“Would have been very hard on him,” Alex Albon claims a mid-season F1 promotion would have been tough on Liam Lawson

Scuderia AlphaTauri had a mid-season driver change this season. Dutch driver and former Formula E world champion Nyck de Vries was ousted by Red Bull in favor of a returning Daniel Ricciardo. However, many believed that this could have been an opportunity for Red Bull academy driver Liam Lawson. Alex Albon, formerly a part of Milton Keynes has revealed why such a move would not have been easy.

Albon was convinced that putting Lawson alongside Yuki Tsunoda would make things difficult for Kiwi driver. Tsunoda has managed to impress Red Bull leadership with his performances this season after outscoring the departing de Vries. As such, Liam Lawson would be under pressure right from the get-go without any mileage in the challenging AlphaTauri AT04.

Alex Albon stated, “To put him in now would have been tough for him because he would have been coming in as a rookie, halfway through a season, and with a driver next to you [Yuki Tsunoda] who’s in very good form and has done 10 races already.”

The Williams driver believed that such a move would’ve put Lawson on the backfoot. Now, Albon claimed that the 21-year-old would have ample time and preparaton before making the step up to the pinnacle of motorsport in the future. He said, “So it would have been very hard on him. And in some ways, it gives him some time for when he does come into Formula 1.”

Discover: Five times Red Bull replaced a driver in the middle of an F1 season

Alex Albon confident Liam Lawson would be in F1 soon

The Thai driver reaffirmed that Liam Lawson remains a talented young driver who deserves a shot in Formula 1 sooner or later. Alex Albon believed that a full debut season would be ideal for the 21-year-old. As the Kiwi driver would then have the entire pre-season to get upto speed with the rest of the grid. This would provide a fairer playing field for Lawson without the added pressure of a mid-season swap.

Albon insisted that Ricciardo’s return to the Red Bull sister team was the right decision. As the Australian driver brings in years of experience. Previously, AlphaTauri Team Principal Franz Tost admitted that Danny Ric was chosen to replace de Vries because of his prior track knowledge. As the Faenza-based team tries to rebuild itself after a struggling start to the season.

Thus, Alex Albon was convinced that Red Bull made the right call by not promoting Liam Lawson to AlphaTauri mid-season. The Williams driver believed that a rookie driver such as Lawson would need an environment without the added pressure of such a driver swap. As such, the Thai driver was satisfied with the arrival of Daniel Ricciardo at Faenza instead.

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