The outcome of this year’s Super Formula championship will determine whether Liam Lawson is happy to remain in the competition next year.
Lawson is driving for Team Mugen in the Japanese open-wheel formula alongside his reserve driver role with Red Bull in Formula 1.
The New Zealander remains determined to graduate to the sport’s pinnacle but is pragmatic enough to realise that’s not entirely in his hands.
For now, that means satiating Red Bull by racing in Japan, where he’s been charged with challenging for the championship.
With three rounds remaining, the last being a double-header at Suzuka in October, Lawson sits just a single point off the championship lead.
He’s won three times already, including last time out in Fuji.
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“It depends on how the season goes,” Lawson told Speedcafe when asked if he’d be happy to remain in Super Formula for a second season.
“It depends on where I finish in the championship this year.
“To be honest, I think if I were fighting at the front, like we are currently, at the end of the season, I feel like I’ve gotten everything out of it.
“My goal is Formula 1.”
The time in Super Formula has been valuable.
Car performance is similar to Formula 1 while team sizes are larger than seen in junior categories in Europe.
The technical rules are also more relaxed, meaning there is greater freedom to develop and engineer the car, which has improved Lawson’s mechanical knowledge.
He’s also noticed there is a different style of racing in Japan, suggesting Europe is far more cut-throat.
“You’re racing a lot older guys, quite often there’s a much higher level of respect between drivers,” Lawson said of the competition in Super Formula.
“In Formula 2 and Formula 3, we’re all obviously trying to achieve the same goal, and with how difficult it is to land a seat in F1 at the moment, you’re sort of fighting over that one or two seats that will never become available anyway.
“So everybody’s very much against each other [in Europe] whereas in Super Formula, I’m sort of there in a different way than people.
“For a lot of those drivers, it’s their full-time career; they’ve made it; they’re professional racing drivers doing, normally, both Super GT and Super Formula.
“So there’s a [higher] level or respect between the drivers having made it whereas for me, I’m obviously trying to use it as a stepping stone, so I don’t feel in such competition with them if that makes sense.”
Should Lawson win this year’s championship, it leaves Red Bull with an awkward situation with Lawson having done everything asked of him but no clear seat into which to move up to F1.
Hsi fate therefore seems entwined with that of Daniel Ricciardo and Yuki Tsunoda, needing one of the pair to not be renewed for 2024.
The alternative is, seemingly, another year in Super Formula.
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