Kristy Lawson is used to taking care of things. Her garden is bursting with watermelons, sweetcorn and various summer berries, and she’s clearly in her element with the whole family at home. And currently, that includes her son, Red Bull Racing’s Formula 1 reserve driver Liam Lawson, who last month was named a finalist in the Halberg Awards for New Zealand’s Best Sporting Moment for his top-10 finish at the 2023 Singapore Grand Prix.

“I love having everyone home,” tells Kristy, 52, who also shares Jessica, 30, Holly, 23, Marcos, 19, and Leah, 18, with husband Jared, 50 – all of whom are at home when the Weekly visits in Pukekohe, South Auckland. “This isn’t even busy – it’s a holiday compared to how it used to be.”

This is the one time of year Liam is back from the UK, where he and his girlfriend, California-born Hannah, 20 – who’s also here – are based. After a few weeks’ rest, Liam returns to the track on February 11 – his 22nd birthday – behind the wheel of a go-kart for the 2024 KartSport Grand Prix. It’s a return to his roots for the aspiring Formula 1 driver, and one he always tries to attend as it’s the event that set him on his current path to become one of the best racing drivers in the world.

Although he missed out on a permanent seat on the 2024 Formula 1 grid, Liam got a taste of things to come in August last year, when he stepped in for the injured Daniel Ricciardo and made his Formula 1 debut in the Dutch Grand Prix. He’s known as the one to watch – which is something any mum would be proud of, but Kristy talks about all her kids with equal delight.

“We’ve treated all the kids the same,” she shares. “We’ve never stopped them doing what they want to do. Holly and Jess were both competitive dancers – they were both Irish dance national champions – but Jess’ dance school was 45 minutes away from where we lived in Clarks Beach at the time.

“Three times a week, when all the babies were asleep at lunchtime, I’d make dinners for everyone and put them in boxes – you learn very quickly to never have hungry children! When Jess finished school, I’d load everyone into the car with food and PJs, drive her to class, take the kids to Mum’s and give them all dinner and a bath before driving home again.”

But after six-year-old Liam got in a go-kart for the first time, things got complicated. “I’d meet Jared at the Papakura off-ramp or the Karaka rugby grounds, then carry on to dancing, while Jared took Liam go-karting in Mount Wellington,” Kristy recalls.

“From the start, Liam was fiercely competitive – he hated being at the back of the field,” says Jared, who is general manager of a freight company. “We’d go to the local kart club every week and it just grew. That turned into 40-plus meetings a year across the North and South Islands.

“If you want to do it seriously, you must do as many meets as you can. The more you do, the faster you go. The faster you go, the more you test. Liam had to prove himself in those early days, and he won his first national title when he was 10, and won four national titles back-to-back in 2012 and 2013.”

Liam says he knew from the moment he got behind a go-kart wheel that he’d found his passion. “Even before I started driving cars, I knew,” reflects Liam. “Dad would watch Supercars and Formula 1 on TV, and as soon as I was old enough to understand what was going on, I knew that was what I wanted to be.”

Adds Kristy, “He was always obsessed with anything that had wheels. He’d make speed bumps for toy cars and practice making jumps work on the floor at home.”

But Jared and Kristy soon realised that to keep Liam doing what he loved, something had to change.

“It’s a great sport, but to race competitively, you need to spend a lot of money on it,” says Jared. “The first year he got into it, he didn’t have the best gear and the engine wasn’t great. He did learn to get the most out of it, though, by learning how to carry speed through the corners and brake as late as he could.”

But to progress further, Liam needed better equipment.

“You need the best engines and the best tyres or you can’t keep winning, so we applied for a young New Zealand rookie driver development programme, the SpeedSport Scholarship,” tells Jared. “It was the only way to help him follow his dream. Liam getting that – along with a lot of help from sponsors – was a game-changer.”

While the scholarship helped with funding, it was up to Jared to teach his then-12-year-old son how to drive. Liam wanted to learn manual, but the only manual in the family was owned by big sister Jess.

“Dad would take Liam out to the park in my little VW Polo and teach him practice starts in it,” laughs Jess. “I thought he was just learning the gears, but Dad was teaching him how to do racing techniques like dropping the clutch. He absolutely burned my poor little car!”

Liam quickly progressed through the ranks, clinching the 2016 Formula Ford championship on his 15th birthday. But his dedication meant something had to give, and at the end of Year 11, he was given permission to leave school early.

“Liam had done most of his schooling, with the odd Friday off, but he’d been invited to go to Europe the next year,” recalls Kristy. “He’s smart – he works with the engineers and has learned everything about cars – but school wasn’t his thing. We looked into online schooling, but being on the other side of the world made it impossible.”

Liam tells, “I remember doing practice sessions for a race in Europe and watching some of the other racers doing schoolwork on the side. I was concentrating 100 percent on improving my driving and they were doing English assignments.” Liam signed his first multi-year driver contract with Red Bull on his 17th birthday.

Although Liam admits he missed out on some “normal” teen benchmarks, like house parties, he wouldn’t change a thing.

“It’s all been my choice,” he insists. “It’s easy on the motor-racing circuit for your head to be turned, and plenty of drivers go out a lot and enjoy drinking and partying, but my focus has always been on driving.”

Although Liam is clearly loving being home with family, his eyes are firmly on becoming a full-time Formula 1 driver.

“When Liam’s home, he’s Liam. When he’s racing, he takes on a whole other personality,” says Jared. “As soon as he gets to the track, he becomes completely focused and blocks out all outside noise.”

“Every race I do is just very, very important,” insists Liam, who adheres rigorously to the training and nutrition calendar he has on an app on his phone. “Even go-kart races feel as important as a Formula 1 race. It doesn’t matter what the race is – I just want to be the best.”

So how does he have time for a girlfriend?

“He doesn’t!” laughs Hannah, who turns 21 on February 12 – the day after Liam’s birthday. “I’m doing an online course at Arizona State University to become a Physician Assistant, and I make sure I’ve done all my study when he’s away so I can give him all my time when he’s home.”

It’s clear that for Liam to achieve his dream, it takes a village. But his family wouldn’t have it any other way – almost.

“I can’t watch his races!” admits Kristy. “At the beginning, I could, although I didn’t like it. Now, when he’s racing, the TV is on upstairs and I’ll be downstairs with my headphones on, playing music. It’s not even about the safety. I just can’t bear to see him disappointed.

“Jess is my eyes – she updates me on every lap, letting me know he’s all right. Then I can come in for the last lap and watch him drive over the finish line.”

“I’m incredibly lucky to have the support I do – from everyone,” says Liam, who returns to the UK this month. “I’m loving being home – although Mum makes sure I stay up to date when I’m away. She even FaceTimes me to show me how well her veges are growing!”

Catherine Milford

They were once young singers who popped in and out of recording studios to perform vocals for the iconic band Strawpeople in the 1990s.

Now, 30 years later, Fiona McDonald, Stephanie Tauevihi and Leza Corban are swapping the studio for the stage as they come together to perform the songs that Strawpeople created across eight albums. The band is booked to play at two upcoming music festivals – Splore (February 23-25) and WOMAD (March 15-17).

“For a long time, it has always been in the back of my mind that the three of us should get up on stage and sing those songs again,” says Fiona, 58. “I’ve always wanted Strawpeople to play live, but I met with resistance from one of the founders of the band, Paul Casserly.

“I’ve been on at him for two decades and I finally said to him when we released the latest album Knucklebones in August, ‘We either do it now or we die not doing it,'” she laughs. “And he said ‘Yes, let’s go for it.’ Finally!”

It was Fiona’s job to contact Stephanie and Leza, and put the idea to them.

Leza recalls, “When I sat down with Fiona and heard her vision and I realised she had it all planned out, I got so excited!”

Leza first came across Strawpeople as a backing singer in the ’90s working on advertising jingles with Paul and Mark Tierney, who together started the band.

“They asked me to sing on their album Broadcast, so we finished a jingle session for World Vision and then literally on the back of that, we recorded the single Sweet Disorder,” she says. She went on to sing on the songs Scared of Flying, Love My Way and City Lights. At the time, Leza says, she was a nerdy girl who just loved to sing.

“I would turn up at the studio and Mark would say things like, ‘Sing like you’ve just woken up’ or, ‘Sex on toast!’ And I would just sing my heart out and loved every bit of it.”

The three women also appeared on the Strawpeople videos, although Leza says with a laugh, “They shot me for more, but in the end, I only made it into one of them.”

Stephanie, 50, was eight months pregnant when she featured in one of the videos, and decided to jump up and down on a trampoline. “Then we all had a moment when we thought perhaps that wasn’t such a great idea!” she laughs.

Leza went on from her Strawpeople days to form her own band, the Love Jones, performing regularly at corporate events and at Auckland inner-city bars, plus she also teaches singing at several high schools in Auckland and works with them on their musical productions.

“Leza is the real singer,” says Fiona. “We’re really hoping we get some lessons from her in rehearsal because she’s kept her voice warm for 30 years using it most days, whereas Stephanie and I have not.”

Stephanie is best known to TV viewers as feisty paramedic Donna Heka on Shortland Street, a role she played for seven years. However, before that, aged just 15, she strongly suggested to Mark that she sing on their album.

“Their song One Good Reason came out and I thought, ‘I could do that!'” recalls Stephanie. “I was at a De La Soul concert at the Auckland Town Hall, when I saw Mark and rocked up to him and said something show-offy. I wish I still had that kind of confidence – I don’t have it any more.

“I told him that I could sing for him and I was much better than whoever was singing for them at the time. I was that cocky.”

So a young Stephanie found her way to the Strawpeople studio in Karangahape Road, went upstairs and sang on the song Beautiful Skin.

“After that, they said, ‘Okay, we’ll give you a go,’ and so I ended up singing on the John Hiatt song Have a Little Faith, then Love Explodes, I Believe, Under the Milky Way and Turn of the Century.”

Prior to that, Stephanie had been talent-spotted at 14 performing in Little Shop of Horrors at Auckland’s Northcote College. She went on to work on two children’s shows on TV3 while still at school.

“I would be picked up from school and taken to the studios, and I loved every minute of it,” she tells.

Shortland Street followed, but these days, Stephanie has a different career.

“I’m a health coach and a sustaining tenancies navigator for Turuki Health Care in South Auckland,” she says. “My primary job is to keep people in tenancies, working with whanau who live in Kāinga Ora homes, helping people who are going through shared driveway issues or no engagement from the landlord. I become their advocate, speaking on their behalf, and keeping things on track so they don’t become homeless. It’s an incredibly rewarding job and Turuki is a great Māori kaupapa organisation. It’s great being a pavlova on stage and singing an INXS song, but this job gives a different feeling of achievement and purpose, because it’s doing things for the whanau and making their day, even if it is small things.”

Fiona first came across Strawpeople when she worked with Paul and Mark at the University of Auckland’s radio station 95bFM. She explains, “I went to live in Australia for a couple of years and while I was over there, they released the single One Good Reason. I remember feeling very envious that I wasn’t a part of the project. Similar to Steph’s story, I worked with them to write the jingle for Primo milk and sang on that, then we stayed in the studio and wrote Blue. That was the first song I sang for them, in 1988.”

Fiona went on to sing on the cover of the Chris Knox song Slide, then Trick with a Knife, the whole of the album Vicarious, then Crying, Running Away and Dream Child.

“At the time, I was part of a couple of bands, but Strawpeople was the first real involvement with a group that was making music that I was really into and that I loved,” she says. “And it was the first time that I was a songwriter.”

Fiona went on to join the very popular Headless Chickens and has continued being involved with music.

“I am doing some casting work for television and some commercial work,” she says. “I’ve also started teaching ukulele again to adults, which I adore. I love getting people in touch with the creative musical side of themselves, which most of the time has been stomped on during primary school and they’ve been steered away from it.

“The other thing is creating that space in people’s lives as adults where they get to come and spend time with me. Half is the music and the other half is mental health stuff. I take them away from their work and their family, and obviously it’s very serious music lessons, but we also laugh a lot.”

Fiona says that from the very start in 1985, Strawpeople was always about collaboration with many musicians, including herself, Leza and Stephanie.

“But at the core has been Paul and I only, because we’ve worked together more often and our partnership is the longest within Strawpeople,” she explains. “It’s nice that Paul is now so enthusiastic about playing live and he wants to do more music, and the three of us women should do some new recording to get that happening.”

However, when the Weekly caught up with them towards the end of last year, there was just one problem – the trio had yet to meet in the same room and start rehearsing. They were eager to squeeze in some practices as soon as possible, though.

“We’re going to start with the three of us just singing together, separate from the band, so that we can work out what we can do.”

Stephanie says she’s always felt like the women were like ships passing in the night.

“We’d pop into studio sessions, see each other and say hi, but we’ve never sat in a circle and seen what that looks like, so that’s a real treat for me.”

She believes the three of them will produce magic. They are informally calling themselves the Strawsisters and are determined that the live performances will cover all eight albums.

“The beauty of it is that we all get to sing our own songs again, but this time we will have each other backing us up,” says Fiona. “I didn’t know that I was ever going to get back on stage. And now it’s actually happening! Leza has been on stage for the past 30 years – she never stopped – but for Steph and I to get back up there, that is so beautiful.”

Adds Stephanie, “I think there was a reason that Paul and Mark got us three to sing on the albums. It will be so lovely to go on that journey with Fiona and Leza, and find that magic for ourselves. It’s very exciting.”

Writer_contributor Wendyl Nissen