After parting ways with Red Bull Racing, Liam Lawson is trying to adapt to his former team, Visa Cash App RB (Racing Bulls) ahead of the Saudi Arabian GP. With confidence and optimism, he shared his thoughts during media day at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
Liam Lawson is chasing the balance for the right path
During the Bahrain Grand Prix, Lawson was attempting to return to his old Racing Bulls habits. Although he had been driving the RB21, the VCARB 02 feels almost the same.
“Yeah, just getting more comfortable each day I drive it. I think obviously in ways I’m just readjusting, because it’s not too different from last year. So I went and drove a different car, and I’m just getting used to driving the car that I was driving before that.”
Although the weekend didn’t go as the team had planned, the Kiwi driver ended it with confidence in his performance with the car. He reassured that the team is not starting from scratch but searching for the right driving style.
“So by then I was honestly pretty happy with how I was in the car. I was pretty disappointed not to show that speed during the weekend with our qualifying issues and the race as it was. But for me, comfort-wise in the car, I feel quite good.”
“Obviously, we’re going to very different styles of circuits. This place is totally the opposite of where we’ve just been. So we’ll be almost, not starting from scratch, but chasing the balance and getting everything right, driving-wise as well this weekend.”
Things sometimes don’t work out as expected
After the car’s performance during the Bahrain GP, Liam Lawson stated that even though you may roll the car out, sometimes things don’t go as expected, and other times the car behaves differently due to unforeseen circumstances.
“I think every weekend you roll the car out. Sometimes the car’s exactly… You do your prep work before you roll the car out and it works exactly like you expect it to.”
“How you expect the track to be and everything like that, then you’re fine-tuning, and sometimes you roll the car out and… All of a sudden, conditions are different from what you expect.”
The 23-year-old driver explained that they weren’t the only ones facing issues that weekend due to the conditions, and although they tried to improve things, they didn’t do it in the best possible way.
“Everybody rolled out qualifying and struggled massively from what we were expecting. With the conditions, we expected it probably to be a bit easier to drive, being cooler from P3. But in reality, it was actually a really difficult session for a lot of people.”
“We just didn’t quite get it right. But I think the car’s obviously still fast. And I think in the race as well, it was fast at points as well, depending on what compound we were on.”
In Lawson ‘s opinion, RB has a fast car, even if that wasn’t fully reflected in the Bahrain performance, and he hopes it’ll be more evident in the Saudi Arabian GP.
“I think we had a competitive last stint. It wasn’t a show of true form, but obviously, we have another shot this weekend.”
Two messy races aren’t enough to shake his confidence
Liam Lawson’s start with Red Bull wasn’t what everybody expected, including the driver. As he pointed out, two races aren’t enough to prove a loss of confidence. Many factors were involved, even trying to adapt to new performances, teammates, and a car.
“Honestly, I don’t think confidence-wise, nothing really changed from the start of the year. I didn’t spend anywhere near enough time reflecting on those two races and going, ‘Oh my God, I’ve really struggled in this car. I’ve lost my ability.’”
“It wasn’t really like that. But I did two races that were two very messy weekends from a lot of factors. So I think confidence-wise, that didn’t really change.”
The team is moving as quickly as they can to help him adapt to his new situation, and that’s where his focus and confidence remain.
“It’s just been getting used to a new car again and the team and trying to do all that as quickly as possible. And I think that’s really been where the focus is at. Yeah, I think confidence-wise, I feel honestly as I always have.”
A good place to move forward
For Lawson, it’s been nice to race week after week, especially after his RB tough weekends, as it gives him the chance to quickly bounce back ahead of the Saudi Arabian GP.
“I think it’s been, in a way, quite cool to just be able to rinse and repeat every week. Also because they haven’t been the easiest weekends. I think when you have a good weekend, sometimes it’s nice to sit on that.”
While good weekends are worth enjoying, after a difficult one, all he wants is another shot. He hopes to end the triple header on a high note to carry momentum forward.
“But when you have a tough weekend, you just want to go out again and have another shot at it. And yeah, that’s what we have the ability to do right now. So obviously, it’d be lovely to finish a triple header on a good weekend.”
“And put us in a good place going forward.”
The key: Confidence and commitment
Liam Lawson expects a very close battle and admits it’s hard to predict their position. He highlights the difficulty of the track and the confidence needed to push the car to the limit.
“It’s going to be very close. Honestly, I think it’s hard for me to predict exactly where we’re going to sit here. It’s a challenging track in itself.”
“It takes a lot of confidence to just put the car on the limit here. So I think we’ll find out this weekend.”
For him, high commitment forces a quick adaptation, but with such a tight field, it’s unclear whether they’ll be leading the midfield or somewhere in the middle.
“Just adjusting to a car, yeah. Maybe this place forces you to adjust to the car quicker because of how high commitment it is. But yeah, with how close it’s been, it’s really hard to say whether we’ll be at the top of that midfield or in the middle of it or where we’ll be.”
