Red Bull junior Liam Lawson strengthens his case further for an F1 seat 

Red Bull junior Liam Lawson won the fourth round of the Autopolis Super Formula in Japan to take the championship lead in the series. There have been reports of him debuting in F1.

The New Zealand driver has been on the radar at the pinnacle of motorsport and is currently the reserve driver for Red Bull and Alphatauri in 2023. On the racing front, he is bidding to win his first championship in Super Formula after winning for the second time in the series.

As per Motorsport.com, Lawson did not have the best of starts to the race. He nearly slipped to fourth from second and was behind polesitter Sho Tsuboi and the other Inging car of Sena Sakaguchi, with Miyata behind him. The Red Bull junior pitted early to capitalize on the fresher rubber and jump his rivals. He was eventually able to do so in Lap 25 of 41 to take the net lead of the race.

Even a late safety car could not hamper his progress and Lawson eventually took the chequered flag to win the race.

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"Lawson is a much better long-term pick" - F1 pundit on Red Bull junior driver

F1 pundit Scott Mitchell Malm stated that the Austrian team should pick Liam Lawson over Daniel Ricciardo. This is if they want to replace Nyck de Vries mid-season in the AlphaTauri.

While appearing on The Race podcast, Mitchell-Malm said:

"If Lawson is of genuine interest to Red Bull and is someone the organization wants to keep in the mix, then as much as a Ricciardo reunion with the junior team he left a decade ago would be a fun story, Lawson is a much better long-term pick."

He continued:

"He's had a really impressive start in Super Formula, I think he's got a win and two other top-five finishes in the first three races so he's emphatically in title contention over there. I'd like to see Lawson getting that drive if they do end up replacing de Vries."

Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko confirmed that they will not make the driver switch in the coming races, adding:

“Nothing will happen in the next three races. We spoke to de Vries and he agrees with us: he needs to improve. The distance from team-mate Yuki Tsunoda is too big. To use footballer jargon, Nyck got the yellow card, but not the red yet. If he improves, a driver change will not be an issue.”

It will be interesting to see if the mid-season swap does happen for Liam Lawson and Nyck de Vries.