Liam Lawson insists that his confidence never wavered despite two difficult race weekends and his premature departure from Red Bull
Back at Racing Bulls, Liam Lawson denies that his confidence has suffered after his two Formula 1 races for Red Bull. “Honestly, in terms of confidence, nothing has changed since the start of the season,” he explains on Thursday ahead of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
The New Zealander returned to the Italian team after only two Grand Prix weekends with the top Red Bull team. His results and the gap to Max Verstappen were deemed insufficient by Christian Horner and Helmut Marko, who instead gave preference to Yuki Tsunoda.
Lawson had only limited driving time in the Red Bull RB21, as he struggled with a water pressure problem in testing, a turbocharger problem occurred in the third free practice session in Australia, and he was then thrown straight into the action in China with only one practice session.
Lawson: My confidence is the same as always
As a result, he only qualified 18th and 20th for his two Grands Prix, retired at the season opener in Albert Park and failed to score any points in the rest of the season.
However, Lawson does not see this as a reason to doubt himself. He simply did not drive enough to be able to assess whether he really had difficulties: “I haven’t spent nearly enough time [in the Red Bull] to think about those two races and say, ‘Oh my God, I really had problems with the car, I lost my skills.’”
“It just wasn’t like that,” emphasizes the New Zealander, which is why he doesn’t need to rebuild his confidence after his difficult interlude at Red Bull. ‘I’ve had two races that were very chaotic due to many factors, but in terms of confidence, nothing has really changed.’
Instead, his focus was on getting to grips with the new car, the VCARB 02, despite limited driving time. “It was just a matter of getting used to a new car and the team again and internalizing everything as quickly as possible. I think that was the real focus.”
In this context, Lawson admits how difficult it is to get off on the right foot in the practice sessions. The different conditions in the first races made it difficult to find a good balance with the tires.
Why rookies have a harder time today
Many of the variables involved are difficult to replicate in the simulator, which makes it particularly difficult for the teams to get the tires up to the optimum temperature.
“To be honest, it feels a bit tricky this year with the tires and the setup,” he explains. ”I think the warm-up was very different. We had very cold conditions in Japan and very hot conditions in Bahrain, and when you try to warm up the tires perfectly, it’s a completely different challenge—and you just can’t replicate that properly in the simulator.”
“You’re faced with a lot more real-world conditions that you can’t simulate. And what you can’t simulate is more challenging than in previous years.“
”We can simulate the car setup itself, and I think we’re in a pretty good place there. But it’s those other things that you can’t really work on in advance – and those are the ones that are quite difficult.”
