Liam Lawson’s AlphaTauri teammate Yuki Tsunoda has sung his praises but appears non-committal to whether he’d prefer the Kiwi or Australian Daniel Ricciardo as a fulltime teammate for the Formula One season next year. 

The 21-year-old Kiwi has impressed since taking over from the injured Ricciardo for AlphaTauri, picking up championship points in just his third race at the Singapore Grand Prix. 

He’ll compete again this weekend in the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka, a course he knows well, having raced there already this year in the Japanese Super Formula Championship. 

Sunday could be his final time in the AlphaTauri car this season with Ricciardo set to recover from his broken arm for the Qatar Grand Prix on October 9. 

Asked overnight about his future with the team and whether he’ll have a fulltime drive next season, Lawson said he had “no idea”. 

“I think every driver feels like they should be [on the grid] and we all… To be at this level, we all have to have self-belief and I certainly have that, but right now I’m focused on delivering these weekends,” he told media overnight. 

“When the stint that I have, when it ends, I’ll look back on it and I guess assess how I’ve done, but yeah, I do believe I should be in F1.” 

Lawson could stake a claim for a fulltime seat with another strong performance in Japan though according to reports the decision may already be made. 

Earlier this week Formula 1 reporter Tobi Gruner said that AlphaTauri - Red Bull racing’s junior team - is set to extend the contract of under-fire driver Tsunoda. Along with reports Ricciardo will also be offered a contract in the coming weeks, it means Lawson is set to miss out on a fulltime seat. 

Tsunoda was today asked about his future at AlphaTauri, and who his teammate should be if he continues. Tsunoda said Ricciardo’s knowledge of the car and his ability to give feedback to engineers was a plus, but also talked up Lawson’s performance on the track. 

“It’s not confirmed yet, but I don’t know to be honest. I think from both perspectives they are positive. 

“Daniel brings definitely more experience and he showed a lot of feedback comparison. I think it’s really good to kind of… He definitely can tell more details about how the car is behaving, so I think it helps a lot for the engineers. 

“I think, and as you analyse it, especially how he talks and how he helps the development side, so if the team wants to develop the car more to be competitive, maybe Daniel. But, at the same time, Liam, I think he showed in the first two, three races a good performance and probably he’s still progressing. 

“As a performance side… Obviously I’ve just done with Daniel two races and it was not probably the best time for AlphaTauri as well. And the last two races, when Liam actually came into F1, the car was pretty good – Monza and Singapore. So, actually, he had a good time as well, but at the same time he definitely performed well. 

“I think, AlphaTauri – we know it’s a junior team – so, at the same time, there’s a bit more risk to think about the results in general, so it depends on what they’re thinking. If they want more results, Daniel is probably easier, he has more experience, so maybe he can extract those results, but also Liam... I don’t know, I’m scared to say! 

“I think Liam also had the best score, he did ninth, I’ve never done ninth, so I’ll stop here. Liam and Daniel… Three seats.”