Liam Lawson is targeting to have a clean race and learn as much as possible at the 2023 Dutch GP after a difficult damp qualifying session at Zandvoort left him last on the grid for his F1 debut in place of the injured Daniel Ricciardo.
Photo Credit: Scuderia AlphaTauri
Lawson stepped into the AlphaTauri on Saturday morning in place of Daniel Ricciardo, after the Australian injured his hand in a crash as he was trying to avoid the stricken car of Oscar Piastri during FP2 for Dutch GP.
The 21-year-old New Zealander has previously driven in F1 during two FP1 sessions in 2022, for AlphaTauri, and in post-season tests for Red Bull, but is now officially making his qualifying and race debut also for AlphaTauri.
He had to face difficult conditions throughout his first day in the AT04 and on the F1 grid, with ever-changing wet conditions around the tight and twisty turns of Zandvoort making for a challenging combination for a debut, as he spun and caused one of three red flags in FP3, but managed to get going again.
In qualifying, despite showing good potential early on with times that were out of the drop zone, he eventually fell down to last place and couldn’t find any further improvements. When asked of his thoughts after the session, Lawson explained he had trouble in getting his second set of intermediate tyres to work:
“It was very challenging, [and] obviously very exciting,” he said of his unexpected opportunity. “Firstly, I feel for Daniel [Ricciardo], you never want to see something like this.
“Obviously for me it’s a huge opportunity so it’s very exciting, but it’s been a very challenging day – especially with the conditions like this, trying to get used to the inters that I hadn’t driven before.
“To be honest, I was feeling pretty comfortable in the first part of [Q1], just when it rained again and we put that second set on, I didn’t quite extract all of it.”
Speaking to Sky Sports F1, he explained that he was surprised by the “high grip” and sensitiveness of the intermediate tyres, and how he was unable to extract its potential on the second run:
“I feel okay,” said the New Zealander. “It’s been very, very hectic, in very tricky conditions. The inter is a tyre that I hadn’t driven before, and I was quite surprised by how high the grip is – but also how easy it is to overslip and then have issues, basically.
“The first part of the session felt quite good on the first set [of tyres], I felt like I was getting somewhere. And then it rained again, and I think I just didn’t quite push enough on that second set.”
Whilst Lawson is race fit due to his ongoing Super Formula title charge, he expects Sunday’s race to prove a huge physical and mental challenge, especially if it presents dry conditions which will mean he will have to “relearn everything again” from his one-day wet weather experience:
“Tomorrow is going to be a long race, for sure,” he said. “I feel okay right now, obviously the [wet] conditions are not as difficult as [the] dry physically, so I think it’s gonna be a lot [tougher] tomorrow.
“This track is definitely a tricky one, obviously [there’s] a lot of banking, it’s quite bumpy in places. It’s a track that [requires] a lot confidence, and this weekend that’s something that’s difficult for me to grab so quickly.”
Despite the difficult session, the 21-year-old is aware that his and the team’s main goal for the weekend is to gather as much learning and knowledge as possible, given there is a high probability that he will also drive at the Italian GP, due to Ricciardo’s hand surgery requiring a somewhat long recovery time.
“[The team said] ‘basically don’t look at times too much, and just get familiar with it, learn as much as I can. Obviously tomorrow if it’s dry, [it will be] again first time driving in the dry, so basically a big learning weekend and hopefully I can take a lot from it.
“If it’s going to be dry, I’m going to have to relearn everything again with the dry tyres. I think a clean race is the team’s target and my target.”
