The future of Max Verstappen was perhaps the focus of a lot of great attention during a large part of this summer, but it was the chair next to him who was in the middle of Formula 1 Roddel at the end of last season.
The drop-off of Sergio Perez fell together with Red Bull’s own decline, but the team decided that it was time for an expensive clean break and chose to promote Liam Lawson about the more experienced Yuki Tsunoda at the time.
Lawson had shown a lot of ability, pace and strong racecraft, but had not experiented: he had only started 11 F1 in two years when he received the call. Red Bull gave him only two rounds next to Verstappen before he decided it had made a mistake.
It is so much that the team made a mistake by selecting Lawson, but promoted him so quickly when the car was clearly problematic, was a mistake. The situation of Perez had shown that an experienced high -quality driver alone would not be sufficient to guarantee the results, but it had to be much more patient, or the uncertainty of a driver who was still developing removed.
Lawson went back to Racing Bulls and admits that he had little time to understand what went wrong at Red Bull.
“It has been a very busy year, a very rocky year, just not clear what we intend to be,” Lawson tells Racer. “But there have just been a lot of races and it moves very quickly and to be honest, I would say that I didn’t think about everything this year.
“Maybe I will do that during the break or maybe not; maybe I will do it at the end of the year. I don’t know.
“It is something I will probably think about, and it is easy for my brain to go there, even Now, and just think of small things, which could have been different. But at the same time I don’t try to think about that and just concentrate on the car that I drive now, to get everything out of it. “
In all honesty for Red Bull, the Lawson provided an environment to build the reputation – although it could be claimed that it was Red Bull’s who got more hit – and was greeted with open arms when he returned to Racing Bulls. The team made it a point to celebrate his arrival to make Lawson feel appreciated, and the new Zeelander says it was easy to feel regularly again.
“That’s the thing, at the same time I didn’t really leave for a long time, so it didn’t feel like a big transition,” he said. “It takes more getting used to driving a car that is different from the one I have prepared to ride the entire season.
“And I think that luckily because I only did a few races in the other car, it was not too difficult to adapt. But people are very similar – they are the same people I have worked with in recent years. And in general on both sides of the team, as a reserve I spent a lot of time with Red Bull, so I have a pretty good relationship.
“I would say that I have a good understanding of both teams, between whom I drive, it’s not that different. It is more just about the car I drive and try to drive it as quickly as possible.”
Not that the change of the chair between Lawson and Tsunoda was the end of the unrest in the Italian team, where team director Laurent Mekies was taken over at Red Bull and Alan Permane last month in the place of Mekies.
That change came when Lawson became the promise in the results, sixth finished in Austria and then eighth in each of the two races before the summer vacation to bring its points count to 20.
Lawson went during the August break with three point-scoring finishes from his last four starts. Zak Mauger/Getty images
“To be honest, he did great,” says Permane. “Two races at Red Bull were of course very difficult for him. He won’t thank me for said this, but he was definitely a bit downbeat. He had no spring in his step and we did what we can do to help him there.
“To jump into our car without testing, it was of course not easy. He is against Isack [Hadjar] who has been excellent this year. The first race for him was Japan and Isack absolutely flew there. So it is a heavy introduction for him, but we have made some changes. He worked hard. He and his technical team have worked very, very hard.
“We had a bit of a breakthrough in Austria. We had a new suspension for him, which they developed through the simulator, and he really enjoyed it, was really enthusiastic about it, and it worked there. We saw again in Spa, he could perform. You could see after that race after that race … Monaco was a decent race for him, he had a spring back.”
Lawson has long maintained his confidence, since then Lawson has admitted that he was startled by the rapid change of teams. But the 23-year-old sees the positive points to have to go through such a scenario in this phase of his career.
“Eventually yes, when someone has something to overcome, an obstacle to overcome, that will in fact develop more,” he says. “It will teach you more, and certainly these last few years, especially this year, it has probably been the most challenging. But I would say as a driver I clearly learned a lot from it, and ultimately that always helps you clearly in the future.
“And I think it is a good way to approach it, is to try to remember that you are on your own path, it is clearly trying to build my future and I am focused on that and helps to build that along the way.
“It is important for me to have these races, but it is more important to have them more consistent and we have to keep them. I think it has been very cool to have a few good results, but the goal is to have them often. That is crucial for us.”
What makes those point-scoring results all the more impressive are that they have come on traces that Lawson had never raced in Formula 1 before. Given his two years of replacement performances, he feels like a figure in the sport in the sport than his 25 starts suggest, but Zandvoort will only be the second song that he has previously driven in F1 machines this season, after Suzuka.
After the summer vacation, Baku is the single location where Lawson has not yet made Grand Prix, and although he warns how close the field is, he hopes that his experience that can help him continue his recent good form.
“I see things that say it’s my Rookie season, I see things that say it’s not, but at the end of the day it is clearly my first full season and in general I think when Formula 1 is as close as it is now, it’s just very difficult to get good performance from a weekend,” admits Lawson.
“You have to do so many things well, and every form of little mistake is very punishment, whether within the team or within the drivers. It is now a competitive time that Formula 1 is inside. I mean, it’s half a tenth between everyone in Q1. To go to Spa and to have a round that is almost two minutes long and has P5 to P9 within one and a half tenths, is insane.
“I am excited to come in the second half. I think it has been a very difficult first part of the year anyway, and things are currently in a good place. The car has been very, very fast and goes to many places, not only that I have raced, but places that I really enjoy – songs that are exciting, and I can hopefully the balance.”
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