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An option on Lawson’s contract existed that, should Red Bull be unable to offer him a race drive for 2025 by mid-September, he was free to leave the organisation.
Speedcafe understands that deadline was passed over the course of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
While no formal announcement has been made, it’s believed the option has been exercised.
That is reinforced by the New Zealander’s appearance on the Taking Bull podcast, which is produced in-house by Red Bull.
On the podcast, Lawson spoke of how he first joined the Red Bull program, having been inspired by the Toyota Racing Series.
“Funnily enough, I was actually racing in New Zealand when I got signed,” Lawson said.
“So we have this series – it used to be really, really popular. A lot of F1 guys have been there.
“Lando [Norris] raced in it, Lance Stroll raced in it, a couple of guys in F1 raced in it.
“It’s called the Toyota Racing Series and it used to run five weeks over January in New Zealand in summertime, whereas everywhere in Europe and the US would be a lot colder, so there’d be no racing.
“So you used to get drivers from all over different championships, really high level.
“So as a kid being into Formula 1, I would watch this series every single year, and I dreamed of driving it – to me, it was like the Formula 1 of racing at the time.
“I finally got to compete in this series after doing my first year in Europe,” he added.
“After the first weekend that, basically I had a really strong first weekend, there was a Red Bull driver racing at the time – Lucas Auer.
“He was racing, he was my team-mate, so I guess Helmut [Marko, Red Bull motorpsort advisor] was watching because of Lucas racing. I had a really good first weekend.
“I never thought anything like that would happen.
“Being a Red Bull Junior was something that… I remember, the year before, I raced in F4 in Europe and Jack Doohan was a Red Bull junior at the time, and we tested together somewhere; might have been Hockenheim in Germany.
“I remember seeing him walking around in his Red Bull suit and I remember thinking that was so cool and how cool it would be to be a Red Bull Junior.”
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Having seemingly impressed Marko, Lawson got the call soon after.
It had a profound impact on the young Kiwi, who admits it left him unable to walk.
“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,” he said.
“I remember I couldn’t walk! It was really strange. I got told, and I was obviously pretty emotional but I was like, ‘Dude, I gotta go for a walk’, and I couldn’t really walk properly! It was super weird.”
Entrenched in the Red Bull program since, Lawson raced in Formula 3, Formula 2, and last year in Super Formula in Japan where he narrowly missed out on the title.
He dovetailed that with five grands prix as he substituted for Daniel Ricciardo at RB after the Australian broke his hand during practice for the Dutch GP.
At the time concerned the F1 dream was slipping away, his cameo thrust him into contention for a race drive.
Not forthcoming for 2024, it’s believed Lawson will be on the grid for 2025.
