Before the season began, Helmut Marko had set a target for Red Bull’s second driver: staying within three-tenths of Max Verstappen. In fact, a Red Bull Academy driver did achieve this, qualifying fifth on the grid. The issue, however, was that it wasn’t Liam Lawson in the RB21, but rather Yuki Tsunoda in the Racing Bulls.
The New Zealander’s first weekend in the Milton Keynes car turned out to be uneventful, relegated to the back of the grid without any standout moments—an outcome similar to what Sergio Perez often experienced last season. Different driver, different car, but a similar story, while at the front, Max Verstappen continues to be Red Bull’s benchmark.
However, multiple elements affected Lawson’s season debut, which cannot be ignored. Interestingly, he was the only driver on the grid who had never driven at Albert Park before, not even in junior categories, as F2 and F3 only added the Australian round in 2023.
Additionally, a lack of mileage between testing and race weekends certainly didn’t help. During pre-season testing, Lawson had to spend a lot of time conducting setup experiments to understand the RB21’s limits, even sacrificing race simulations, and a technical issue kept him in the garage for part of the sessions.
Australia also brought further setbacks, particularly in FP3 when a power unit issue limited his running. While Lawson already has a few F1 races under his belt, his overall experience in the category remains limited. Furthermore, despite his familiarity with Red Bull’s environment from simulator work, switching teams and engineers always requires an adaptation period.
Still, it’s hard to ignore that his first weekend with the Milton Keynes team was underwhelming—something Lawson himself did not deny, acknowledging that Australia had been a difficult weekend.
Team Principal Christian Horner echoed this assessment but emphasized the need to give Liam Lawson time: “It was a tough weekend for him, though we saw glimpses of brilliance. On dry tires, he set the second-fastest lap of the race. If we want to take a positive, his pace on slicks wasn’t bad.”
Of course, a single lap in a chaotic phase—altered by DRS use—is not enough to change the perception of an entire weekend, but there are key takeaways. Looking at qualifying and the best laps in Q1, one crucial factor emerges regarding why Liam Lawson was eliminated in the first session.
His inability to replicate the same performance in medium- and high-speed corners hurt him the most, as that was essentially the RB21’s only strength apart from top speed. Another issue was Lawson making repeated mistakes on push laps, forcing him to abort them. If the car’s balance isn’t perfect, it further erodes confidence and widens the gap.
Max Verstappen is often described as a driver who can rise above Red Bull’s car issues, but for Liam Lawson, that wasn’t the case this weekend. In fact, this was one of the main reasons for the significant gap between the two, mirroring the struggles previously faced by Sergio Perez.
Red Bull took advantage of his back-of-the-grid start to change the setup, opting for a high-downforce wing—something they hadn’t tested all weekend, as they had initially prioritized a lower-downforce configuration to maximize straight-line speed. While Liam Lawson downplayed it, one key factor influenced his race.
With such a high-downforce setup, overtaking became much more difficult, as it was like having a parachute behind the car. At the same time, Red Bull had gone for a full wet-weather setup, but the track never fully transitioned into those conditions.
From the opening laps, the circuit dried quickly, with only occasional light rain returning intermittently. In reality, at a certain point, the track was ready for slicks, as evidenced when the Safety Car was deployed following Fernando Alonso’s crash. With a free pit stop available, all drivers switched to dry tires.
The only reason they hadn’t done so earlier was the expectation of another rain shower, which could have made an early switch to slicks counterproductive.
In the end, the decision to commit to a wet setup on a drying track backfired: tires began overheating, and Lawson struggled significantly with the front tires. “We expected a wetter race, but it dried faster than anticipated, and we struggled a lot with the tires overheating,” Liam Lawson explained.
The Chinese Grand Prix could pose another challenge for Liam Lawson, as—like other rookies—he has never driven at Shanghai. However, Horner remains patient and supportive: “I think next weekend will be tough because it’s a Sprint Race on a circuit he’s never driven before, but this weekend wasn’t representative of what he’s capable of.”
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