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While 2020 was a year to forget for many, for a lot of our Kiwi race car drivers, it was a bit of a good-un. Scott Dixon won his sixth Indycar Championship, Shane Van Gisbergen won Bathurst then jumped in a rally car and wrapped up on this side of the Tasman too. Scott McLaughlin finished the year on a high winning the V8 Supercar Championship then immediately trotted off to the States to jump into a full time Indycar drive for 2021.
Nick Cassidy, fresh from success in both Japanese Super Formula and Super GT, popped over to Marrakesh for a rookie test for Formula E, a car he had never even sat in before, and immediately topped the rankings, garnering himself a full-time Formula E drive for 2021 in the process, a fact which apparently caused a few issues with a few other blokes who had been trying for years!
2021 is also looking to be a breakout year for another young racer, Liam Lawson. Liam has been working feverishly to break into the big time and following a successful year in FIA F3, where he finished the season in 5th place with three wins and another three podium finishes, looks to have a very busy year coming.
Late last year it was announced that Liam would be racing in the DTM, a German based race series with seriously good cars, and even better competition given that many F1 drivers make their way through the series on the way up, and often on the way back when their F1 careers slow down.
Lawson has been part of the RedBull stable of drivers for a couple of years and the as yet un-named DTM team will be funded primarily by the energy drink company. His teammate will be Alex Albon who raced F1 for ToroRosso and then RedBull in 2019 and is currently the reserve driver who takes over from RedBull drivers Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez if needed.
Although the vehicle to be raced and the team to run them hasn’t yet been announced, it seems very possible that the DTM car will be a Ferrari 488 GT3 similar to the 2020 version shown below.
As great as this opportunity is, Liam will be extremely excited to be getting a break into F2, which of course is only one step down from what many consider to be the pinnacle of motorsport, Formula 1.
Liam’s team in the FIA F2 series will be Hitech, the same team that he was with for his successful F3 campaign last year, something which will bode well for him, knowing the team and how they work.
RedBull racing is a notoriously cut-throat establishment. Many have been given the chance to shine but failure to do so almost always results in being dumped unceremoniously . This exact scenario happened to Brendon Hartley who was let go following unspectacular results, but eventually managed to phenagle his way back in, being rewarded with an F1 spot, before being again shown the door. It’s a tough road I tell ya.
So Liam will be doing his utmost to show he deserves this reasonably unprecedented double chance.
Let’s hope he makes the break into the big time of F1 but in any case, he looks set to have a stellar career in front of him.
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