Red Bull team boss Christian Horner says “it’s difficult to blame” Liam Lawson after his F1 Australian GP DNF.
Even so, the record books will show a DNF for Red Bull Racing’s second driver while Max Verstappen came home in P2. This is a story that had been heard more than once last season with regard to Sergio Perez.
However, Horner has been quick to defend Lawson. The man steering the ship at Red Bull even highlighted the pace of the New Zealander showing that there are still positives to be found from the outcome in Melbourne.
F1 Australian GP preparation was far from ideal for Liam Lawson
Truth be told, Lawson was always up against it since F1 arrived in Australia this year. The rookie’s preparation was far from ideal as a poor performance on Friday was then compounded with engine issues in FP3.
Having so little track time proved telling in qualifying when the Red Bull racer did not even make it out of Q1 thanks to mistakes on his lap. Having done so, the internet was then awash with memes making comparisons between Lawson and Perez. Having had a DNF on race day the cruel comments have continued.
However, the thoughts of those hiding behind a computer screen pale in comparison to those of team boss Horner. The Kiwi’s first weekend as a Red Bull Racing driver ended on lap 16 when rain arrived which caused the 23-year-old to aquaplane off at turn 2 on dry tyres.
“It was a difficult weekend for him.” said Horner post-race in a print media session. “We changed the car to put a bit more downforce on the car. It’s a very hard track to overtake at. We took the risk of leaving him out long because he was outside the points. And we thought, roll the dice, maybe it will come right. But exactly at the point that it started to rain more.”
The ‘one flash of light’ from Liam Lawson
Due to this, Horner says blame cannot fall at the feet of his driver. Instead, he chose to highlight the ‘one flash of light’ from Lawson’s performance.
“So, it’s difficult to blame him for that last spin. I think the one flash of light that he can take out of it is that on the dry tyres he actually posted the second fastest lap time of the Grand Prix, 22.9. Versus Max’s 23.0, Lando 22.1. So, I think if there was one positive we can take that his pace on the dry was not too bad.”
Had Lawson been overdriving the RB21 in qualifying?
Obviously, had Lawson had a better qualifying position then his whole race would have surely been different. With that in mind, Horner was asked had Lawson been overdriving the RB21 in qualifying?
“I think the problem is having missed FP3 on the back foot,” explained Horner. “And then the pressure builds. He grabbed the brake on the second set of tyres. And then the third set of tyres he was half a second up. And then another mistake there. So, I think next weekend will be tough because it’s a sprint race with a track that he’s not been to before.”
With even more challenges to come, Red Bull team boss Christian Horner concluded his point saying how Lawson is “pretty resilient” and the Australian Grand Prix weekend “wasn’t representative of what he’s capable of.”
A perfect venue for Lawson to bounce back at
China could actually be a perfect venue for Lawson to bounce back at. The circuit is considered by many as being the first representative race circuit of quite a few of the venues coming up. As such, should Lawson have a pleasing weekend then it bodes well for the coming events.
Horner says that expectations are difficult to set ahead of China.
“I think we’re looking forward to going to China and learning more about the car, more about some of its limitations. McLaren will be quick there, I’ve got no doubts about that. It’ll be interesting to see how the balance moves around.”
Lawson will be keen to put his tricky debut behind him. With a 24-race calendar there are plenty of opportunities to come for him to be able to do so.
