New RB driver Liam Lawson mentioned he didn’t get pleasure from being on the sidelines on the Singapore Grand Prix because the scenario with Daniel Ricciardo unfolded.

On Thursday, Purple Bull’s second workforce confirmed that Lawson will exchange Ricciardo for the remainder of the 12 months.

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The chance of that end result had grown in the course of the build-up to the Singapore Grand Prix, however Purple Bull did not affirm the choice then.

Ricciardo was emotional in interviews after the race because it grew to become clear it was his final within the sport.

Throughout numerous classes that weekend, F1 cameras often centered on Lawson, who was within the paddock as Purple Bull’s reserve driver, watching from the RB storage.

Requested how he felt being there over the weekend, Lawson informed Newstalk ZB’s “Mike Hosking Breakfast”: “Not good, truthfully. Singapore was positively not an pleasurable weekend for me, as a result of all of us knew what was coming.”

The New Zealander bolstered his case for a full-time drive in 5 appearances final 12 months after Ricciardo broke his hand in a crash forward of the Dutch Grand Prix.

Lawson mentioned he had by no means received a unfavorable feeling from Ricciardo at any stage, regardless of the rising hypothesis that he was about to take the veteran driver’s race seat.

“Daniel has at all times been superb to me in numerous methods once I drove final 12 months. Even this season, I’ve by no means felt in competitors with him or something like that. It wasn’t a pleasant feeling [in Singapore].

“However clearly this, for me… I get one shot at F1, and it is come now and I am clearly grateful for that and I must take it with each palms. He mentioned the identical to me. He mentioned, ‘It is advisable to benefit from it.’

“He did an excellent job on the weekend, truthfully. I’ve an enormous quantity of respect for a way he handled every little thing. It is [a] related place to what I used to be in final 12 months, however clearly the man’s much more public, much more well-known than I’m, so he is getting numerous questions and making an attempt to sidestep these. He did an excellent job at that.”

There was numerous hypothesis about when Purple Bull made the choice to swap its drivers.

Lawson mentioned he knew earlier than the Singapore Grand Prix which approach issues had been going.

“It had been a plan for a very long time, or that is the place it was main, no less than. I had a contract date that wanted to be fulfilled. It was going in direction of this manner, after which a few weeks in the past they informed me this was going to occur, after which principally not lengthy after that, it was principally set in stone.”

Sources have informed ESPN that Ricciardo was conscious forward of the Singapore Grand Prix that he was leaving the workforce.

An possibility clause in Lawson’s contract was exercised every week earlier, the identical day because the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, which was contractually when the corporate wanted to decide on his future.

RB’s announcement of Lawson made no point out of 2025, as Purple Bull continues to guage the longer-term way forward for Sergio Pérez, whose poor type has allowed McLaren to maneuver into the lead of the constructors’ championship.