Liam Lawson’s drive to his career-best F1 finish came with a hidden sacrifice, an untelevised radio message has revealed.
The New Zealander admitted that he didn’t take on any fluids throughout the 70-lap Austrian Grand Prix, a race run in 30-degree temperatures.
Liam Lawson delivers best Kiwi performance in decades with career first
A torrid start to the F1 2025 campaign was forgotten at the Red Bull Ring as Lawson delivered a career-best result.
Having progressed through to Qualifying 3 on Saturday afternoon, he put his Racing Bulls sixth on the grid.
Expecting to slip backwards in the race, he instead held position in front of Fernando Alonso.
Lawson also narrowly avoided disaster on the opening lap as Kimi Antonelli slewed under braking for Turn 3, narrowly avoiding the rear of Lawson’s car as he instead collided with Max Verstappen, eliminating the pair on the spot.
The New Zealander then completed much of the race with Alonso filling his mirrors, the Spaniard using the DRS afforded by the quicker Racing Bulls to drag himself clear of the charging Gabriel Bortoleto behind.
At the flag, Lawson was the last driver on the lead lap, little more than five seconds behind Canadian GP winner George Russell in fifth.
After crossing the line, his efforts were applauded by his engineer, Ernesto Derniderio.
Derniderio: Yes mate, P6, P6.
Lawson: Yeah copy man, well done.
Derniderio: What a weekend, amazing man.
Are you still with us Liam? Say something so we know you’re alive.
Lawson: I’m here mate, I’m here, I’m alive.
Derniderio: Remember to drink.
Lawson: I didn’t drink all race.
Derniderio: Well, we’ll definitely have something to drink tonight. Maybe a Red Bull.
Lawson: Thank you for all the hard work, guys.
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Lawson had started the year with Red Bull, promoted off the back of a promising end to the F1 2024 season after being drafted in to replace Daniel Ricciardo.
Two rough events saw the New Zealander dropped to Racing Bulls, swapping seats with Yuki Tsunoda who took his place at the senior team.
Results initially proved difficult to come by, with an eighth place in Monaco the pick of the bunch prior to Austria.
By contrast, Racing Bulls team-mate Isack Hadjar had scored points on five occasions, including a run of three in a row from Monaco.
But while the Frenchman struggled at the Red Bull Ring, Lawson hooked it up and delivered the team its best result of F1 2025 to date.
It was a result delivered via a one-stop strategy, bucking the two-stop trend opted for by most of the field.
“It’s been an incredibly tough year,” Lawson told the media, including PlanetF1.com, after the race.
“A very tough year with a lot of potential.
“I came into F1 and even last year had a few races, and most of them converted very well.
“Sometimes you can have all the confidence and speed in the world, and they don’t work. It’s felt like that this year.
“To finally have a result is amazing, but we need to obviously keep doing this as well.”
In addition to his own career best, sixth in Austria marked the best performance from a New Zealander since Chris Amon finished fifth at the 1976 Spanish Grand Prix for Ensign.
“That’s pretty cool,” he beamed. “For New Zealand, it’s great as well.
“There’s a few Kiwis coming up as well, and hopefully in the future we can have some more of them.”
Read next: Helmut Marko issues Yuki Tsunoda update as Lawson surges ahead
