Red Bull demoted Liam Lawson to Racing Bulls after just two races before the F1 Japanese GP.
The Japanese GP thus marked his first outing back at Racing Bulls.
The weekend started on a positive note when the New Zealander recorded his best Qualifying result of the season, placing 14th on the grid.
He started the Japanese GP from P13 after Carlos Sainz received a 3-place grid penalty for impeding Hamilton.
A mistake on the opening lap at Spoon saw the Racing Bulls driver lose position to Tsunoda.
Overtaking was challenging, so Racing Bulls opted to extend Lawson’s stint before his pit stop and put him on softs, hoping it would allow him to gain positions in the latter stages.
The strategy did not work out, and Lawson lost positions to finish the race in 17th place.
Looking at the positives
In the print media zone following the F1 Japanese GP, Lawson reckoned that despite the result, there were positive signs to draw from the weekend.
“It would have been very tough from where we were, but it definitely didn’t work, so obviously we will review going forward.
“But obviously on the other side, Isack [Hadjar] scored points today, which is great for him. He did a really good job this weekend.
“I think from our side as well, there has been good things.
“The pace has been good, unfortunately, not right when it needed to be in quali, but I think overall there’s still things to take from it.”
Trouble in the opening lap
Lawson initially maintained his starting position, but a slight moment later on in the opening lap left room for Tsunoda to slip past.
The 23-year-old cited a lack of grip on the first lap as the reason for the mistake.
“Yeah, I just struggled for grip on the first lap. I think, where was it, [turn] 13. It was quite cold this weekend, so it was tricky.
“But where we were, anyway, it was going to be tough.”
Moving forward after demotion
After the demotion, eyes were on Lawson all weekend. When asked whether he was happy to move on, he responded, “Yeah, definitely.”
Now that the first race weekend back at Racing Bulls is behind, Lawson is ready to move past the demotion and tackle the upcoming race weekends in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.
“Yeah, it’s nice to get it done and just move forward. We have two more weekends coming up, so I just want to get on with it.”
Asked whether he had observed Tsunoda having similar issues to his own with handling the Red Bull, he replied simply, “no”.
The strategic gamble that didn’t play out
Racing Bulls strategic gamble to pit late didn’t pan out, but Lawson believes that the move helped teammate Isack Hadjar finish the Japanese GP in the points. Extending the stint allowed him to hold off Carlos Sainz, and he played the team game to help Hadjar against Albon.
It’s a position Lawson is hoping Racing Bulls will be able to achieve with both cars in the future.
“Definitely. I think where we finished today was not even where we started, so it was just something we tried, a bit of a gamble, and it didn’t work.
“I think hopefully it’ll at least help the other side of the garage, which I think it did, which was obviously good for Isack today.
“But obviously, in the future, we want to have both cars up there.”
Lawson notes that Racing Bulls adopted the medium-soft strategy in response to his position rather than having it pre-planned.
“Probably wasn’t planned, but I think a bit of a reaction to where we were and something that makes sense when you’re in that kind of situation.”
