“It’s a very tough place to be”: Lawson’s advice to Hadjar over Red Bull chance

Racing Bulls driver Liam Lawson says his team mate must “focus on the job” if he gets the chance to join Red Bull next year.

Lawson began the year at Red Bull but the team dropped him after he failed to score in the first two rounds. His replacement Yuki Tsunoda has fared little better, taking just nine points from his 14 appearances so far.

Former Racing Bulls team principal Laurent Mekies has taken charge at Red Bull since Tsunoda’s arrival. He is considering whether to appoint a new team mate for Max Verstappen next year and Hadjar’s strong performances at Racing Bulls, including his third-place finish at Zandvoort has marked him out as an obvious candidate.

Lawson says his experience shows anyone considering stepping into the second Red Bull alongside Verstappen must ensure they prepare as well as they possibly can.

“From the outside obviously we all look in and see how it’s a very tough place to be,” he said. “For me it’s hard to look back on and have a proper comparison because it was just two races. But I think [he needs to] just prepare well.”

However Lawson also said any driver good enough to race in F1 has to be prepared to take on the best.

“I look back and I prepared, I tried to do everything I could – obviously we can always do things better. But I would honestly just say ignore everything that’s being said. I think it’s being maybe over-talked-about, maybe, how difficult it is and stuff like this.

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“At the end of the day we are all racing drivers, we all have to have enough self-confidence to be in the sport in the first place, we don’t come here thinking that other people are better than us, otherwise we wouldn’t be here, so I think to just have faith in yourself.

“He’s done a good job this year, and I think he needs to just focus on the job and focus on preparing the best you can and not listening to everything that’s said about what it’s going to be like. Because at the end of the day, nobody actually knows, only the guys that have done it.”

This article will be updated

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