16th in FP1, 17th in FP2. Liam Lawson’s start to his Red Bull adventure hasn’t been easy. The New Zealander began the 2025 season – his first full-time F1 season – in the lower positions on the timesheets. It’s only Friday, and it’s clear that Lawson will need time to fully adapt to the new team and car, but the first impression is that the RB21 has a performance gap that shouldn’t be underestimated compared to the current reference teams: McLaren and Ferrari.
Comfortable, but slow
Interviewed by Sky Sport F1 after FP2, Liam Lawson didn’t hold back, openly stating that there’s a lot of work to do and that, above all, the car he’s currently driving isn’t fast enough: “Confidence in the car? I’m comfortable at times, but that’s because we’re too slow,” said Max Verstappen’s teammate.
“Clearly, this is just the first day, and it’s a new track for me,” Liam Lawson added. “There’s definitely work to do, and we expected it, but perhaps not this much. Clearly, we’ll be working overnight to try to improve for tomorrow. Why was the start more difficult than expected? We don’t know. If we had known, we’d already be much further ahead. We lacked grip, especially in the qualifying simulation. But we also tried the race simulation, and again, our pace was slow, so we’ll definitely need to work,” he concluded at the end of the second free practice session for the Australian Grand Prix, which was held earlier today at the Albert Park circuit.
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