut was watching because of Lucas, and I had a really good first weekend.

"When I raced in F4 in Europe, Jack Doohan [Alpine's 2025 F1 driver] was a Red Bull junior at the time, and we tested together somewhere. I remember seeing him walking around in his Red Bull suit, and I remember thinking how cool it would be to be a Red Bull junior.

"And I got the call-up after that first weekend in New Zealand; I found out one or two days after the weekend. I was sitting in a cafe - I remember exactly where I was sitting. I got told, and it was obviously pretty emotional.

"I basically got picked up at the perfect time, and it saved my career. I had those four weeks left of that championship, and then I had no plan after that," Lawson recalled.

VCARB did not specify any details in Lawson's announcement except that he would be racing in Ricciardo's place for the rest of the season without any details regarding the 2025 season.