Liam Lawson reveals brutal emotional toll of F1 with heartbreaking story

Liam Lawson revealed that happiness is the cost of competing in Formula 1, conceding he will not be happy until he has achieved his goals.

It is all too rare that a sportsperson removes the façade and reveals their true self, but this has been slowly changing over time, with Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton two F1 examples who are more open than most.

While the financial cost of reaching F1 is known to be astronomical, Lawson shared the emotional toll that chasing the seemingly impossible goal of becoming champion takes on a person.

“Probably just happiness,” he told the High Performance Podcast. 

“People probably think you’re a lot happier because of the position I’m in. And don’t get me wrong, it’s not that I don’t understand how lucky I am to be here. But because of that thing that we’re so focussed and driven towards, I feel like I’m not happy until I do it.

“I have happy moments, for sure, it’s not that I’m not happy all of the time, but overall in life at the moment.”

In chasing the F1 dream, families often make significant sacrifices to back this chase, with Hamilton’s father Anthony Hamilton famously working multiple jobs in a bid to finance the goal.

Providing his own experience of this, Lawson said: “My parents found this card recently that my brother had written when he was five or six years old, and the card said, ‘Dear Dad. If I like racing, will you spend a bit more time with me like Liam?’ 

“Honestly, my siblings and family have just given up so much. Never going on holiday, never doing anything, just always…yeah.”

He added: “I have an amazing family.”

Asked what he had said to his brother since learning this, Lawson said: “Sorry mate. He now looks at it and laughs, thinks it’s funny. But I think back to every single weekend being away.”