Liam Lawson told he should be on the F1 grid instead of 23-year-old next year

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Sky Sports F1 pundit Bernie Collins has suggested that Liam Lawson deserves to be in Formula 1 right now and potentially in place of AlphaTauri driver Yuki Tsunoda.

Liam Lawson deputised for Daniel Ricciardo after injuring his hand and impressed the grid with his performances over five Grand Prix.

Speaking to Speedcafe, Bernie Collins was raving about the 21-year-old Kiwi.

Anybody who watches Formula 2 and Formula 3 will know just how many Red Bull liveried cars are on the grid in those series.

However, at this stage, it feels like Red Bull are hedging their bets on plenty of drivers rather than identifying the very top talent to promote to Formula 1.

The likes of Jehan Daruvala, Zane Maloney and Enzo Fittipaldi have all been backed in the past without making the grade yet.

It was epitomised when AlphaTauri were looking for a driver in 2023 and ended up signing Nyck de Vries from outside of the group.

It turned out to be a poor decision and after 10 races Daniel Ricciardo was parachuted into the team.

His hand injury in Zandvoort forced the team to look towards their academy and Liam Lawson quickly stepped up.

AlphaTauri lined up with Lawson and Yuki Tsunoda on the grid for the next five Grand Prix and performed very well.

Collins has now suggested that with Ricciardo in the team, Lawson would be the perfect teammate for the Australian.

It’s difficult to know where that leaves Tsunoda after three seasons with the team.

He’s certainly improved year-on-year but does he have the same ceiling as the young Kiwi?

Collins suggests Lawson should take AlphaTauri seat in Tsunoda’s place

Asked whether Liam Lawson should be on the grid on a full-time basis, Collins said: “100%, I interviewed him on the grid in Zandvoort, that was his first race in the car and I have never seen anyone so calm, much calmer than I would be in that situation!

“I think they’d had a wet weekend up to that and it was the first laps he was going to do on dry tyres, it was a massively different fuel load to what he had run.

“He was so calm and it’s a pity in F1 that some things are led by sponsors, some things are led by deals, but on pure performance he should be in a car, he should be in a seat.

“Arguably, that should have been the AlphaTauri seat with Daniel Ricciardo because you would have a very strong line-up of a young guy that’s clearly very good and Ricciardo who has very strong pace and a lot of experience.

“So, that would work really well for the AlphaTauri team.”

Tsunoda will know he’s under pressure at AlphaTauri going forward with Lawson patiently waiting for an opportunity.

The team are ruthless when it comes to driver changes and with AlphaTauri set to work more closely with Red Bull heading into 2024, the car should theoretically be quicker.

That means Tsunoda and Ricciardo should be challenging more regularly for points and if they can’t manage that, then Lawson will be ready to step up in their place.