After a difficult weekend in Australia, Liam Lawson’s woes continue into China with an SQ1 elimination that he attributes to problems with the tyres.
There were a lot of eyes on Liam Lawson coming to Shanghai. With Q1 exit at the Australian Grand Prix, which ended earlier after a crash in the rainy conditions playing on Red Bull’s mind.
Overall the Red Bull had struggled through the practice session round the Shanghai international circuit, finishing 16th and 18th. But Lawson was just over 3 tenths off his teammate – which was a far closer gap then seen in Melbourne.
However, with changed made to the car after practice, Max Verstappen seemed to ease into the RB21 while Liam Lawson struggled against it in F1 Chinese sprint qualifying.
His first run landed him 10th with a decent time of 1:32.729. He embarked on a second run which started but he aborted the lap after just nine corners when he ran wide. The lap was then deleted as he breached track limits.
Tyre temperature issues
Throughout the session, Lawson seemed to struggle with the grip of the medium compound tyres. He attributed the stuggles he had on his second lap to the difficulties in warming up the tyres on his RB21.
He told media after the session, “I went off, so yeah, it’s obviously a shame. I think from the starting point it wasn’t too bad; the first lap was alright, and then we were just looking to build on there, but we stayed out to try to cool the tyres on track.”
“To be honest, I really struggled to get the temps down, starting the second lap, so we started too hot and then through the lap I just struggled. It’s frustrating.”
Before his mistake, Lawson admitted that he felt that he had more potential in the car. He said, “first lap wasn’t amazing, but it was relatively OK, so it’s just a shame to be out for something so frustrating. Our pace should be a lot further up than where we are.”
With the Kiwi’s teammate starting the sprint race in second, Lawson was clear that the sprint qualifying felt like a missed opportunity. Luckily for the Kiwi, he’ll get a second chance to prove himself with the main qualifying and race on Saturday and Sunday.
“Obviously we have tomorrow’s sprint race to try and learn some stuff and then tomorrow’s quali as well, obviously. We want to do a better job on this.”
Marko’s grace
Despite Helmut Marko historically being quick to critcise the the mistakes of rookie drivers, he held back with Lawson.
Marko said that Lawson needs more leeway and time to prove himself – especially as he comes to new tracks and adjusts to the RB21. He told Motorsport.com, “He started OK with his first quali run and then unfortunately he lost it and he did have only one lap,”
“Yeah, it’s sad, but he needs some laps and he must get in a rhythm to show his potential. I think we have to give him more time. Both circuits, he didn’t know, Melbourne and this one. So we’re looking forward and of course first, next to Max, it looks also that our car is quite difficult to drive.”
The weekend is far from over for Lawson, A sprint race, qualifying and main race still to go offers plenty of opportunities for him to find success. He has the support of Marko and Red Bull in this pursuit.
