11/05/2025 14:00
Liam Lawson has shared his recently-found love of golf is helping him "switch off" from the rigours of the F1 season. The New Zealander has endured a difficult year thus far, having been demoted from Red Bull after only two rounds, and he now finds himself struggling to match the pace of fellow rookie Isack Hadjar at Racing Bulls. Having impressed through two spells at the Faenza-based team in 2023 and 2024, the first as an injury stand-in for Daniel Ricciardo before replacing the Australian for good a year later, the 23-year-old is finding his first full-time campaign more challenging. One of just four drivers yet to score a point this term - along with Gabriel Bortoleto, Fernando Alonso and the now-sidelined Jack Doohan - some have argued he should be wary of losing his Racing Bulls seat altogether . To "distract" himself from the intensity of F1 and the strenuous work schedule that accompanies it, Lawson has turned to his fledgling passion, joking the new hobby is a "back up plan" for him. Golf is a popular pastime for a numerous drivers in F1, including Lando Norris, Carlos Sainz, Alex Albon and Pierre Gasly. "As drivers, our lives are very focused on this one thing," Lawson explained to media including RacingNews365 . "It's what we grow up [with]. "It's all we think about from when we're five or six years old. And when you're in Formula 1, it's super intense, it's all you're working on and to have something that you can distract yourself with... "For me, I've used music to do that quite a lot over the years, and now, yeah, golf is a more recent obsession. "But it's definitely something that is a good way to just switch off from racing."
