Max Verstappen’s future may have been very much attention for much of this summer, but it was his seat alongside him that was at the heart of Formula 1 gossip at the end of last season.
Sergio Perez’s drop-off in the form coincided with Red Bull’s own decline, but the team chose to promote Liam Lawson over the then-experienced Yuki Tsunoda, and decided it was time for an expensive clean break.
Lawson showed many abilities, pace and strong racetracks, but lacked experience. Red Bull decides he only made a mistake by giving him two rounds along with Verstappen.
It’s so many times that the team made the mistake of choosing Lawson, but they were quickly promoting him when the car was clearly in trouble. Perez’s situation showed that only high-quality experienced drivers weren’t enough to guarantee results, but it had to be far more patient or remove the uncertainty of drivers that were still developing.
Lawson returns to the Racing Bulls and admits that he has little time to understand what went wrong with Red Bull.
“It’s been a very busy year, a very rocky year, and obviously not something we planned,” Lawson tells the racers. “But there are a lot of races and it moves very quickly and honestly, I don’t think it’s completely reflecting everything this year.
“Maybe I’ll do it on a break or maybe not. Maybe I’ll do it at the end of the year. I don’t know.
“It’s something I probably look back on, and it’s easy for my brain to go there, flat Now, with some small things, what might be different. But at the same time, I don’t think about it, I’m focusing on the car I’m driving now and trying to extract everything from it. ”
To be fair to Red Bull, Lawson provided an environment to rebuild its reputation – it could be argued that it was Red Bull that was more hit, but was greeted with an open arm when he returned to the Racing Bulls. The team emphasized celebrating the arrival to make Lawson cherished, saying New Zealanders felt it was easy to settle down again.
“That’s the problem. At the same time, I didn’t leave for too long so it didn’t feel like a big transition,” he said. “I’ve become used to driving a different car than I’m preparing to drive throughout the season.
“And the good news is, I only did a few races with other cars, so it wasn’t that difficult to adapt, but people are very similar, just like I’ve been working with for the last few years.
“I think I understand both teams very well, but while I drive in between, it doesn’t make much difference. It’s about the car I drive and try to drive as quickly as possible.”
The seating exchange between Lawson and Zonodah was the turbulent end of the Italian-based team, with team principal Laurent Meki taking over at Red Bull last month, and Alan Permane was promoted at Mekies location.
That change brought him to 20 points as Lawson again turned his promise into results, finishing sixth in Austria and finished in 8th in each of the two races before summer vacation.
Lawson entered the August break with three point scoring finishes from the final four starts. Zak Mauger/Getty Images
“To be honest, he did a great job,” Palmer says. “Obviously, two races at Red Bull were extremely tough for him. He didn’t thank him for saying this, but he definitely had a little downbeat. He didn’t have a spring on his steps.
“Of course, jumping into the car right away without testing was not easy. He is against Isack (Hadjar), who stood out this year. His first race was in Japan, and Isack was absolutely flying there.
“We had a bit of a breakthrough in Austria. We had a new front suspension for him. They developed through the simulator and he really liked it and was really enthusiastic about it and worked there.
Having maintained his confidence for a long time, Lawson admits he was shaken up by the rapid changes in the team. However, the 23-year-old sees positive that he must go through such a scenario at this stage of his career.
“In the end, whenever everyone has something to overcome, something to overcome, it will basically develop you more,” he says. “It’s trying to teach you more. And these last few years have certainly been the most challenging to go, especially this year. But I’m obviously as a driver I’ve learned a lot through it, and in the end it always helps you out clearly anyway.
“And I think that is a good way to approach it, too, remember that you are going your own path and clearly trying to build my future.
“It’s important to me to have these races, but having them more consistent is more important and we need to keep them. I think it was very cool to get some good results, but the target is that we have often. That’s important to us.”
What makes these point scoring results even more impressive is that Lawson is on a trajectory that he had not raced in Formula 1 before. Given his two-year replacement, he feels like a more long-term figure in the sport than the 25 start suggests, but Zandvoort is just the second truck he previously drove on the Formula 1 machine this season after Suzuki.
After summer vacation, Baku is the single venue where Lawson had not previously launched the Grand Prix, and he warns how close the field is, but he hopes for an experience that will help him continue his good shape these days.
“You see something that says it’s a rookie season. You see something that says it’s not, but at the end of the day it’s obviously my first full season, and in general, when Formula 1 is close to what it is now, I think it’s very difficult to get a good performance from the weekend,” Lawson admits.
“You have to do that much right, and any kind of small mistake, whether it’s within the team or within the driver, is very punishable. Now is a competitive time. formula It contains 1. So it’s like a half of the time between everyone in the first quarter. It’s insane to have P5 to P9 within one and a half to go to the spa and have a wrap that is nearly two minutes long.
“I’m excited to get into the second half. Anyway, it’s a very tough part of the first part of the year and at this point things are very fast, very fast, and I’m going to a lot of places. Not only are I really enjoying it, but places I really enjoy it – exciting tracks, cool places, I can keep rolling the ball.”
