The Edge Breakfast - EXCLUSIVE: Kristy Lawson (F1 Driver Liam Lawson's Mum) joins the show!

Episode Date: September 28, 2025

This is a podcast from Rover. Is it me? Is it you? Who knows? Can you guess who if we're missed to? Celebrity guess who? We haven't done this one in a wee while. Ash and I know who the celebrity is, but Dan does not.

And you can only ask yes or no questions to try and work out who the celebrity who's sitting on hold waiting to talk to us is. Well, he knows who they are in general life. But he doesn't know that the specific celebrity that's on the live. like we haven't done this in ages it makes me nervous because i obviously have a lot of dream interviews are they who would your dreams be oh robert irwin rickie jabez yeah selene dion those are internationals but then you get down to like you know the top twins are you lots of kiwis that i'd love to well you can say hello hello hello okay oh my god so the first the hello i have no idea it's not like i

I instantly recognised. Is it a black one of the black films? No. Ask questions, Starr. She's on the line. Don't ask us. Oh, yes. Okay, good morning.

How are you? I'm very well, thank you. How are you? Ask questions, Dan. You can say, good or bad. You can say so, would I know you from X, Y, and Z? Okay.

Have you ever played Guess Who before? Is your person wearing a hat? Do you wear glasses? Do you wear glasses? I'm currently not wearing a hat and no I do not wear glasses. Okay. Narrowing it down. Maybe sunglasses in the sun.

Okay. Have I met you before? Okay. Have I met you before? That's good. You've not met me before, no. Oh my God, okay. No.

Not at all. Not at all. But I may have to wear my sunglasses when I go somewhere quite important. To watch something. That's very good. in the world are you right now? I currently it's Walk on the airport.

Okay. Oh my goodness me. Are you travelling for a specific event or just holiday? At the moment it's a holiday. Okay. Are you known for a very specific thing in New Zealand? Like, are you famous for one thing? Not so much me, but

someone in my family is known for something quite famous, yeah. I think the pennies dropped. are you Liam Lawson's mum Oh my God How did you get that? He's obsessed with you Christy Lawson, Liam's mum

Formula One driver Who had a career placing best of fifth Last week I'm so proud of Liam You must be ecstatic Yes, we all are The whole family Oh everybody, the whole nation

and everybody are bump into. They're just, they're amazing. Lots of great stories about everyone staying up through the night to watch. And work colleagues, work colleagues, children. Chris, did you see the video that went up a few months ago where Dan was defending, like, Liam and some of the haters that were coming out. And you're going to get that when you're putting yourself out there like your son has. You're not going to please everybody all the time. But Dan actually got, like, genuinely, really emotional talking about your son.

And how proud he was. I saw. Oh, you did see that. I did. I did. Yeah, it's so lovely. And, yeah, it is really, really hard to watch at the beginning of the year when it all really did turn to custom. We all just turned our social media off, to be fair. Yeah, because it was just flooded with the ugly, ugly side of human nature. Yeah, it was. It really was.

But as much as we had that, we had just as much really sort of supportive, you know, messages coming in from everybody as well. So, no, it was a mixture of it. You know, hateful stuff is just crazy. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I've been watching Formula One for many, many years. And I genuinely think that Liam is one of the most really talented drivers out there. His aggression on the track, and the way he drives is up there with the best that have ever done it. And because he performs so well in that racing ball at the moment, people just don't understand that a lot of it is to do with the car.

And when you don't have the machinery under it, his talent lifts it to another level. Yeah, yeah, it's true. there's so many factors on the day you know like even I think Isaac said a gust of wind in one corner done you know that's your qualifying that's done what's it like as a mum of a son

who does arguably one of the most dangerous careers in the world I get nervous and buddies on the monkey bars I know I know I know well I don't watch anything live ever I never have and I still can so I'll watch yeah I don't watch I sit in another room and

I'm really good one of my eldest daughters her mailed's daughter to send me updates on her phone saying you know had a clean start currently sitting in p3 currently sitting in p10 coming into pit stop she updates me when you're sitting there do you read or net yeah yeah i put my headphones on listen to some music or yeah anything but and i i think the worst of it is actually my husband because he yells a lot at the telly and and and he just gets me yeah he gets everybody all worked up because he gets so worked out, so no, I just choose not to be in that, with that adrenaline rushing through, and I sit in my room,

and I find it much more comfortable, yeah. Yeah, I'd be the same, because it is such an intense sport and watching it, and the races can go on for a couple of hours. Yeah. It's, oh my God, I'm so excited to be talking to you. Has Liam bought you a house yet, Christy? Not yet, we're rooting on it, we're working on it. Yeah.

Not quite there yet. We're getting there, we're getting there. How often do you get to see him? Because his travel schedule is like nothing else on earth. Yeah, we don't. We saw, well, we saw him obviously at the beginning of the year, but even this year, his summer holiday was cut short here. So most of the time we've been able to have him at home, I don't know, I want to say maybe for six weeks. Last year was only three weeks because Red Bull wanted him back quite early.

And then I think he had to get ready for Melbourne and all of that. So this year, I'm not sure we haven't actually spoken to him about what his, but I believe this year is going to be even less I did here. Yeah. Something that he may not be able to come home for as long. So it's really hard. Is there any news? I mean, obviously, he's pretty much a shoe-in for next year to keep his seat, but is there obviously... No, there's no news, no.

And you know what? I couldn't tell you if there was. Exactly, and that's why you're a good mum. Hey, hey, he's trying to get that in there. Trying to get that in there. No, we don't know. And Christy Lawson, Liam Lawson's mum, Formula One Driver. Do you watch Drive to Survive?

I have. I have. Yeah, I do watch. I haven't watched all of the episodes. We watched it when it first came out. Yeah. And then, yeah, no, I do watch it. I do watch it.

I look forward to watching more of him, because Liam will be getting more screen time, won't he? Yeah. Yeah, well, they came out last year, and they spent a bit of, they've been out to our place. Oh, cool. Yeah, yeah, they spent a couple of days filming us about town,

but it didn't end up making the series. We were all a bit excited to watch that, but it never made it. Obviously, it all the bit too boring. But it wasn't scandal enough. I think because of all the chat around Liam this year, So he might, that footage may make next seasons drive to survive, perhaps. Yeah, maybe.

Yeah, but they literally travelled to New Zealand, that's the team of them. And they're such a cool, they're really cool guys that follow around. Oh, he's definitely going to make the next season. Yeah, oh, maybe. He doesn't, yeah, they've got cameras in their faces, like, it's crazy. Yeah. And the moment they step into the track, there's just a sea of cameramen everywhere. It's crazy.

You know, 15 to 20 cameras in front of you, just watching you walk to you. Oh, my gosh. No, thank you. Are all the girls that he went to high school with now, like, trying to be your friend? Like, hey, babes, let's go out and get a coffee. Been a while. Nah. No, not really, actually.

No, it's pretty good. What are the perks when you go to a race if you're the mum of a Formula One driver? Oh, how perks? Well, I don't know. I mean, obviously we sit, you know, out with them in the hospitality, so that's nice. But even when we go, like, we went to Qatar last year. And we were lucky if we saw him for 10 minutes a day If we were lucky

So even though we're out the back Where all the drivers and the You know people go He's either up in engineering Or he's even eats his food Up with all the engineers Or he's off doing media Maybe they whisk him away

All of them is not to him But we see him Maybe for lunch we'll see him So that whole day We might see him for maybe 15 minutes And then that's it Have you seen Lewis Hamilton up close and is he as beautiful as he is on the television?

I have not, actually. I've seen them all walking in the distance. They're all quite little. Yeah, they all, yeah, very much. So, yeah, you have to be like a jockey. You have to be built like a jockey. You have to be like a jockey. Who's, apart from your son, obviously.

Who's your favourite driver? Personal driver, who thinks got the best skill? Yeah, both. Just a favourite. Best driver and best lad. Best lad. Do I have to choose one? You can have multiple.

You don't know. Does they hate them all? Yeah, she's like, Liam's my one and only. Liam's my one and only, sorry. I respect. I'm not. Pastery's a really, I mean, Pastery's a lovely boy, too. Like, obviously, he can drive.

He's really lovely. His mum's cool as well. They're all really good. His mum's done a few interviews. Oh, I'm second on your list. Oh, okay. Yeah, no, no, you're definitely first, man. My goodness, me, of the mums, it goes you.

Then Oscar's mum, I don't even know what Oscar's mum's name is. She, I love, probably. Yeah. Just some Aussie name. I can say that I'm Australian. Yeah. We're so proud of your boy. And he's always, he's always been lovely when Liam was racing him.

Yeah. So good. Well, if I can speak on behalf of New Zealand and not all the assholes, but we are so proud of Liam. Thank you. And thank you for, yeah. I love the way he holds himself. And I love the way he, he's just head down, let the driving do the talking. And that's how he should do it.

He's incredible. He will go a long way. Good on, you darling, you've done something right. He's still so lovely and humble. He's, I don't know if you know this, but Liam's quite musical. He is. He's playing guitar. He should look up some of the stuff.

So, yeah, and sings. And he's done some recording, him and his brother. They've been at Red Bull and recorded to music. But anyway, his guitar teacher actually rang me the other day and said, look, my eldest son is turning 16. Do you think Liam could send us a lovely birthday message? And like within, you know, 24 hours, Liam had done a gorgeous video, sent it through. So at heart, still, yeah, still pretty grounded, too.

You've done a good man. Christy Lawson, Liam Lawson's mom, we hope that your Christmas prison is a box with a key inside to a beautiful home that your son has bought you with his winning. Or just Christmas Day with your boy. That would be, yeah. Thank you, guys.

Good on your, darling. Thank you for having me on the show. Oh, thank you for sharing with us. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye-bye. Bye.

Oh, my God. She was awesome. Before we connected the call, the first one you said was, oh my God, is it Leon Lawson's mom? I'm more like, no, we couldn't get her. and you were so disappointed. Yeah, I know.

I was like, oh, I won't go there then. She was lovely, eh? Just like her son. Yeah. What a good person. Rover, music, radio, podcasts.