Liam Lawson says he has identified for the previous two weeks he would make his return to Components 1 within the subsequent race in Austin.
RB introduced at present Lawson will change Daniel Ricciardo of their line-up with quick impact.
Through the Singapore Grand Prix weekend workforce principal Laurent Mekies mentioned there was “nothing determined up to now” relating to their plans for the remainder of the 12 months. Nonetheless Lawson mentioned he knew earlier than the final two races that he would take Ricciardo’s place.
“It now lastly does really feel actual, clearly I knew about it for the final, in all probability, two weeks, however till it’s on the market to the world, it clearly doesn’t ever actually really feel set in stone,” he advised the New Zealand Herald. “I couldn’t inform anyone.”
“It had been the plan for a very long time now, the place this was the place I used to be main,” he added. “Clearly I had a contract date that wanted to be fulfilled so mainly it was going in the direction of this manner, after which a few weeks in the past they advised me that is what was going to occur. After which mainly not lengthy after that, it was set in stone.”
Lawson, who stood in for Ricciardo in 5 races final 12 months, mentioned it didn’t really feel good to be within the RB storage in Singapore final weekend beneath the circumstances.
“Singapore was positively not an pleasing weekend for me simply because clearly all of us knew what was coming,” he mentioned. “On the similar time, Daniel has at all times been superb to me in lots of methods after I drove final 12 months.
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“Even this season, he’s at all times been any person that I’ve by no means felt in competitors with him or something like that. He by no means made it really feel like that.
“So it wasn’t a pleasant feeling. However clearly this for me is, I get one shot at F1 and it’s come now and I’m clearly grateful for that chance. However now I must take it with each fingers. And on the similar time, he mentioned the identical factor to me and he mentioned ‘you realize you might want to you might want to profit from it’.”
Mekies ultimately indicated on Sunday night time “this may increasingly have been Daniel’s final race.” Lawson mentioned he has “an enormous quantity of respect for the way he handled all the things as a result of I can’t actually think about that.
“It’s an analogous place I used to be in final 12 months, however clearly the man is simply much more public, much more well-known than I’m. So he’s getting lots of questions and making an attempt to sidestep these he did an excellent job.”
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